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Dropshipping has become a popular business model for entrepreneurs looking to start an online store with minimal upfront investment. Amazon, as one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world, presents a significant opportunity for dropshippers. However, navigating the complexities of Amazon dropshipping can be challenging. In this guide, we’ll demystify the process, outline the …

Continue reading "Amazon Dropshipping Demystified: How to Start and Thrive in 2024"

The post Amazon Dropshipping Demystified: How to Start and Thrive in 2024 first appeared on Lucid Softech.

Let’s face it: video editing can be an endless rabbit hole of tweaks and techniques. You’ve got the footage, but turning it into something captivating? That’s the real art! And Adobe Premiere Pro is undoubtedly a powerhouse in the editing world. But who doesn’t love a good shortcut, especially when it’s free? That’s where Adobe Premiere Templates come in—pre-designed, ready-to-use assets that can turn your video from “meh” to “whoa” without hours of fiddling.

Using free Premiere Pro templates isn’t about taking shortcuts; it’s about finding clever ways to streamline your workflow. Imagine you’re on a tight deadline, or maybe you’re looking to impress with a sleek promo video but don’t want to start from scratch. These templates, from transitions to titles, are like tools in a magician’s kit, letting you focus on storytelling while the heavy lifting’s done for you.

Whether you’re hunting for the perfect title slide, a cinematic opener, or some eye-popping transitions, there’s no shortage of free Premiere Pro templates to download. The beauty? You get all the professional polish without the steep price tag. So, go ahead, explore these handpicked gems, and let your creativity take the reins!

Slideshow Templates

Bright Summer Slideshow Premiere Pro Template

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City Slideshow Premiere Pro Template

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Liberty Slideshow Premiere Pro Templates

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Amorous Slideshow

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Gentle Photo Slideshow Premiere Pro Template

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Simple Dynamic Slideshow for Premiere Pro

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The Slideshow (Premium)

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Simple Dynamic Slideshow – Premiere Pro Template

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Elegant Slideshow (Premium)

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Multiscreen Slideshow Premiere Pro Template

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Creative Presentation Slides for Premiere Pro

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Text Templates for Premiere Pro

Free Film Glitch Title Template for Premiere Pro

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Free Animated Titles Templates for Premiere Pro

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Free Animated Lower Thirds Templates For Premiere Pro

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Unique Titles – Premiere Pro Templates

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Free Motion Graphics Templates for Adobe Premiere Pro

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Free Lyrics Titles Template for Premiere Pro

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Free Box Titles and Lower Thirds Premiere Pro Template

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Free Cinematic Title Style Library for Premiere Pro

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Echo Titles (Premium)

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Lower Thirds Titles Premiere Pro Template

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Sport Modern Titles (Premium)

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Horror Trailer Titles Premiere Pro Motion Graphics Template

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Modern Titles (Premium)

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Free Premiere Pro Title Collection

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Opener and Intro Templates for Premiere Pro

Split Frame Opener – Free Intro Templates for Premiere Pro

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Corporate Opener – Intro Templates for Premiere Pro

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Fast Intro For Premiere Pro

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Dynamic Opener (Premium)

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Urban Freeze Frame Intro Premier Pro Template

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Rhythm Opener (Premium)

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Dynamic Intro Opener

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Transition Templates for Premiere Pro

Free Adobe Premiere Transitions Template

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Transitions

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Zoom Transition

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Premium Transitions Zoom Particles for Premiere Pro (Premium)

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Easy Transition Template for Premiere Pro

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Torn Paper Transitions V2 (Premium)

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Scatter Text Transition

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The post Best Free Adobe Premiere Templates to Elevate Your Video Editing Game appeared first on CSS Author.

We had fun in my previous article exploring the goodness of scrolly animations supported in today’s versions of Chrome and Edge (and behind a feature flag in Firefox for now). Those are by and large referred to as “scroll-driven” animations. However, “scroll triggering” is something the Chrome team is still working on. It refers to the behavior you might have seen in the wild in which a point of no return activates a complete animation like a trap after our hapless scrolling user ventures past a certain point. You can see JavaScript examples of this on the Wow.js homepage which assembles itself in a sequence of animated entrances as you scroll down. There is no current official CSS solution for scroll-triggered animations — but Ryan Mulligan has shown how we can make it work by cleverly combining the animation-timeline property with custom properties and style queries.

That is a very cool way to combine new CSS features. But I am not done being overly demanding toward the awesome emergent animation timeline technology I didn’t know existed before I read up on it last month. I noticed scroll timelines and view timelines are geared toward animations that play backward when you scroll back up, unlike the Wow.js example where the dogs roll in and then stay. Bramus mentions the same point in his exploration of scroll-triggered animations. The animations run in reverse when scrolling back up. This is not always feasible. As a divorced Dad, I can attest that the Tinder UI is another example of a pattern in which scrolling and swiping can have irreversible consequences.

Scroll till the cows come home with Web-Slinger.css

Believe it or not, with a small amount of SCSS and no JavaScript, we can build a pure CSS replacement of the Wow.js library, which I hereby christen “Web-Slinger.css.” It feels good to use the scroll-driven optimized standards already supported by some major browsers to make a prototype library. Here’s the finished demo and then we will break down how it works. I have always enjoyed the deliberately lo-fi aesthetic of the original Wow.js page, so it’s nice to have an excuse to create a parody. Much profession, so impress.

Teach scrolling elements to roll over and stay

Web-Slinger.css introduces a set of class names in the format .scroll-trigger-n and .on-scroll-trigger-n. It also defines --scroll-trigger-n custom properties, which are inherited from the document root so we can access them from any CSS class. These conventions are more verbose than Wow.js but also more powerful. The two types of CSS classes decouple the triggers of our one-off animations from the elements they trigger, which means we can animate anything on the page based on the user reaching any scroll marker.

Here’s a basic example that triggers the Animate.css animation “flipInY” when the user has scrolled to the <div> marked as .scroll-trigger-8.

<div class="scroll-trigger-8"></div>
<img 
  class="on-scroll-trigger-8 animate__animated animate__flipInY" 
  src="https://i.imgur.com/wTWuv0U.jpeg"
>

A more advanced use is the sticky “Cownter” (trademark pending) at the top of the demo page, which takes advantage of the ability of one trigger to activate an arbitrary number of animations anywhere in the document. The Cownter increments as new cows appear then displays a reset button once we reach the final scroll trigger at the bottom of the page.

Here is the markup for the Cownter:

<div class="header">
  <h2 class="cownter"></h2>
  <div class="animate__animated  animate__backInDown on-scroll-trigger-12">
    <br>
    <a href="#" class="reset">🔁 Play again</a>
  </div>
</div>

…and the CSS:

.header {
  .cownter::after {
    --cownter: calc(var(--scroll-trigger-2) + var(--scroll-trigger-4) + var(--scroll-trigger-8) + var(--scroll-trigger-11));
    --pluralised-cow: 'cows';

    counter-set: cownter var(--cownter);
    content: "Have " counter(cownter) " " var(--pluralised-cow) ", man";
  }

  @container style(--scroll-trigger-2: 1) and style(--scroll-trigger-4: 0) {
    .cownter::after {
      --pluralised-cow: 'cow';
    }
  }
  
  a {
    text-decoration: none;
    color:blue;
  }
}

:root:has(.reset:active) * {
  animation-name: none;
}

The demo CodePen references Web-Slinger.css from a separate CodePen, which I reference in my final demo the same way I would an external resource.

Sidenote: If you have doubts about the utility of style queries, behold the age-old cow pluralization problem solved in pure CSS.

How does Web Slinger like to sling it?

The secret is based on an iconic thought experiment by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who once asked: If the view() function lets you style an element once it comes into view, what if you take that opportunity to style it so it can never be scrolled out of view? Would that element not stare back into you for eternity?

.scroll-trigger {
  animation-timeline: view();
  animation-name: stick-to-the-top;
  animation-fill-mode: both;
  animation-duration: 1ms;
}

@keyframes stick-to-the-top {
  .1%, to {
    position: fixed;
    top: 0;
  }
}

This idea sounded too good to be true, reminiscent of the urge when you meet a genie to ask for unlimited wishes. But it works! The next puzzle piece is how to use this one-way animation technique to control something we’d want to display to the user. Divs that instantly stick to the ceiling as soon as they enter the viewport might have their place on a page discussing the movie Alien, but most of the time this type of animation won’t be something we want the user to see.

That’s where named view progress timelines come in. The empty scroll trigger element only has the job of sticking to the top of the viewport as soon as it enters. Next, we set the timeline-scope property of the <body> element so that it matches the sticky element’s view-timeline-name. Now we can apply Ryan’s toggle custom property and style query tricks to let each sticky element trigger arbitrary one-off animations anywhere on the page!

/** Each trigger element will cause a toggle named with 
  * the convention `--scroll-trigger-n` to be flipped 
  * from 0 to 1, which will unpause the animation on
  * any element with the class .on-scroll-trigger-n
 **/

:root {
  animation-name: run-scroll-trigger-1, run-scroll-trigger-2 /*etc*/;
  animation-duration: 1ms;
  animation-fill-mode: forwards;
  animation-timeline: --trigger-timeline-1, --trigger-timeline-2 /*etc*/;
  timeline-scope: --trigger-timeline-1, --trigger-timeline-2 /*etc*/;
}

@property --scroll-trigger-1 {
  syntax: "<integer>";
  initial-value: 0;
  inherits: true;
}
@keyframes run-scroll-trigger-1 {
  to {
    --scroll-trigger-1: 1;
  }
}

/** Add this class to arbitrary elements we want 
  * to only animate once `.scroll-trigger-1` has come 
  * into view, default them to paused state otherwise
 **/
.on-scroll-trigger-1 {
  animation-play-state: paused;
}

/** The style query hack will run the animations on
  * the element once the toggle is set to true
 **/
@container style(--scroll-trigger-1: 1) {
  .on-scroll-trigger-1 {
    animation-play-state: running;
  }
}

/** The trigger element which sticks to the top of 
  * the viewport and activates the one-way  animation 
  * that will unpause the animation on the 
  * corresponding element marked with `.on-scroll-trigger-n` 
  **/
.scroll-trigger-1 {
  view-timeline-name: --trigger-timeline-1;
} 

Trigger warning

We generate the genericized Web-Slinger.css in 95 lines of SCSS, which isn’t too bad. The drawback is that the more triggers we need, the larger the compiled CSS file. The numbered CSS classes also aren’t semantic, so it would be great to have native support for linking a scroll-triggered element to its trigger based on IDs, reminiscent of the popovertarget attribute for HTML buttons — except this hypothetical attribute would go on each target element and specify the ID of the trigger, which is the opposite of the way popovertarget works.

<!-- This is speculative — do not use -->
<scroll-trigger id="my-scroll-trigger"></scroll-trigger>
<div class="rollIn" scrolltrigger="my-scroll-trigger">Hello world</div>

Do androids dream of standardized scroll triggers?

As I mentioned at the start, Bramus has teased that scroll-triggered animations are something we’d like to ship in a future version of Chrome, but it still needs a bit of work before we can do that. I’m looking forward to standardized scroll-triggered animations built into the browser. We could do worse than a convention resembling Web-Slinger.css for declaratively defining scroll-triggered animations, but I know I am not objective about Web Slinger as its creator. It’s become a bit of a sacred cow for me so I shall stop milking the topic — for now.

Feel free to reference the prototype Web-Slinger.css library in your experimental CodePens, or fork the library itself if you have better ideas about how scroll-triggered animations could be standardized.

Web-Slinger.css: Like Wow.js But With CSS-y Scroll Animations originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.

One recent emerging trend is an increased use of gothic styles and themes. This trend captures everything from imagery and color schemes to fonts and overall styling.

It’s an almost natural progression and evolution from all of the dark mode designs we’ve seen in recent years to reversion to gothic style.

Here, we’ll look at gothic style design and how you can make this design trend – potentially – work for you. Whether that’s in a poster, flyer, typographic choice, or a website. Let’s dive in!

What is Gothic Style?

Gothic style derived from architecture in the 18th century and was later applied to graphic design. It is characterized by its use of ornate, intricate details, pointed arches, and vertical lines and is a design style that has ebbed and flowed over time.

In modern graphic design, gothic style design often refers to a contemporary interpretation of this historic design style. You’ll often find bold, blocky, or ornate lettering and graphics with a dark, moody color palette.

Characteristics of the Gothic Style

The first identifier of gothic style is often imagery. If you’ve been watching the Netflix series, “Wednesday,” you are no stranger to this style. There’s a distinct gothic vibe from the title typography to every image promoting the series and therein.

The gothic style has a distinctive influence on graphic design and can be seen in various design elements. Here are some other things to look for in gothic design elements:

• Ornate and intricate details: Pay special attention to borders, patterns, and typography.
• Dark color palette: You’ll find a lot of black, gray, and dark red or purple, which can create a sense of drama and mystery.
• Textures: Stone, metal, or wood to create a sense of authenticity and age.
• Symbolism and iconography: Symbolic elements, such as crosses, skulls, or gargoyles can be used to convey a sense of power, mystery, or horror.
• Emphasis on verticality: Vertical lines and forms, which can create a sense of height and grandeur are popular and often come across in visuals such as tall, narrow windows or pointed arches.
• Rough edges: Sharp lines might be offset by ragged or rough edges for lines, type elements, or even image containers.
• Gothic typography: Blackletter fonts are a common characteristic of Gothic design, often used in titles, headlines, and logos.

Gothic Fonts

There are two schools of gothic typography – more traditional blackletter or Old English fonts and modern, more experimental styles that pay homage to the old style.

Modern gothic fonts often have sharp, angular shapes and intricate details, which can evoke a sense of mystery, elegance, and sophistication. They are commonly used in branding and advertising for products and services that target a younger, edgier demographic.

Regardless of the time period, almost all of the typography in a gothic style shares some common visual details.

• Sharp, pointed edges that create a sense of drama and intensity. The letters often have pointed serifs or sharp, triangular shapes.
• Intricate details with highly decorative loops, swirls, and embellishments to create an ornate appearance.
• Vertical emphasis with tall, narrow letterforms that create a sense of height and grandeur.
• Lack of curves focusing on straight lines and sharp angles.
• Old-world charm that evokes historical roots, feelings of tradition or elegance, and maybe a hint of spookiness.

Tips for Using this Trend Well

The gothic style can be a striking choice, but it isn’t for every type of project. Context is extremely important here; the wrong content with a gothic style can feel off-base and jarring.

There are, though, many ways you can use gothic styles. Use this design trend with content that has historical or traditional themes, gothic-inspired products or services, elements that need high drama, or to create a high-end feel.

Remember that gothic doesn’t have to feel “dark.” It can also feel traditional.

The gothic style has a long history and is associated with many different historical periods and artistic movements, so it can be used to evoke a sense of authenticity and tradition.

You’ll find this style is often associated with heavy metal music, establishing that hard-edge connection between the visual aesthetic and the audio. For the same reason, you’ll often find gothic design themes with scary movies and medieval themes.

Gothic design can work exceptionally well for projects that have an intense vibe. Bold shapes and dark color help put extra emphasis on this feeling. Additionally, this can create a sense of authority and power.

Pair gothic images and typefaces with more simple and neutral elements so the design doesn’t get overwhelming. That may include simple complementary textures, backgrounds, images, and body text in a regular sans-serif style.

Finally, you might associate elements of a gothic style with high-end luxury. This can be especially true when gothicism is minimalized but elements are there, such as just using typography in this style. This creates a sense of elegance and sophistication, to help reinforce a brand’s premium status.

Templates with Gothic Styles

Start projects in a gothic style a little bit quicker with a template or font that’s in a gothic style. Here are a few downloadable options from Envato Elements that we love.

Gothic Birthday Invitation

Live Music YouTube Thumbnail

Moustache Party Flyer

Trotont Gothic Font

Cambridge Bold Decorative Gothic Font

Samaz Gothic Vintage Typeface

Conclusion

A gothic style can be a moody and fun way to design something a little differently. Just keep in mind that it may not be suitable in all design contexts. You’ll likely avoid gothic elements in designs aimed at children or those that require a more playful or whimsical aesthetic.

This design trend has come and gone a few times, and it’ll be interesting to see how much staying power it has now.

When I first heard I had to write about D2C marketing, I did what many professionals do when presented with something they know nothing about — I quietly panicked and then asked ChatGPT.

To my surprise, however, I learned D2C marketing isn’t as foreign to me as I thought. And it likely isn’t to you, either.

Dollar Shave Club, Blue Apron, and Glossier are all well-known brands built on the business model and considered masterclasses in marketing — let alone D2C marketing.

With D2C business sales predicted to reach nearly $230 billion by 2025, here’s what you need to know about the model and marketing within it.

Table of Contents

• What is D2C marketing?
• D2C Marketing Strategy
• D2C Marketing Tips
• D2C Ecommerce Tips

B2C vs D2C Marketing

If you’re anything like me, D2C marketing probably sounds a lot like business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. I mean, they’re both going after private consumers, right?

Well, while that’s true, D2C is still unique. ChatGPT explained it well using the metaphor of a lemonade stand.

Image Source

Lemonade stands as we know them — people making lemonade and selling it at stands outside of events or their homes — are inherently D2C. You make the lemonade (as a manufacturer), put out a sign (as a marketer), and hand it directly to the people buying it (the consumer).

However, if you decided to go B2C with your lemonade enterprise, you wouldn’t sell directly to people on the street, let alone have a stand. Instead, you’d give it to a third-party storefront or another retailer to sell it to people for you.

You see, B2C works with third parties or “middlemen” like wholesalers, retailers, or distributors to get your product into consumer hands. Retailers often even help shoulder some of the marketing to drive sales.

D2C doesn’t have any of that help. Your product goes straight from the manufacturers to the consumer who bought it through the brand’s website, store, or popup. Overall, it’s a more direct line to the buyer than B2C.

But why has this model become so popular in recent years?

Pros & Benefits of D2C Marketing

Truthfully, a lot of D2C’s rise came out of necessity.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, people couldn’t leave their homes. They were forced to shop online, and with the rough economic environment, many opted to shop small. Many D2C brands are digital or ecommerce-focused, so they thrived in this climate. (Take Peloton, for one.)

But even more established, traditional brands like L’Oreal began investing in D2C branches for a number of reasons.

Low Barriers to Entry

Thanks to services like Shopify, Square, and on-demand manufacturing, it’s pretty easy to start a D2C venture. All you need is an idea and the Internet.

In fact, as I dug deeper into this topic, I realized I’ve even dabbled in D2C with my on-demand clothing brand.

Image Source

I built it entirely on free tools, and every sale offsets any manufacturing expense.

Speaking of which …

Lower Costs

By cutting out the “middlemen,” D2C brands save money.

They don’t have to pay their partners, so they have lower costs and a higher profit margin. In turn, they can pass those savings on to buyers in the form of a lower price tag, and lower prices can lead to more sales. It’s a beautiful cycle.

More Control

D2C brands handle every stage of the buyer’s journey, which means they have total control over how things are done and the customer experience. This means more responsibility, of course, but it also leaves less room for inconsistency.

Better Data

By controlling the entire product cycle and buyer’s journey, D2C brands can access more, and usually better, data.

This gives them a more complete picture of their business to understand where it’s doing well and where it needs improvement. It also enables them to provide a better customer experience through personalization.

Better Customer Experience & Relationships

In a crowded market, 86% of consumers say they will pay more for a superior customer experience. In fact, 70% of customers expect anyone they interact with at a business to have the full context of their previous engagement and actions.

With their streamlined processes, control, and data, D2C brands are better equipped to offer the personalized experience and attention to detail that modern buyers look for.

Improved Brand Loyalty

Great customer experience and affordable prices foster brand loyalty and improve customer lifetime value (LTV). For brands, this means longer-term repeat business and even referrals to new customers.

Cons of D2C Marketing

Now, we can’t talk about the good things about D2C marketing and not address the bad.

With full control comes full responsibility for any issues that arise.

For example, it’s common for a D2C business to face supply and fulfillment issues.

Like if the shirt type I chose for certain designs on my website is no longer made or goes out of stock, it will halt production and fulfillment until I make adjustments.

This can be especially hard to manage if your team is small (or, like me, a team of one). You can only work on so many things, so it’s easy to feel spread thin.

D2C business also requires you to be a 'jack of all trades.'

You need knowledge of product development, supply chain management, marketing, sales, and more. Add the highly personalized customer service people expect from D2C businesses, and you’ll find your venture challenging to scale.

It can be a lot of pressure, but it can also be extremely fulfilling. If you’re running a D2C business or considering it, familiarize yourself with D2C marketing strategy.

D2C Marketing Strategy

With much of their online presence, D2C marketing is pretty grounded in digital strategy. These include but aren’t limited to:

• Content Marketing & Search Engine Optimization (SEO): These two strategies work together to offer value to your customers and get found in their hunts for answers.
• Website Strategy & Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): These are tactics centered around making your website as intuitive and helpful as possible so visitors will be more likely to convert on a form or purchase.
• Email Marketing: Once you have someone’s contact information, you can deliver more pointed, personalized content directly to their email inboxes. These are commonly focused on sharing sale or discount information or delivering other content related to their past engagement with you.
• Social Media Marketing: Social media is another place where D2C brands are getting found and building brand awareness through engaging content.
• Pay-per-click (PPC): Whether on social media, search engines, or otherwise, PPC ads help brands surpass algorithms and reach their target audiences. This kind of exposure is powerful for D2C brands without a physical storefront or additional partners.
• Influencer Marketing: Without retail or wholesale partners, having relevant influencers and creators promote your product can significantly impact how people perceive your brand.

With these areas in mind, let’s dig into some specific D2C marketing tips and D2C ecommerce best practices.

D2C Marketing Tips

1. Create a sense of community.

Building a community is a powerful strategy for brands in general, let alone D2C.

It brings like-minded people together, not just because they like your product or service for practical reasons but because they like what your brand stands for.

They share your values and mission, and your community offers them a sense of belonging.

Community gives consumers something larger and deeper to promote and want to talk about. And all of that helps your brand awareness.

Beauty brand LiveTinted has done a great job of fostering community through social media.

Brand founder Deepica Mutyala has always loved makeup but never saw the faces of people like her represented in the industry, not to mention shades or solutions for her skin tone.

She started LiveTinted to change that and foster a community where everyone could feel included and seen.

LiveTinted started as a solely D2C brand but can now also be found in ULTA stores.

The community it created is arguably one of the biggest reasons it was able to expand to such a large scale.

How do you create a sense of community around your brand?

• Engage with your audience: Respond to comments, ask questions, and spark conversations.
• Create shared experiences: Offer exclusive content and host live events where people can connect in person or through streaming events where people can engage in real-time online.
• Establish a private space: Think a newsletter, a Facebook or LinkedIn Group, or even a members-only online forum.
• Encourage user-generated content (UGC): More on that shortly.

Learn more about communities in marketing in The Ultimate Guide to Community Management [According to Experts Who Do It Daily].

2. Lean into your mission.

What does your brand care about? Does it have a unique mission? Does every purchase support a charitable cause?

Highlighting these things in your marketing makes buying from you that much more meaningful. Each sale is no longer just a transaction to a consumer but a small act of good.

For example, the shoe brand Allbirds is rooted in sustainability.

Not only are its shoes made from natural resources, but its packaging is made from 90% recycled materials. The company also works with the non-profit SOLES4SOULS® to donate lightly used products to charity.

These practices are discussed in detail on the Allbirds website.

Image Source

The brand even releases an annual sustainability report to hold itself accountable for these claims.

But remember, don’t just embrace a cause or mission because you think it’ll help you sell more. People can sense performative activism from a mile away.

If you have something that genuinely fits your product or even inspired your founding, like Allbirds, using your platform and resources gives your audience something greater to want to support.

3. Show your sense of humor and personality.

Probably the most well-known D2C brand out there is Dollar Shave Club (DSC).

Since its launch in 2012, the brand has become a case study in marketing, largely because of the signature personality and humor it exudes in everything it does.

From its legendary launch video (above) and social media content (below) to its website copy and actual subscription boxes, Dollar Shave Club makes a boring industry fun to talk about.

Image Source

People can buy razors at pretty much any store, but they order from DSC because of the witty and relatable lifestyle they represent and the memorable personality that comes with it.

4. Share educational content to build trust.

An experiment by Conductor found consumers who read early-stage educational content are 131% more likely to buy from a brand immediately after than those who don’t. Use this to your advantage.

Think about your industry or product and what your target audience wants and needs to know about it. What do they need to know before making a purchase?

How do they choose the right option for them? Or what do you know that can improve their daily lives?

By sharing honest, valuable information like this via blog articles or social media, people will learn what you offer and begin to see you as a trusted expert in the space they want to buy from.

Fitness brand Peloton, for instance, regularly shares health tips and advice on its social media:

Electric toothbrush company Quip takes a similar approach, sharing oral health care advice on its blog.

Image Source

5. Encourage and highlight user-generated content (UGC).

Encourage your customers to create and post content about your brands on social media.

Aside from showing appreciation for your customers, this content is social proof for your claims. It shows potential new customers that you’re not all talk; you actually provide the results and experience you promise.

Take this example from Daily Harvest.

Not only do followers get to see what their product actually looks like and how others enjoy it, but the brand gets content for their social media.

The easiest way to source UGC is by creating a branded hashtag like Coke’s #shareacoke or Nike’s #justdoit, but you can consider creating create an ambassador or loyalty program.

This can also help with creating a sense of community, which is a nice bonus.

Check out How to Leverage User-Generated Content in Your Marketing Strategy to learn more about UGC.

6. Work with relevant creators and influencers.

69% of consumers trust information from influencers and their family and friends over brands. That means teaming up with trusted influencers or creators in your space can arguably do more for your D2C brand than other types of marketing.

Working with influencers can help you reach new audiences, build brand awareness, and generate social proof.

Influencer collaborations are a regular part of Happy Socks’ strategy:

Learn more about your options for influencer marketing.

7. Invest in paid ads.

With so much competition, getting organic traction on social media and search engines is increasingly difficult.

Paid advertising offerings like Google Ads and Facebook Ads can help you surpass algorithms and get in front of your target audience.

Glossier, for instance, is no stranger to using ads on TikTok.

The D2C beauty brand uses sponsored creator content to highlight its products and includes a call to action to purchase the featured products on its website.

But make no mistake: You shouldn’t start running ads lightly. Isabelle Lam, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of the Canadian-based snack brand Remix Snacks, urges D2C marketers to consider their costs and margins before investing in ads.

She shared in conversation, “When we first started growing our D2C platform, we put a lot of money towards hiring an ads agency and increasing our ads budget to increase our website traffic and sales. However, we slowly realized that our gross margins were making it very difficult to make a profit, no matter how many sales we made.”

“This was likely due to high shipping costs, and we ultimately had to go back to square one and re-evaluate our pricing strategy to ensure we had healthy margins.”

8. Personalize your customer experience.

One of the biggest differentiators of D2C brands is the personalized experiences they can offer their consumers. In fact, people buy from D2C brands expecting them.

Thankfully, with fewer middlemen, you likely have access to the data needed to craft these experiences in your marketing.

What are some ways you can personalize your marketing?

• Address your buyer by name in emails or even on your website.
• Make product recommendations based on past purchases
• Send emails with content suggestions based on purchases or past behavior (i.e., pages they’ve visited or offers they’ve downloaded.)
• Have team members respond to all social media engagement. Don’t automate.

Function of Beauty’s entire business is centered around personalization.

It sells haircare products customized to your specific concerns and lifestyle and it sets the stage for its personalized experience by asking you for your name before anything else.

Pro tip: HubSpot users can use personalization tokens to personalize their emails and even website copy. They can also use smart lists and email automation to deliver segment users and better deliver timely content.

D2C Ecommerce Best Practices

Find more ecommerce sales and marketing tools in our free Ecommerce Planning Kit.

9. Enable social shopping.

HubSpot research shows social media is the preferred product discovery channel for Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X and one in four consumers have already bought products directly in social media apps.

That’s a large chunk of the consumer market. With this in mind, in addition to marketing your product on social media, consider setting up social shopping.

Instagram, TikTok (see below), and Facebook all have native features that allow audiences to purchase without ever leaving their platforms.

After someone sees your product on social media, say through an ad, a piece of your content, or even an influencer post, they can take action immediately.

Businesses get to close more deals and buyers have an easier shopping experience.

10. Reduce friction in your shopping experience.

On the subject of removing friction, work on reducing friction in all of your shopping experiences, including your website.

What does this look like?

• Minimizing the number of clicks it takes to complete a purchase
• Making relevant add-on suggestions
• Having abandoned cart emails and retargeting setup
• Enabling digital payments (i.e., Apple Pay or Google Pay)

Cornell University research found that “one-click” checkout leads to more website visits, buyers purchasing a more comprehensive range of merchandise, and an average spending of 28.5% more. And it makes sense.

The easier you make it for people to take action, the more likely they will.

Men’s clothing brand Bonobos does a great job of streamline its shopping experience with the “quick shop” option on its website.

Pro tip: Thoroughly test every change you make to your website.

Isabelle Lam stressed quality testing after making UX updates, saying, “It‘s easy to miss things like features or pages not working properly, so have multiple people go through your website as if they were visitors."

"These little mistakes may seem like nothing, but they can make a huge difference to your customer’s experience, especially if it's their first time on your website.”

In addition to quality, test performance. Did things improve or decline after these changes? Monitor your website metrics and lean into what works.

11. Run sales, discounts, and deals.

According to Capital One, 89% of Americans say price plays a major role in their purchase decisions more than any other factor. In fact, the company found discounts are a major factor for 74% of U.S. online shoppers.

While you certainly don’t want to discount your way into ruin, don’t underestimate the power of sales or premiums. Away Suitcases uses UGC and influencers to draw attention to its sales:

Getting Closer to Consumers

At the end of the day, D2C marketing is a unique endeavor. Whether direct-to-consumer is your sole sales channel as a business or one of many, start testing out these tips and best practices to see what your audience responds to.

When done right, they can only bring you closer to your consumers and closer to even the most ambitious profit and growth goals.

Color is an element that can make or break a design, and that rule holds true for presentation design as well. Choosing the right PowerPoint color scheme is super important.

But there’s one extra thing to consider – where your presentation will be given. A PowerPoint presentation can look quite different on a computer or tablet versus on a projected screen.

When it comes to selecting a PowerPoint color scheme, this is an important consideration. We’ve rounded nearly stylish PowerPoint color schemes as inspiration. While darker color schemes might look great close-up on screens, opt for lighter backgrounds (for enhanced readability) for projected presentations.

Note: The last color in each scheme is for the slide background.

1. Shocking Orange

When it comes to marketing and creative presentations, the orange color is the go-to choice among professionals. It not only works perfectly with both light and dark color pairings but also helps highlight all the important parts of a slide more clearly than any other color.

In this example, the bright orange (identified as Shocking Orange) instantly grabs the attention on top of the white background and makes the black typography highly visible and much easier to read.

2. Neon Green

Neon-themed high-contrast colors are a popular choice among marketers these days as they are quite effective as an accent color. These bright colors instantly pop out, highlighting key objects and text above all else.

Colors like Neon Green work best with a darker background. When you combine it with white color typography, you will come up with a color scheme that delivers results.

3. Orange and Greyish Turquoise

As we mentioned before, orange color is a popular choice in PowerPoint color schemes. But it doesn’t always have to be the dominating color. Sometimes, when you pair it with another light, secondary color, it gives you a pleasant and soothing color scheme.

In this example, you can see a light orange color being used to highlight the call to actions (CTAs) across the slideshow while a greyish-turquoise color is used to bring balance to the overall look and feel.

4. Bright Purple and Dark Blue

When creating a PowerPoint color scheme, choosing the right accent color is the key to achieving a professional vibe for the entire presentation. The important thing is to choose a color that sticks out without taking away the attention from the rest of the elements.

A color scheme with a bright purple accent goes perfectly with a dark background. Then you can add another dark blue to the mix to create another accent color to balance the attention.

5. Blue and Orange

A great thing about the orange color is how it goes well together with many other colors. It’s the king of accent colors. Blue is another color that comes out on top of the list.

Much like orange, the color blue is a great choice for creating attractive accents. And it works even better when you put those colors together.

6. Black and Gold

If your goal is to create a high-end and luxurious vibe across a PowerPoint slideshow, then no other color scheme works better than the simple yet elegant black and gold.

The classic black and gold color combination is considered one of the most iconic color schemes that have been used for decades by everyone from high-end fashion brands to luxury hotels and more. It’s the ideal color pairing for a classic, timeless look.

7. Pink and Gray

If you’re a fan of soft, pastel colors, this color scheme will work wonders for your presentation design. It’s especially an effective choice for lifestyle and fashion-related slideshows.

In this example slideshow design, you will see multiple shades of Pink, sometimes even as gradients, for the accents. This color blends beautifully with the light grayish background.

8. Red and White

PowerPoint color schemes don’t always have to be so complicated. Sometimes, a simple basic color combination is more than enough to create a compelling presentation design. This red and white color scheme shows how it’s done.

The color red is often associated with courage and authority. As a result, it is a go-to choice among modern brands and businesses for creating presentations that showcase their dominance in the market.

9. Cream and Green

This beautiful and soft color combination is a great choice for adding a soothing aesthetic to your presentation. It’s perfect for making PowerPoint slideshows for fashion, lifestyle, and travel-related topics.

In this design, the cream color works in harmony with the green to create a well-balanced look for the entire presentation. The color scheme also makes it much easier to bring more attention to the text and images.

10. Gray and Yellow

The color yellow is a great choice for accents but with the wrong color combination, it could mean disaster.

The gray color used in the above example is made of a combination of blue and cyan, which gives the design a unique background to effectively highlight the yellow accents without straining the viewer’s eyes.

11. Blue, Gray Green & Orange

With a bright overall scheme that’s easy on the eyes, this color scheme can help you create a modern PowerPoint presentation that’s readable and friendly. You can even tweak the colors somewhat to better work with your brand, if necessary.

The best thing about this color palette is that it lends itself to plenty of different presentation styles and applications.

12. Violet Gradient

Using the first two colors noted above, you can create a dark-to-light monotone gradient that can make for a modern PowerPoint design style.

Take this concept and expand it to any other colors you like for your spin on this modern color scheme.

13. Mint and Orange

On paper, these colors don’t seem to blend all that well, but with the right application min and orange on a black background can work.

Use a pair of colors like this for presentations where you are trying to make a bold statement or impact. This concept is often great for trendy topics or ideas that are a little unconventional.

14. Bright Blue and Light

The brighter, the better! Bright blue color schemes are a major trend in PowerPoint design … and for good reason. The color combination creates a bright, light feel with easy readability. Those are two things that pretty much everyone wants in a presentation template design.

The other thing that’s great about a color scheme like this – which focuses on one color – is that it matches practically everything else in the design with ease. It’s great for image-heavy presentations or those where text elements are a key focal point.

15. Teal and Lime

Two colors that you might not expect to see paired create a classy combo that’s interesting and engaging. Both teal and lime are considered “new neutrals” and work with a variety of colors easily. (What’s somewhat unexpected is putting them together.)

What’s great about this PowerPoint color scheme is that the extra interest from the hues can help generate extra attention for slides. The template in the example also mixes and matches teal and green primary color blocks to keep it interesting from slide to slide.

16. Colorful Gradients

Gradients are a color trend that just keeps reinventing and resurfacing. In the latest iteration, gradients are bright with a lot of color. Designers are working across the color wheel for gradients that have more of a rainbow effect throughout the design, even if individual gradients are more subtle.

What you are likely to see is a variety of different gradients throughout a project with different colors, but maybe a dominant color to carry the theme. Use this for presentation designs that are meant to be more fun, lighter, and highly engaging.

17. Light Blue Minimal

This color scheme with light blue and a minimal aesthetic is super trendy and so easy to read. You can add a lot of style with a black-and-white style for images or a deep blue accent for header text.

While a pale blue is ideal here, you could also consider experimenting with other pastels and the same overall theme for a modern presentation design.

18. Bright with Dark Background

The combination of bright colors on a dark background can be fun and quite different from the traditional PowerPoint color schemes that are often on white or light backgrounds. This design style for a presentation is bold and engaging but can be a challenge if you aren’t comfortable with that much color.

When you use a style like this, it is important to think about the presentation environment to ensure that everything will look as intended. A design like this, for example, can work well on screens, but not as well on a projector or in a large room.

19. Navy and Orange

The navy and orange color combination is stylish and classic for presentation design. To add a fresh touch consider some of the effects such as the template above, with color blocking and overlays to add extra interest.

What makes this color combination pop is the element of contrast between a dark and a bright pair. The navy here is almost a neutral hue and works with almost any other design element.

20. Dark and Light Green

A modern take on a monotone color scheme involves using two similar colors that aren’t exactly tints and tones of one another. This pairing of dark green and light (almost minty) green does precisely that.

What’s nice about this color scheme is that the colors can be used almost interchangeably as primary elements or accents. It provides a lot of flexibility in the presentation design.

21. Bright Crystal Blue

Blue presentation color schemes will always be in style. The only thing that changes is the variance of the hue. This pair of blues – a bright crystal blue with a darker teal – works in almost the same way as the pair of greens above.

What’s nice about this color palette though is that the dark color is the accent here. That’s a modern twist on color design for presentations.

22. Blue and Yellow

Blue and yellow are classic pairings and can make for a striking presentation color combination. With a bright white background, these hues stand out in a major way.

What works here is the element of contrast. A darker blue with a brighter yellow creates an almost yin and yang effect with color. The only real caution is to take care with yellow on a white or light background with fonts or other light elements.

23. Teal

Teal is a personality-packed color choice. If you are looking for a bold statement with a PowerPoint template, start here.

While the above color scheme also includes a hint of yellow for accents, the teal color option is strong enough to stand alone. You could consider a tint or tone for a mono-look. It also pairs amazingly well with black-and-white images.

Teal is a fun color option that will provide a lot of practical use with your slide deck.

24. Bright Coral

This color scheme is one of those that you will either love or hate. The bright coral color is powerful and generates an immediate reaction.

It’s also quite trendy and will stand out from many of the other more bland PowerPoint colors that you may encounter. This is a great option for a startup that wants to present with a bang or a brand that has a similar color in its palette. It may not work so well for more traditional brands or those that are more conservative with their slide designs.

25. Dark Mode Colors

A dark mode color scheme might be the biggest trend in all of design right now, and that also applies to presentation design.

This purple and emerald color paired with black with white text looks amazing. It is sleek, modern, and has high visual appeal without having to use a lot of images.

This works best for digital presentations when you don’t have concerns about room lighting to worry about.

If you aren’t ready to jump into dark mode on your own, the Harber template above is a great start with nice color, gradients, and interesting shapes throughout the slide types.

26. Navy and Lime

A navy and lime combination is a modern take on colorful neutrals that are anything but boring.

These colors have a nice balance with a white or light background and are fairly easy to use. With so many brands already using blue in their base color palette, this is an option that works and is an extension of existing elements for many brands. (Use your blue and add the lime to it.)

Also, with this color combination, the idea of a minimal overall slide structure is nice so that the power of the colors and impact comes through. They work beside images in full color or black and white.

27. Modern Blue

When you aren’t planning to use brand colors – or maybe as a startup or independent contractor so you don’t have them yet – a modern color combination can add the right flair to a PowerPoint presentation.

The bright grayish-blue in the Lekro PowerPoint template – you can find it here – adds the right amount of color without overwhelming the content. Plus, subtle orange accents help guide the eye throughout this PowerPoint color scheme. https://elements.envato.com/lekro-powerpoint-presentation-67YW3M

28. Blackish and Yellow

While at first pass, black and yellow might seem like a harsh color combination, it can set the tone for a project that should emanate strength. This PowerPoint color scheme softens the harshness of the duo with a blackish color, that’s grayer and has a softer feel.

Pair this combo on a light background or with black and white images for a stylish, mod look.

29. Orange and White

A bright color can soften the harshness of a stark PowerPoint design. Especially when used for larger portions of the content area, such as background swatches or to help accent particular elements.

The Sprint template makes great use of color with a simple palette – orange and white with black text – but has slide ideas that incorporate the color throughout for something with a more “designed” look to it. (And if you aren’t a fan of the orange, change the color for use with this template to keep the modern feel.)

30. Purple

Purple presentations are in. The color, which was once avoided by many in design projects, has flourished with recent color trends.

Because more funky, bright colors are popular, a presentation with a purple focus can be acceptable for a variety of uses. The use in Batagor template has a modern design with a deep header in the featured color, which works best with images that aren’t incredibly bold in terms of color.

31. Blue-Green Gradients

Another trending item in color is the use of gradients. This trend can be applied to PowerPOint presentations as well.

Use a blue-to-green gradient for a soft and harmonious color scheme that won’t get in the way of content. Use each hue alone for accents and informational divots throughout the presentation design.

32. Black and White

Minimalism is a design trend that never goes away. A black-and-white (or gray) presentation screams class and sophistication.

It can also be easy to work with when you don’t want the color to get in the way of your message. And if a design can stand alone without color, you know it works.

33. Reds and Black

If you are designing a presentation for viewing on screens, such as desktops or tablets, a dark background with bright color accents and white text can work well. (This combination gets a lot trickier on projector displays.)

While reverse text and red aren’t always recommended, you can see from the Nova template that they can be a stunning combination. But note, this modern color scheme is best for specific content and audiences.

34. Blue and Pink

This color scheme is a spin on Pantone’s colors of the year from 2016. https://designshack.net/articles/graphics/how-to-use-the-pantone-color-of-the-year-in-design-projects/ The brighter, bolder versions of rose quartz and serenity and fun and sophisticated.

The unexpected combo sets the tone with a strong, trustworthy blue and adds softness with the paler pink. The colors work equally well with white or darker backgrounds.

35. Blue and Green

Blue and green accents can help a black or white background come to life in a presentation template. The colors here can work with either background style, based on how you plan to display your presentation.

What’s nice about these colors is that they are pretty neutral – since both are found in nature – and can be used with ease for design or text elements in a PowerPoint color scheme.

36. Beige and Gray

If you are looking for a softer color palette, consider beige and gray. These hues can work well on screens or projected, making them a versatile option.

The nice thing about such a neutral palette is that it gives content plenty of room, so that will be the true focus of the presentation.

37. Tints and Tones

While the purplish blue-gray in the Business PowerPoint Presentation template is stunning, it represents a greater trend in presentation design. Pick a color – maybe your dominant brand color – and use tints and tones for the presentation color scheme.

By mixing the color with white or black and gray, you’ll end up with a stunning set of color variations that match your messaging.

38. Bold Rainbow

While most of the color schemes featured here only include a color or two, bright color schemes with wider color variations are trending.

This distinct “rainbow style” can be somewhat difficult to use without rules for each color. Proceed with caution.

39. Bright Neutrals

Lime green is the brightest “neutral” you might ever use. A fun palette that’s versatile can be a solid foundation for a color palette.

It works exceptionally well in the Rouka PowerPoint template thanks to a pairing with a subtle gray background. Using a light, but not white, background can be great for screens and projected presentations because it takes away some of the harshness of a white background. The subtle coloring is easier on the eyes for reading and viewing.

40. Rich Browns

Browns aren’t often what comes to mind when thinking of building a color scheme, but rich browns can be a modern option.

Pair a neutral beige-brown with a darker color for an interesting contrast that works with almost any style of content.

41. Mint Green

Go super trendy with a modern and streamlined palette of mint green and gray on white. While this combination can have a minimal feel, it also adds a touch of funkiness to the design.

Add another hint of color – think orange – for extra accents.

42. Dark Gray and Blue

It doesn’t get more classy than a combination of grays and blues. This new take on a classic color scheme adds another brighter blue as well to pick up on modern trends.

Just be careful with text using a dark background such as this one. White is probably your best option for typography (and look for a font with thicker strokes!)

So i'd like to have a text saying [Location] which will be shown and changed based on the viewer's location/ip. I tried to follow this video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KiGKd2XXL4 but i didn't manage to make it to work. I registered on 2 websites to get an API key which i placed it in the script and yet it didn't work out. What I tried in a nutshell is

<script>
    $('document').ready(function() {
        $.ajax({
          url: "https://api.snoopi.io/check?apikey=MY API KEY",
          dataType: "jsonp",
          jsonpCallback: "unBounce"
        });
    }); // Ready
function unBounce(json){
   $('#location').html(json.City + ", " + json.State);
}
</script>

Followed by

<span id="location"></span>

I am creating a basic page in w3spaces and while I've finished editing the html and css part, I'd like to add a few scripts in it. I tried to add this script (https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_js_countdown.asp), which is a countdown timer to my own page but it seems like it doesn't run. Initially I used the code provided <p id="demo"></p> and nothing happened. I also tried other things such as <span id="demo" class="demo"></span> and <script src="./countdown.js"></script> but neither worked. Do you have any suggestion please as I am not very experienced.

When the days are gray and misty as they are in many parts of the world in November, there’s no better remedy than a bit of colorful inspiration. To bring some good vibes to your desktops this month, artists and designers from across the globe once again tickled their creative ideas and designed unique and inspiring wallpapers that are bound to sweeten up your November.

The wallpapers in this post come in versions with and without a calendar for November 2024 and can be downloaded for free — as it has been a monthly tradition here at Smashing Magazine for more than 13 years already. As a little bonus goodie, we also added a selection of November favorites from our wallpapers archives to the post. Maybe you’ll spot one of your almost-forgotten favorites in here, too?

A huge thank-you to everyone who shared their wallpapers with us this month — this post wouldn’t exist without you. Happy November!

• You can click on every image to see a larger preview.
• We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
• Submit your wallpaper design! 👩‍🎨
  Feeling inspired? We are always looking for creative talent and would love to feature your desktop wallpaper in one of our upcoming posts. We can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with!

“Today, we celebrate the saxophone, an instrument that has added its signature sound to jazz, rock, classical, and so much more. From smooth solos to bold brass harmonies, the sax has shaped the soundtrack of our lives. Whether you’re a seasoned player or just love its iconic sound, let’s show some love to this musical marvel!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

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• without calendar: 320x480, 640x480, 800x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1024x1024, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1680x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1440

“The end of the year is approaching, and winter is just around the corner, so we’ll spend this month in the Alps. The snow has arrived in the mountains, and we can take advantage of it to ski or have a hot coffee while we watch the flakes fall.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela from Spain.

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Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

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• without calendar: 640x480, 800x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1024x1024, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1680x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1440, 3840x2160

Designed by Cronix from the United States.

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• without calendar: 800x480, 800x600, 1024x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1440x960, 1600x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1680x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1440, 2560x1600, 2880x1800, 3072x1920, 3840x2160, 4096x2304

“A peaceful, minimalist wallpaper of a lone cartoon astronaut floating in space surrounded by planets and stars.” — Designed by Reethu from London.

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• without calendar: 320x480, 640x480, 800x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1024x1024, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1680x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1440

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

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• without calendar: 640x480, 800x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1024x1024, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1680x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1440, 3840x2160

Designed by Cronix from the United States.

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• with calendar: 800x480, 800x600, 1024x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1440x960, 1600x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1680x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1440, 2560x1600, 2880x1800, 3072x1920, 3840x2160, 4096x2304
• without calendar: 800x480, 800x600, 1024x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1440x960, 1600x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1680x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1440, 2560x1600, 2880x1800, 3072x1920, 3840x2160, 4096x2304

“November 25th is the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.” We wanted to create a wallpaper that can hopefully contribute to building awareness and support.” — Designed by Friendlystock from Greece.

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• without calendar: 640x480, 800x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1024x1024, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1680x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1440, 2560x1440, 3840x2160

“When playing with lines, which were at the beginning displaying a square, I finally arrived to this drawing, and I was surprised. I thought it would make a nice wallpaper for one’s desktop, doesn’t it?” — Designed by Philippe Brouard from France.

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“Inspired by the transition from autumn to winter.” — Designed by Tecxology from India.

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“November is autumn in all its splendor. Earthy colors, falling leaves, and afternoons in the warmth of the home. But it is also adventurous and exciting and why not, different. We sit in Bali contemplating Pura Ulun Danu Bratan. We don’t know if it’s sunset or dusk, but… does that really matter?” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela Jimenez from Spain.

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“Autumn coziness, which is created by fallen leaves, pumpkins, and cups of cocoa, inspired our designers for this wallpaper. — Designed by MasterBundles from Ukraine.

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“Been looking for a mysterious, gloomy, yet beautiful desktop wallpaper for this winter season? We’ve got you, as this month’s calendar marks Jellyfish Day. On November 3rd, we celebrate these unique, bewildering, and stunning marine animals. Besides adorning your screen, we’ve got you covered with some jellyfish fun facts: they aren’t really fish, they need very little oxygen, eat a broad diet, and shrink in size when food is scarce. Now that’s some tenacity to look up to.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

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“Autumn can be dreary, especially in November, when rain starts pouring every day. We wanted to summon better days, so that’s how this colourful November calendar was created. Open your umbrella and let’s roll!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

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Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.

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“I designed some Halloween characters and then this idea came to my mind — a bat family hanging around in the moonlight. A cute and scary mood is just perfect for autumn.” — Designed by Carmen Eisendle from Germany.

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Designed by Glynnis Owen from Australia.

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“Kindness drives humanity. Be kind. Be humble. Be humane. Be the best of yourself!” — Designed by Color Mean Creative Studio from Dubai.

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“Anbani means alphabet in Georgian. The letters that grow on that tree are the Georgian alphabet. It’s very unique!” — Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Georgia.

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“By the end of autumn, ferocious Poseidon will part from tinted clouds and timid breeze. After this uneven clash, the sky once more becomes pellucid just in time for imminent luminous snow.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.

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Designed by Bart Bonte from Belgium.

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“It is autumn! It is raining and thus… it is mushroom season! It is the perfect moment to go to the forest and get the best mushrooms to do the best recipe.” — Designed by Verónica Valenzuela from Spain.

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“The smell of winter is lingering in the air. The time to be home! Winter reminds us of good food, of the warmth, the touch of a friendly hand, and a talk beside the fire. Keep calm and let us welcome winter.” — Designed by Acodez IT Solutions from India.

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“We were inspired by the nature around us and the universe above us, so we created an out-of-this-world calendar. Now, let us all stop for a second and contemplate on preserving our forests, let us send birds of passage off to warmer places, and let us think to ourselves — if not on Earth, could we find a home somewhere else in outer space?” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

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Designed by Elise Vanoorbeek from Belgium.

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Designed by ActiveCollab from the United States.

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Designed by Maria Porter from the United States.

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“November is the Peanut Butter Month so I decided to make a wallpaper around that. As everyone knows peanut butter goes really well with some jelly so I made two sandwiches, one with peanut butter and one with jelly. Together they make the best combination.” — Designed by Senne Mommens from Belgium.

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“On December 7, we mark International Civil Aviation Day, celebrating those who prove day by day that the sky really is the limit. As the engine of global connectivity, civil aviation is now, more than ever, a symbol of social and economic progress and a vehicle of international understanding. This monthly calendar is our sign of gratitude to those who dedicate their lives to enabling everyone to reach their dreams.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

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“Those chill November nights when you see mountain tops covered with the first snow sparkling in the moonlight.” — Designed by Jovana Djokic from Serbia.

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Designed by Xenia Latii from Germany.

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“Whether or not you celebrate Thanksgiving, there’s certain things that always make the harvest season special. As a Floridian, I’m a big fan of any signs that the weather might be cooling down soon, too!” — Designed by Dorothy Timmer from the United States.

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“Universal Children’s Day, November 20. It feels like a dream world, it invites you to let your imagination flow, see the details, and find the child inside you.” — Designed by Luis Costa from Portugal.

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Designed by Cedric Bloem from Belgium.

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Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

For the past ten years, I’ve been using Hollywood screenwriting techniques to help companies create powerful marketing stories. I've seen firsthand how powerful storytelling can be in transforming a company's messaging.

Before we keep going though, spoiler alert, I need you to know that may just ruin movies for you. On the other hand, if you keep reading, I also may just show you how to make your marketing story even more irresistible.

The Power of the Problem in Screenwriting

For a moment, let’s take off our marketing hats and put on our screenwriting hats.

In the world of screenwriting, master storytellers know that to create a gripping narrative, you need to write a powerful problem for a hero to overcome. If there is no problem in the story, there is no story.

Can you imagine Liam Neeson getting the phone call that his daughter is kidnapped (again), but this time, just as he’s about to go off on the terrorist on the other end, his daughter hops on the call and tells him it's all just a prank. Her friends took her to New York to check out colleges and she’d like him to join her.

Then the rest of the movie is about them just walking around New York enjoying a fall day. That is not an interesting movie. You would walk out.

There has to be a problem for the hero to overcome. A bomb has to be about to go off. A meteor has to be hurling towards earth. A Death Star has to be about to destroy another planet.

The bigger the problem the hero has to overcome, the more the audience pays attention and waits to see if the hero can eventually overcome the problem.

However, there is more to writing an interesting story than just establishing a big problem.

The Three Levels of Problem

So obviously, for a movie to truly grip the audience, the hero has to encounter a big problem. There is something that has to get in the way of what the hero wants. This is called an External Problem.

External Problem

The External Problem is the visible, tangible obstacle or challenge that the main character faces. It's the surface-level issue that is easily identifiable. In the Hunger Games, Katniss has to win the Hunger Games. In Star Wars, Luke has to destroy a Death Star. Pretty simple to understand.

Here is where I’m going to start ruining movies for you. In order to relate to the audience, screenwriters have to dig deeper than the External Problem. After all, how many of us have had to compete in the Hunger Games or destroy a Death Star? Very few. So how can we relate to the main characters if we’ve never experienced their experience?

Storytellers have learned to hook audiences by introducing two more layers to the problem: Internal Problem and Philosophical Problem.

Internal Problem

Beneath the surface of every External Problem lies an internal struggle. In a movie, the hero has to disarm a bomb (External Problem), but maybe the last time he tried to disarm a bomb, he cut the wrong wire and people died. Now, he is not sure he has what it takes. That is his Internal Problem. How many of us have ever wondered if we have what it takes? Pretty much everyone.

The story is no longer just about destroying a bomb, but it is about the hero’s desire to prove he has what it takes. The Internal Problem becomes the heart of the story and makes the story more relatable to the audience.

Philosophical Problem

The next layer of problem screenwriters use is called the Philosophical Problem.

This is the deepest level, addressing why the problem matters in a larger context or on a moral level. It often relates to what's right or wrong, fair or unfair. The movie will make an argument that good should triumph over evil or true love should win out over arranged marriages.

By incorporating all three levels, storytellers can create more compelling narratives that deeply resonate with their audience. When the hero overcomes all three levels of problems, the hero wins.

So what does this mean for you as a marketer?

In your marketing, your customer is the hero of your story. One of the most crucial elements in crafting a compelling story for your brand is understanding your customer‘s problem. But here’s the thing — most businesses only scratch the surface when it comes to defining their customer's issues.

External Problem: The Visible Obstacle

The external problem is what most businesses focus on. It‘s the tangible, visible issue that your customer is facing. For example, if you’re selling lawn care, the external problem might be a weed-filled lawn. It's easy to identify and straightforward to address. Most marketers get this right.

However, if you stop here, you're missing out on the real power of storytelling. This is where many companies fall short, failing to connect with their audience on a deeper level.

Internal Problem: The Emotional Struggle

Customers are often more motivated to buy solutions to their internal problems than their external ones. For instance, a homeowner with a weed-filled lawn (External Problem) is not going to hire someone to care for their lawn unless they feel frustrated and embarrassed (Internal Problem).

The Internal Problem is where the real story begins to take shape. It's what drives the character (or in our case, the customer) to seek a solution. By addressing this level, you show your audience that you truly understand their struggles and make your marketing more interesting.

Philosophical Problem: The Big “Why”

The third and deepest level of problem is philosophical. This is the big picture, the reason why the problem matters in the grand scheme of things. It's often framed as a question of right and wrong or fairness.

In our lawn care example, the philosophical problem might be, “People should spend more time enjoying their lawn than working on it.” This level adds weight and significance to the customer's problem, making your product or service feel more important and impactful.

Implementing the Three-Level Problem In Your Marketing

Now, let's look at how to implement all three levels of problem in your marketing.

1. Identify the External Problem.

Start by clearly defining the tangible issue your product or service solves. Be specific and use language your customers would use themselves. For example: "Our software helps small businesses manage their finances more efficiently.”

2. Uncover the Internal Problem.

Dig deeper to understand the emotional impact of the external problem. What feelings or internal struggles does it create? For our financial software example: "Small business owners feel overwhelmed and stressed about managing their finances, worried they might be making costly mistakes.”

3. Articulate the Philosophical Problem.

Consider the bigger picture. Why is this problem unfair or wrong on a broader scale? For our example: "Hardworking entrepreneurs shouldn't have to become accounting experts just to run their businesses successfully.”

4. Put all three levels into your messaging.

Once you‘ve identified all three levels, make sure they are in your marketing materials. Here’s how it might look for our financial software: “Managing your small business finances can feel like a full-time job.

Our easy-to-use software streamlines your bookkeeping, giving you peace of mind and more time to focus on what you do best. Because you started a business to pursue your passion, not to become an accountant.”

This message addresses the External Problem (inefficient financial management), the Internal Problem (stress and overwhelm), and the Philosophical Problem (entrepreneurs should be free to focus on what they love).

Making Your Marketing Irresistible With These Screenwriting Techniques

By clearly defining your customer‘s problem at all three levels — external, internal, and philosophical — you create a message that’s not just clear, but deeply resonant and motivating.

Remember, most companies are missing two of these crucial levels in their marketing. By implementing this screenwriting technique, you‘re not just selling a product or service; you’re inviting your customer into a compelling story where they‘re the hero, and you’re the guide they've been looking for.

Despite my tendency to let my email inbox bloat with unanswered emails (I just got a warning from Gmail that my inbox is 90% full), I'm actually pretty well-versed in email marketing.

I used to manage the email newsletter at a TV station as a journalist, and I most recently managed the HubSpot Daily Newsletter before it morphed into the Masters in Marketing newsletter, which you should subscribe to if you haven't already.

Though the marketing landscape is constantly changing, email marketing remains an effective way for businesses to generate leads and convert more leads. That's why local TV stations use them, your favorite brand likely has one, and HubSpot has a few!

According to our 2024 State of Marketing and Trends Report, about a third of marketers (33%) use email as a channel to connect to their audience. This makes email the second most used channel behind social media.

Email marketing isn't going away soon, so you should incorporate it into your marketing strategy. Here are some best practices I live by that will help you get the most out of your email marketing strategy.

Table of Contents

• 3 Email Automation Best Practices
• 9 Email Campaign Best Practices
• 10 Email Content Best Practices

3 Email Automation Best Practices

1. Implement AI wherever helpful.

You can't spell “automation” without AI. I know the use of AI has garnered as much criticism as praise, but believe me when I tell you that all email marketers should be leveraging AI in their campaigns.

AI can streamline your workflows and processes, freeing time to focus on other tasks while ensuring your audience receives timely and engaging content.

In fact, our most recent newsletter survey found that 42% of email marketers saved between 30 minutes and two hours of work each week by using AI.

If that notion alone isn't enough to convince you to implement AI, remember that while you may not be using AI, your competitors certainly are.

Our survey also found that almost a third of respondents (31%) use AI to edit newsletter content.

28% use AI to generate newsletter headlines or format content and 22% use it to get suggestions for short-form newsletter content such as headlines and preview descriptions.

So, if you want to stay competitive and efficiently generate newsletter content your audience will read, you should look into ways to leverage AI to automate certain processes, such as ideation or segmentation.

2. Look over, fact-check, and edit AI-generated content.

If you‘re using AI to draft any sort of copy for your emails, always double-check for accuracy and legibility. AI can streamline processes and boost efficiency but also make mistakes.

You also want to ensure the copy doesn’t read as being too robotic or impersonal.

3. Create automated emails for opt-ins.

Be prepared for your readers to forget they opted in.

Set up an automated email flow that reminds people they opted into your email database. The auto-responder should be sent out one day, five days, and 10 days after the person subscribes.

Each automated email should also include additional content or bonus material to reward the reader for opting into the newsletter. Otherwise, your readers might not feel they have enough incentive to actually stay on your list.

9 Email Campaign Best Practices

1. Don't purchase contact lists.

This first tip should be no surprise, but given the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it bears repeating.

Email campaigns depend on a healthy open rate. If you're contacting people whose information you bought rather than earned from a previous interaction, your emails’ performance will quickly drop.

It also could turn off potential customers if they know you bought their information from another party.

For example, a couple of years ago, I made a big cross-country move and contacted a moving company for a quote on their services.

About a day after contacting them, I was bombarded with emails from other moving companies and services and added to newsletters I had never signed up for.

So, I unsubscribed and blocked many of those businesses that seemed to have received my information from the initial company I contacted. I also blocked that company.

Moral of the story? Don't buy your contacts, add people to lists without their permission, or share their information without their consent. It's one way to leave a bad impression on potential consumers.

Remember that the GDPR also requires each European recipient's consent before contacting them. Purchased email lists usually do not come with that consent.

To help reach your target audience, consider Versium Reach — a platform for B2B marketers that allows you to own data on your target audience across multiple marketing channels.

2. Avoid using ‘No-Reply’ in the sender's email address.

Have you heard of CAN-SPAM? This long-standing legislation is a popular and important guideline for all email marketers in the U.S.

One major rule in CAN-SPAM is to never use the words “no reply “ or a similar phrase as the email sender's name (for example, ”noreply@yourcompany.com”).

“No reply” in an email message prevents recipients from responding and even opting out of further emails, which CAN-SPAM protects their right to do so at any time.

Instead, have your automated emails come from a first name (jamie@mycompany.com). Your customers are much more likely to open emails if they know a human being wrote them, and this keeps you compliant with email regulations.

3. Clean your mailing list regularly.

Listen, I get it. When I managed the HubSpot Daily Email, I absolutely loved seeing thousands of people on our lists who would receive our emails. However, I eventually learned that the quantity of my email list wasn't nearly as important as the quality.

Some of our email contacts may not have opted out of our email campaign but would still never open our emails. And those types of contacts simply were not helpful to our campaign goals.

People who never open emails make your campaign look worse since you‘re not analyzing the campaign’s quality against your most loyal recipients.

That's why I strongly suggest you review your list of subscribers who have not engaged with your emails over a certain period and remove them regularly.

This will give you a more accurate email open rate and keep your email campaign clean of people who are no longer interested in hearing from you.

You can also implement a workflow in which they’re gradually moved to a less frequent email list based on activity.

For instance, say you have a daily newsletter. You could implement a workflow in which subscribers who do not open your email in two consecutive weeks are moved to the weekly email.

Then, if subscribers don't open four consecutive emails, they could be moved to the monthly newsletter, and so on.

It prevents you from bombarding your subscribers with emails they’re not interested in while keeping your list clean.

4. Allow recipients to subscribe to your newsletter.

I know what you're thinking: "Wait, if they received the email, to begin with, shouldn’t they have already subscribed?"

Usually, yes. Therefore, adding a “Subscribe” button to your email doesn’t help those who’ve already agreed to receive your emails.

But great content is shareable content, and if your current subscribers are forwarding your emails to their friends and colleagues, you’ll want to help them subscribe, too.

I‘m pretty much the queen of newsletters, which is partially why my inbox is so full. I’m always forwarding newsletters to my friends when I think they might interest them. And oftentimes, they end up subscribing, too.

So, add a small but visible CTA that allows the recipient to subscribe to the newsletter if they received this email from someone else.

This email newsletter called Contentment is a great example of how to include a sign-up CTA in your email without distracting from the rest of the content:

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But remember, because your newsletter should already be driving another action, such as downloading an ebook or signing up for a webinar, make sure this “Subscribe” button doesn't distract or confuse users, weakening your main campaign goal in the process.

5. Include a clear CTA.

Speaking of CTAs, let‘s get into their value. I’ve never sent out a newsletter without ensuring I've included a clear CTA. Your CTA directs the receiver to make another move.

When adding a CTA, consider what you want the receiver to do next. Should they set up a call or book a demo?

I‘m subscribed to a newsletter by one of my favorite local music venues to keep current on all the artists and musicians coming through my city. The venue’s newsletter always has a CTA button directing me to Buy Tickets or use a code to get a discount or early bird special.

Do you see how the CTA is clear and simple? Sometimes, a little can go a long way for a quality CTA.

6. Make it personal.

Sending an outbound email isn’t too different from sending a marketing email. You should still be personal, but even more so when you know your email is only being read by the receiver.

Start by letting them know how you know them. Have you already connected on Twitter or in a Slack group? Is this a completely cold email? As my friends like to tell me (though not about emails), “Define the relationship!”

Figure out where you stand so you can personalize the greeting and message.

7. Closely tie emails to landing pages.

If you’re promoting a specific landing page in your email, the landing page should match the email in terms of headline, copy, and content. I'll even suggest that the color schemes be the same or similar.

The look and feel of your landing page should match the email to help create consistency, which goes a long way toward earning a customer's trust. Also, make sure you‘re using tracking tools to see which emails and landing pages performed the best so you can keep sending what’s working.

8. Conduct a five-second test.

Send a copy of the email to a friend or colleague. Can they quickly tell what your CTA is? If so, you’re ready to hit send. If not, figure out how you can tweak your subject line. Or, if there’s a different landing page, you should link to it.

9. Follow up.

Follow up when necessary, but don’t bombard the receiver with a million follow-up emails.

Be aware of the typical response time from people in your industry or people you contact. Two days to one week is a reasonable amount of time between sending your first email and sending a follow-up.

10 Email Content Best Practices

1. Stick to fewer than three typefaces.

The less clutter you have in your email, the more conversions you'll get.

Don't clutter your message with more than two fonts or typefaces; this can distract readers and ruin your email’s visual appeal.

In the email example below from recruiting SaaS company Greenhouse, the company sticks to just two fonts.

This makes the email easy to read, and readers can focus on the context rather than get distracted by the styling.

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In addition, use web-safe fonts with sizes between 10 and 12 points. This ensures your email will be legible on all readers and devices.

2. Optimize the email's preview text.

You've probably seen emails like the one below with preview texts that say something like, “Email not displaying properly? Click here.”

And, yeah, that‘s helpful, but I have a couple of gripes about it. For one, you should optimize your emails to display properly across various devices, but that’s a conversation for later in this post.

My other issue is that the message in the preview header doesn't tell your recipients what the email is even about. This lack of information and optimization can negatively affect your open rate.

Your preview text should supplement your subject line by adding details to capture your audience’s attention and encourage them to open. By default, preview text pulls in the first several words of the email body and displays it next to the subject line before the person opens it.

The problem is that custom email templates often include conditional statements like “Can't see images?” or “Not displaying correctly?” at the top banner, allowing the message to slip right into the preview when it goes out.

As a rule of thumb, always write a custom preheader that teases what your email will offer.

(If you're having trouble writing your preview text or emails as a whole, this video can help you harness the power of AI for the purpose of email creation.)

Pro tip: HubSpot users can fix this problem by customizing the preview text themselves in the backend of their email marketing newsletter.

3. Include an email signature.

Even if your newsletter is technically being sent to your contacts on behalf of the company rather than an individual, the email should include the signature of a specific person.

Considering that every email sent on behalf of your company is another branding opportunity, it makes sense to include a signature.

Your email signature should include a CTA, whether a link to your website, social media, or a specific landing page.

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Another reason you should include your email signature is because it’s a touch of personalization.

People are naturally more inclined to read an email if they know it came from a human being, not just a collective marketing team. Your email signature is your ticket to their attention.

Want a quick way to make a beautiful email signature? Use HubSpot's Email Signature Generator. We also have an Out-of-Office Email Generator to make your response to incoming messages just as delightful.

4. Keep the main message and call-to-action above the fold.

Above the fold refers to the information visible to the reader before they scroll down.

Even though recent research suggests that consumers scroll more than they used to because of social media and vertical timelines, above-the-fold content still gets the most attention, considering that people don’t have long attention spans.

According to a recent report from Litmus, people spend an average of nine seconds looking at an email.

With this in mind, place your main message and CTA above the fold. It’s the first thing your recipients will see once they open your email, increasing your conversion rate.

You can also run an A/B test first to validate the hypothesis and see if it works for your emails.

5. Personalize the email greeting.

How often do you read emails that begin with “Dear Member?”

You might segment your email audiences by their customer type (member, subscriber, user, etc.), but it shouldn't be the first thing recipients see in your company messages.

Personalizing the greeting of your emails with your contacts‘ first names grabs each reader’s attention. For HubSpot users, this is called a personalization token, and creating one looks like this:

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Then, the address line of your email would automatically produce the contact‘s first name by fetching this personalization token in the email’s HTML, like this: Hi, !

Don‘t worry; personalizing an email’s greeting line with 50 recipients‘ names doesn’t mean you'll have to manually write and send 50 different emails from now on.

Many email marketing tools today allow you to configure the greeting of your email campaign so that it automatically sends with the name of the people on your contact list — so everyone is getting a personal version of the same message.

6. Keep your email around 500 to 650 pixels wide.

If your email template is wider than 650 pixels, it will not show up correctly and will require users to scroll horizontally to read the full message.

This is a pain, to say the least, and will likely affect your conversion, especially when many users read emails on mobile.

One of our most recent email newsletter surveys found that the majority of newsletter subscribers (61%) read them via mobile devices.

Having your template fit within the standard format will make for easier readability, better conversions, and an overall better user experience.

7. A/B your subject lines and calls to action.

If you can‘t seem to increase your email’s open and click-through rates, a couple of things might be wrong: You‘re not emailing the right people (if you’re buying your contact list, see the first tip at the top of this blog post), or the content needs to be improved.

A/B tests can be used to improve almost any of your digital marketing content.

This test splits your recipients into two groups in an email. Group A receives the regular newsletter, while Group B receives the newsletter with a specific variation. The variation can be anything from a different subject to another CTA.

This variation tests whether your audience would be more or less likely to take action based on that element.

HubSpot Marketing Hub users can conduct email A/B tests on everything from the subject line to the call-to-action (CTA) inside the email.

For example, you might change the color of your CTA from red to green to see if your email‘s clickthrough rate increases. If it does, the test indicates that you should change all of your emails’ CTA color to green from now on.

8. Include your logo.

Logos are essential in emails. The average person receives about 121 emails daily, so it‘s easy for recipients to skip over an email, even if it’s from a newsletter they're happily subscribed to.

One of the best ways to help your email stand out and keep your brand top of mind is to include your logo. One of my favorite newsletters is Bad Brain from music and pop-culture journalist Ashley Reese.

As I said, I tend to let my emails pile up and go unread, but I always stop to read one when I see the bright orange Bad Brain font at the top of the message.

9. Name the offer in your subject line.

If you’re running a promotion, use incentive-focused subject lines like “Free shipping when you spend $25 or more” or "Receive a free iPad with a demo.”

Here's an example of an email with an enticing subject line and a warm, welcoming body copy. The subject line for this email from Elementor says, “Up to 50% off when upgrading!”

However, do not overwhelm your readers with savings- or product-related emails.

Customer loyalty starts with casual industry insights — only after nurturing should you start introducing offers.

10. Write compelling (but concise) subject lines.

As I said, most email newsletter subscribers read them on mobile devices, so I suggest keeping your subject lines to fewer than 50 characters.

Your email subject line should also create a sense of urgency while giving readers some indication of what to expect once they open the email.

Notice some of the subject lines pulled from my own inbox below. Each subject line is condensed enough to display fully on my iPhone, telling me exactly why I should read more.

And there you have it! 22 email best practices I live by, and that will help your email marketing campaign generate more leads. As I said earlier, email marketing is a tried and true method that isn't going anywhere any time soon. 

So, it's important to follow these best practices to set your next campaign up for success.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in June 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

When was the last time you updated your design portfolio? (If you’re like me, it’s probably been a while.) Maintaining a fresh portfolio is a good way to show off your skills to potential clients and can be helpful when looking back on work for annual contest entries.

If you’ve fallen behind with your portfolio design, or just need a new portfolio in general, this is a great opportunity to create something using trendy techniques and visuals.

A modern portfolio using design trends can make a great impression. A portfolio is also a representation of your skills — so design wisely! Here’s a look at some of our favorite portfolio design trends.

Personal Touch

A portfolio is a place to show off who you are, your style, and serve as an introduction to potential clients or employers. Make it personal.

By using language and a tone that feels like you and a photo or video that shows your personality, you can start to establish a connection online with those who visit your portfolio. People who know you personally might even say they can “really see you” in the design – literally or figuratively.

In the example above, Colin Reitz uses a fun video to help show he’s a personable, friendly, enthusiastic designer. It’s an inviting option that makes him feel approachable, a good thing for a freelancer.

Brutalist Style

The brutalist trend that’s popped up all over website design also applies to portfolio sites as well.

The good thing about brutalism for a portfolio is that it can give images and work more room to shine without so many effects in the design. The challenge is that it could turn off some potential connections that might not appreciate the bluntness of the design.

An “almost brutal” aesthetic is the balance that most designers go with for their portfolios.

A Curated Homepage

Michael Collins is an experienced director and design strategist who likes to work at the intersection of curiosity, reasoning, and imagination to create one of a kind user experiences and future-oriented solutions.

What stands out in his portfolio website is the way the homepage has been curated. Having a clean and simple layout that does not require too much scrolling helps in providing an easy user experience.

Unexpected Visuals

If there is a single image on the homepage of a portfolio, it tends to be of the designer or of a specific piece of work. But what if it is something completely unexpected?

That’s what designers are doing more of. They are creating interesting elements to help set their portfolios apart so that they don’t look like the sea of other portfolio sites that potentially come across hiring managers’ desks.

In the example above, Ryo Irago uses a bit of beautifully created imagery to draw you in. The design of the homepage is stunning, the image is captivating, and if nothing else you’ll likely scroll to learn more (which is exactly the intention of a portfolio design such as this).

Subtle Animation

A website portfolio is a perfect place to show off some of your design skills. Use a cool technique or trendy element to create just the mood to show your design style and ability. For many designers right now, this includes using subtle animated effects – often with other bold elements – to bring attention to portfolio designs.

Eumray’s portfolio does just that with big, bold typography that explains what they do with a nifty animation with the photo. (A headshot on a portfolio website is another design trend that’s hung on for a long time.)

The use of space here and a black-and-white color scheme are also trendy elements, making this portfolio seem very in the moment. There are other subtle animations below the scroll that tie everything together beautifully as well.

Show, Don’t Tell

The “show, don’t tell” concept has been a big part of website design for a long time. It can work equally well for portfolio sites, by telling visitors what the design does or where to find information about their work.

Here, Rekhchand Sahu uses bouncing icons to help take you to design elements and information. The overall aesthetic is simple and easy to understand with a clear headline/hero text area.

Click on the icons for more work or scroll for a selection of pieces. The design feels modern and shows the type of style that you’ll get from this designer/developer.

Cute Illustrations

Cute illustrations are becoming increasingly popular in portfolio design as they add a touch of personality and whimsy to the presentation. These illustrations often feature playful characters, soft color palettes, and hand-drawn elements that make the design feel approachable and fun.

By incorporating charming and lighthearted illustrations, portfolio sites can establish an immediate connection with visitors, making the content more memorable. This trend works particularly well for creatives in fields like illustration, animation, or children’s media, where a friendly and engaging aesthetic can help showcase the artist’s unique style.

Incorporating cute illustrations doesn’t mean compromising on professionalism. When used thoughtfully, these elements can enhance the storytelling aspect of a portfolio, guiding users through the site with visual cues that add context and personality.

High Contrast Colors

High-contrast colors make a bold statement in portfolio site design by using vivid and opposing hues to draw attention to key elements. This approach involves pairing light and dark colors, or complementary colors, to create a striking visual effect that captures the viewer’s eye. High-contrast designs are particularly effective for portfolios that want to make a memorable first impression.

Using high-contrast colors can also enhance the site’s usability by clearly differentiating sections, buttons, and calls to action. When implementing this trend, it’s important to maintain a balance to avoid overwhelming the user; choose colors that complement each other while ensuring readability is not compromised.

Text-Only Design

Text-only design strips away images and illustrations to focus entirely on typography as the main visual element. This minimalistic approach relies on the power of words and fonts to make a statement, using large headings, creative layouts, and varied fonts to keep the design engaging.

Text-only portfolios can create a clean and modern look that emphasizes the content and message, making them well-suited for writers, copywriters, and content creators who want their words to take center stage. By playing with font sizes, weights, and styles, text-only designs can still achieve a dynamic and visually compelling effect without relying on imagery.

The text-only trend also offers greater flexibility for designers to experiment with spacing, alignment, and motion. For instance, animated text or interactive elements can add interest and guide the user through the site in an engaging way.

Neon Accents

Neon accents are making a comeback in portfolio site design, adding a futuristic and energetic feel to layouts. These bright, luminous colors can be used to highlight important elements such as buttons, headings, or featured projects, drawing the eye to key areas of the site.

To make the most of neon accents without overwhelming the design, use them sparingly to add pops of color that enhance the visual hierarchy. Incorporating subtle neon effects, such as glows, gradients, or outlines, can create a sense of depth and movement, making the site feel more dynamic.

Pairing neon accents with clean layouts and neutral colors can balance the boldness, ensuring the design remains professional while still making a visual impact. Neon accents can give portfolios a cutting-edge appeal that captures attention and keeps users engaged.

Creative Layouts

Creative layouts break away from traditional grid-based designs, offering more freedom and flexibility in the arrangement of content. By using asymmetrical layouts, overlapping elements, or unconventional scrolling effects, designers can create a unique and engaging user experience.

The key to successful creative layouts is maintaining a sense of balance while experimenting with the arrangement of elements. While the design may be unconventional, it should still guide the viewer’s eye naturally through the content, ensuring that important information is easily accessible.

Thoughtful use of whitespace, layering, and animation can add depth and visual interest without sacrificing usability. When executed well, creative layouts can transform a portfolio into a memorable and interactive experience that resonates with viewers.

3D Interactive

The 3D Interactive trend in portfolio site design brings depth and realism to web experiences by incorporating three-dimensional elements that users can engage with. This approach involves using 3D models, animations, and effects that respond to user interactions, such as hover states, clicks, or scrolling.

It creates a sense of immersion that makes the portfolio feel more dynamic and engaging, as visitors can explore the content in a more interactive way. This trend is especially impactful for portfolios in industries like digital art, game design, or 3D modeling, where showcasing technical skills and creativity through interactive elements can leave a lasting impression.

To successfully implement 3D interactive elements, you should balance realism with usability, ensuring that animations and effects enhance the user experience rather than detract from it. Strategic placement of 3D components can guide users through the portfolio in an intuitive manner, while subtle animations can be used to draw attention to key content without overwhelming the visitor.

Over-the-Top Design

While minimal portfolio styles are popular, over-the-top portfolio designs are beginning to trend. (Likely because they are so disruptive in a sea of black and white, minimal designs.)

This portfolio uses a lot of trending elements together and it works. There’s the big hero headline with a gradient color treatment, liquid animated effects, and funky type elements.

As you scroll, the entire portfolio website has an almost brutalist feel to it with slab font choices and a dark outline. Although the design has a bit of harshness to it, there’s reason to scroll and get into the design and learn more about the designer.

Layered Graphic Elements

Cool layered effects, especially those that include nifty CSS effects such as parallax scrolling or hints of animation can make for fun layers.

This portfolio technique is gaining popularity and provides a good opportunity for designers to play with certain effects before deploying them on a client project.

This one-page portfolio by Sophie Doukhopelnikoff uses transparencies and text elements in layers that create depth and visual interest. Having letters both behind and in front of images is rather stunning and draws you into the design. Sans serif typography lends an even more classic feel to the overall design.

Subtle Color Effects

You’re going to have to click through and hang out on this portfolio website for a few minutes to get the full effect of the design.

The simple “Hello There” first expands to fill the screen with other text elements that better explain the portfolio, then the background color softly changes every few seconds for a rainbow effect. It’s simple, subtle, and very beautiful.

This is a color effect that could have a lot of applications elsewhere and speaks to the creative nature of a portfolio website itself.

Super-Simple Aesthetic

It seems like there’s a trend in portfolio design where designers don’t lead with their work. Their websites are simple and visually interesting and then lead you into their project only after a first glance.

The simple design here is sleek and intriguing. It works equally well with dark or white backgrounds and simple typography and graphic elements.

Valentin Semes makes the most of the super-simple aesthetic with neat interactive divots – pay attention to the mouse hover – to keep you moving through the design so that you see elements of the portfolio.

Magazine-Style Layouts

Magazine-style layouts have long been popular for blogs but can also help show off a portfolio as this trend shows.

Each block can be used to highlight a different type of work or individual project in a way that gives each design room of its own.

Antoine Barres uses this format to show a variety of creative pieces in a way that makes it easy to see each design. The gray background blocks with the white grid have an incredibly classic style that gives each design even more room to shine.

Homepage Bios

There’s no rule that your bio has to be on the About page of your portfolio website. One of the strongest trends in portfolio design is to move that bio – or at least a short version of it – to the homepage.

It’s a great way to tell people exactly what you do from the start. There will be no guessing what your portfolio is about and what type of creative you are.

It’s a place where you can create a personal statement or even highlight various projects. Bill Chien’s portfolio does this beautifully with a movie-credits-style bio that scrolls on the homepage. His bio is simple, and to the point, showing his creative mindset.

Lots of Interactivity

Interactive portfolios are in.

Many of these portfolio designs are visually loud, packed with movement, color, and things to click or cool changing hover states. There’s an almost limitless opportunity to use effects and design techniques.

What’s neat about a highly interactive portfolio is that it provides a place to show off some supreme UX skills.

The challenge is that sometimes the designs can get just a wee bit overwhelming. Make sure to track user behavior and engagement and if you are losing visitors, it might be worth a chance. (It can also be a good test for deploying similar techniques in other projects.)

Unusual Design Patterns

Portfolios that test new design patterns are also trending. Moving traditional navigation elements, obscuring text, and even experimenting with animation states are all common.

This trend might be popular because it provides an opportunity for designers to have a little playground to test techniques and effects. What’s nice about it, is that this trend pushes our idea of what is and isn’t the right way to do something.

The example above uses a few visual trends and unusual patterns at the same time. There’s outline typography that’s partially obscured, an animated hover state for the color orb, and navigation that is on the vertical edges of the screen.

The portfolio trend makes you think about design norms and how you feel about them as you dive into the work.

Black and White

Black and white designs, often with a color accent, are huge right now.

The biggest contributing factor might be that black-and-white design patterns make it easy to see portfolio works, which are often in color. It gives the thing you want people to see greater attention when it does appear on the screen.

Paired with this black-and-white trend is another common factor. Portfolio pieces don’t appear on the homepage; users have to click through to find them.

Trendy Typography

You can never go wrong with amazing typography. Whether you are using a trending type element, such as the outlines above, or simply a beautiful typeface, this trend never gets old.

Strong typography skills will help your portfolio shine and help others understand the quality of your work. This trend shows why creating a portfolio that represents the strength of your skills is important.

Potential employers and clients will often get an impression of the kind of creative you are simply by looking at your portfolio website. Almost every designer would love to be thought of as someone with strong typography skills. Using trendy typography well definitely fits the bill.

High-Performance Effects

Because web designers, photographers, and other creatives are using their portfolios to show off what they can do, there’s a distinct shift to more high-performance designs. (Some of which are too much for mobile displays. Make sure you have an alternative gateway if you go this route.)

These high-performance designs are packed with nifty JavaScript, animation, and effects that are designed to wow users.

Victor Costa’s portfolio is a prime example of how to create a high-performance portfolio. It opens with an option for users – standard or high-performance. The portfolio is filled with interactive elements, fades and scroll actions, and animation. These techniques match the elements he references in his bio and is not only a showcase of past work but an indicator of what else he can do for clients.

Plenty of Space

Something that’s been popping up in more designs across the board is making its way into portfolio design as well – plenty of space between elements and objects.

This trend seems to have roots in ensuring that items are appropriately separated on mobile devices and have plenty of tap space, but the additional space can look great on desktop screens as well. (Granted, I’ve always been a fan of white space.)

Lotta Nieminen’s portfolio is a perfect example of this design in action. The super-deep header takes up more than a third of the screen while the vertical and horizontal space between portfolio images is super wide. Each element stands on its own and the exaggerated spacing gives each project room to stand on its own, which can be particularly nice for a portfolio design with the potential for so many different types of images.

Groovy UI

Pairing a minimally-styled design with stylish user interface effects can create quite a stunning portfolio. This combination of visual simplicity and complex interaction can delight users and keep them looking through different screens and portfolio projects.

Click through the example above to see how each portfolio project glides onto the screen with a cool ripple effect before it stops. The cursor shifts and shapes as well, denoting click elements to take users through each project in a way that’s more than just reading about how the design came together.

This is a portfolio you could spend hours with thanks to the groovy UI.

Large Typography

Strong typography and language can be the perfect introduction to your work (and portfolio). Most people probably know of Tobias van Schneider from his ventures as a designer or podcaster, but would you expect his portfolio home page to be mostly text?

Typography and text are some of the most frequently overlooked design elements when planning a project or portfolio. Most of us are so concerned with visuals or animation.

This example shows why so many designers are opting for portfolios that feature strong typography. It sets the right tone – you know what he does and what the site is about – before getting into the deeper visuals. (This option also highlights his strength for designs that feature a lot of text.)

Portfolios That Don’t Look Like Portfolios

One of the biggest trends in portfolio design is crafting a portfolio that looks like another type of website altogether.

Robin Mastromarino’s portfolio looks like a website for a bar or fashion designer or professional athlete, depending on which part of the slider you view first. It’s beautiful and simple and what’s most impressive is the room each project has to shine.

Subtle cues help users understand elements of the portfolio, such as small numerals above the headline, and the date below. Plus, the slide element encourages left-to-right scrolling with partial headlines from other projects.

The other things that are so nice about this portfolio style are that as a designer you don’t have to come up with something completely new to show off your work. With big “art” for projects, completed jobs are the focus, rather than creating something completely new. (How’s that for creating something you can update quickly?)

Split-Screen Patterns

Split-screen patterns have been trending for a while and more portfolios are using this design, even if they don’t use the functionality. It works because the pairing of elements helps drive users across the screen to take in everything in front of them.

Xavier Cusso uses a split-screen design with great parallax scrolling effects to move from project to project. The color-block screen design helps emphasize that the website is his creation, while the element in the middle is the portfolio project to examine. It puts some separation between the portfolio and project designs.

This is a nice way to handle big-name projects – note the graphic for Adidas Climaheat here – while maintaining your identity in the portfolio design. (Make sure to click through and visit individual projects here; the overall portfolio design is impressive.)

Minimalism-Inspired Design

The best thing about a minimalism-inspired portfolio is that it gives the design plenty of room to shine. The design of the actual portfolio becomes relatively invisible so that all the focus is on the elements that you want people to see.

Designer Shawn Park recently wrote about how he redesigns his portfolio every year for UX Collective – I highly recommend that you go read that article here – and the current design (above) shows an evolution of design trends in itself.

Park includes iterations of his portfolio design in the post, beginning in 2013, and you can see how design trends impacted his portfolio. You can also see how this fresh minimal style makes it easier to see his work today than in previous incarnations.

Oversized Homepage Headshots

Big headshots are a big deal, particularly with developers and interaction designers.

This portfolio trend might be popular because it’s harder to visually show this work: Do you highlight code?

The trick to making this portfolio design work is a strong image. It needs to be more than a headshot; it needs to have a moodiness to it. Then pair it with strong typography to make it obvious that this is a portfolio website and what you do. Keep all of that information above the scroll for the best chance of keeping visitors moving through the design.

And a few nifty effects can’t hurt either.

Modular Grids

One portfolio design trend that never seems to fade is the use of modular grids to show off projects. This is a great – and functional – option because you can “float” images of different projects on a single canvas.

Kimi Lewis does something a little bit different with her portfolio, above. Rather than lots of small blocks to show portfolio projects, this design goes big. It mixes and matches squarer and long horizontal images in an oversized grid.

Users get a good feel for each project right from the start. Add the oversized grid images to some exaggerated spacing between elements and this portfolio might be one of the easiest to digest that I’ve seen in a while. There’s also a nifty hover animation on each image with the client name and project type to provide extra information before you click through.

Color Overlays

One of the most challenging things about creating a portfolio is the homepage. How do you preview work or project sections in a way that will entice users to actually click through?

The answer might be to partially obscure the work. Using interesting color overlays on preview image links can be a visually engaging way to encourage clicks to individual projects. It’ll keep your homepage cleaner with a consistent look and style for different sections of the website, ensure that one page isn’t too heavy and slow to load, and provides an opportunity to highlight something about a project before the click.

Heather Shaw’s portfolio, above, works because each project is so different, but the color overlays give the homepage a connected feel. The user also knows what kind of project they are about to view thanks to labels with client names and project types right there. This is a highly navigable and easy-to-understand format that appeals visually.

Streamlined Project Showcase

And then there’s the opposite end of the spectrum – portfolios that have a more streamlined look and feel. There can be a benefit to only showing a handful of projects.
It ensures that users only see what you want them to focus on and not get distracted.

Stefanie Bruckler also uses a module grid format but with fewer items in a more contained space. Plus, it’s all below the main scroll which features a minimal business card-style design.

It has a look that’s polished and classy, setting a distinct tone for the work of this designer.

Conclusion

Still not quite ready to redesign your portfolio? While it is a creative project, this is also an investment in your business, whether you work for a company or as a freelancer.

Potential clients are looking for you before you even know they exist. A modern, trendy portfolio with your best projects can make a strong first impression.

Mid-June, 2024. A full page of indecipherable glyphs runs in The Seattle Times, with the only clue a typewritten-style note at the bottom: “Printed at the request of LONGLEGS.”

A week later, a user named Mr_Downstairs leaves strings of glyphs in the comments on Letterboxd.

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Billboards pop up; a partially obscured face peers down at drivers. In large red type, there’s nothing more than a phone number and a date. 458.666.4355. 7.12.

It was all part of an eerily good marketing campaign from indie film distributor Neon, and it racked up a respectable $22 million for Longlegs’ opening weekend in July. Arguably — don’t come for me — the campaign itself was more provocative than Nicolas Cage’s madman serial killer.

I asked our spookiest HubSpot marketers: What made Neon’s campaign so effective, and what tactics can we bring to our (hopefully) less macabre marketing efforts?

1. Build a continuous journey for your audience.

“The Longlegs campaign brilliantly invited people to step into the narrative, transforming them into active participants rather than a passive audience. By threading suspense and curiosity throughout its progression, the campaign ensures a dedicated and engaged audience eager for what's to come.

“For marketers, this approach offers a clear lesson: Aim for more than just a single peak of interest — build a continuous journey that keeps your audience engaged and eagerly anticipating what's next. By nurturing ongoing interest and curiosity, you create a dynamic relationship that leads to deeper connections and greater loyalty over time.”

—Carly CHILL-iams, director, media monetization

2. Build community and shared experiences.

“What's so sharp about the Longlegs campaign is that it applies pressure from two angles. People don't like unanswered questions but, on the flip side, they LOVE being a part of something.

“When the Longlegs audience tries to answer those unanswered questions, SURPRISE, they're now part of a mystery game.

“That may be harder to apply if you're marketing, say, drain plugs, but there are some lessons here that everyone can benefit from.

• Give your audience something to answer for themselves. Maybe that‘s plugging their details into a quote creator. Maybe it’s finding a coupon code somewhere on your site. Even mundane industries can enjoy a little mystery.
• Welcome them into being a part of something bigger. Maybe that's a social community, a Slack channel, or a product forum. Even just giving a name to your audience can be a powerful way to create that sense of ‘something bigger.’ (Think of Swifties, the Bills Mafia, or Browncoats.)”

—Curt del PRINCE of DARKNESS, senior marketing manager

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“I love that I immediately want to share the experience. I want to send this phone number to my sister and wait for her totally weirded-out reply. It feels so special when a marketing campaign evokes a desire to pull more people in.

“As marketers, we think a lot about how to cut through today's noisy marketplace. But sometimes we forget that creating an experience our audience wants to share with others is a great way to expand reach (and get our audience to do a bit of the heavy lifting).”

—Meg PraterGEIST, managing editor, blogs

3. Cultivate suspense.

“At Los Angeles’ BeyondFest this fall, programmers spliced the trailer for the American remake of Speak No Evil into pre-show entertainment, a cinephile joke poking fun at how often the various cuts of the trailer — which gave away much of the film — appeared in movie theaters leading up to its debut.

“Longlegs took an opposite tactic, reveling in minimalism. It never gave too much away in its trailers, leaving viewers to wonder when and how Nicolas Cage, its biggest star, would show up.

“Neon instead invited audiences into its mystery through a series of cryptic codes and phone numbers, building the same sense of dread and intrigue that Maika Monroe’s character — a young FBI agent — experiences in the film.

“Additionally, the marketing built an accessible, interactive alternative reality game (ARG) that could be freely enjoyed by fans everywhere, maintaining interest in the movie without spoiling it or exhausting potential customers.”

—GHOUL-iet Bennett Rylah, senior writer, The Hustle

“I think the marketing was effective because it cultivated a sense of suspense by planting breadcrumbs. Neon lets its target audience fill in the rest with their imagination, which can be the most powerful tool in both horror and marketing.

“Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the actual film — as were a ton of other folks I talked to online and IRL — so the marketing built up too much anticipation for me. The more the campaign let my imagination go wild, the higher my expectations were — and the bigger the discrepancy between my expectations and my experience.

“My takeaways:

• Know when to leave a meaningful blank. What’s left unsaid and unshown gives your audience space to imagine.
• Plant breadcrumbs. Marketers can encourage people to actively engage in your marketing campaign without them even realizing it. Give new information with each iteration of your campaign, and you’ll have your audience yearning for more.
• Use multisensory marketing. The phone number, audio clip, music, etc. contribute to the atmospheric success of this campaign, which the film did deliver on.
• Repurpose your content. A two-hour movie can spin out hundreds of mini content types, whether it‘s a still image, a number, a clip, or a series of puzzle pieces. You don’t even need to create new stuff — just make a meaty product and use the product itself to create marketing assets.”

—DYIN’ Zhong, senior marketing manager

4. Unite analog and digital marketing strategies.

“Neon did movie marketing, especially horror movie marketing, right.

“Movie promos are notorious for showing all the good parts, but Longlegs beautifully captured the suspense audiences would get in the movie and piqued curiosity without giving anything away.

“I love how the film’s marketing united the analog and digital worlds. People could see the billboard with its eerie imagery and move along, but if they called the phone number, they could actually experience it.

“This strategy brought them into the movie in a way, and made its value more of a reality. It’s not difficult for marketers from all backgrounds to mimic this with the use of URLs and QR codes.

“Plus, Neon’s trailers used behind-the-scenes footage and actual recordings of lead actress Maika Monroe’s heart rate the first time she saw Nic Cage as Longlegs.

“It makes the terror that much more tangible. They didn’t just tell viewers the movie was scary in their marketing, they proved it.”

—Ra-MOAN-a Sukhraj, principal marketing writer

5. Lean into imagination and interactivity.

“I'm a huge horror fan, and I was really impressed at how Neon took an entirely fictitious threat (Nicolas Cage’s Longlegs) and brought it into our dimension. (The nonfiction threat of Nic Cage himself predates the movie industry.) It’s a creative and immersive way to gain fan attention and build curiosity for moviegoers.

“Smile 2 did something similar, breaking the fourth wall in its marketing campaign by placing odd smiling people in random sports events or news broadcasts to draw attention to the movie.

“In that movie, the sinister smile portends a murderous threat. Bringing elements of it into our world adds legitimacy and makes the movie feel all the more plausible. That strategy also played into word-of-mouth marketing, as regular social media users would post the different smiling people they’d see on TV, igniting even more interest.

“What I take away from these frightful marketing campaigns is that the more imaginative and immersive your marketing team gets, the more you stand to gain from letting your viewers unravel the mystery or story.”

“Tap into their curiosity, use enigmatic symbols or details, and provide interactive elements that encourage investigation and sharing among friends — and you can transform a paid marketing campaign into a real hot topic.”

—Tristen Tay-LORD of the UNDERWORLD, Service Blog editor and marketing manager

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“What made this campaign so effective is that people were given a lot to work with — ciphers to decode, numbers to call, backstories to explore — but none of it gave people what they really wanted: a face reveal of the titular villian. You could only get that by watching the movie, which made people eager to show up.

“My favorite element was the audio of Maika Monroe’s heart rate when she first laid eyes on Longlegs. I expected him to be so agonizingly grotesque and off-putting that I was almost relieved when he was mostly just ugly. Since he wasn’t as hideous as I expected him to be, it made the true horror of the movie (which was also hidden from the trailers) hit even harder.

“Longlegs’ marketing is a lesson in the importance of interactivity. Giving your audience something to do that relates to your product or service makes them want to engage. And pre-engagement makes a product reveal, launch, etc., all the more exciting.”

—GORY Needle, senior marketing manager

6. Trust your audience.

“Longlegs’ minimalist drip marketing is an exercise in restraint. A few lines of glyphs here, a phone number there. It’s straight out of the scream queen playbook: The more that’s left to your imagination, the more horrifying it is.

“But for that to work, you have to trust your audience. That’s not always the easiest thing to accomplish, especially if you’ve been elbow-deep in marketing copy for days or weeks on end. But remember that your audience is made up of real human people, not numbers — the payoff can be tremendous.

—Laura M. DROWNING