The Last Guide to Google Data Studio You’ll Ever Need

As a marketer, data is your lifeblood. To gain support for your new idea or prove the value of your most recent campaign, you need data backing it up. But, for many people working in a primarily creative role, pulling and analyzing data can be a challenging task.

Not only do you have to export your data, which really means opening up a jumbled spreadsheet bursting with an endless amount of metrics, but you also have to configure the data to report it correctly. If you don’t filter out the unnecessary metrics, your data becomes much more difficult to analyze.

Data analysis can be a taxing process, requiring a ton of time and energy. But in an industry that moves as fast as marketing, there’s no time or energy to waste. Fortunately, Google offers a solution to this prevalent problem. 

Their data visualization tool, Google Data Studio, can pull and visualize your data into engaging reports within seconds, saving you countless hours on configuring a bottomless spreadsheet and analyzing a bunch of numbers packed into Excel.

And since Google Data Studio can produce easy-to-understand reports, the tool will help you accurately extract insights from your data and prove that you’re producing results.

What is Google Data Studio?

Google Data Studio is a data visualization tool that lets you create engaging, digestible data reports from sources like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Sheets, Google Search Console, YouTube, MySQL, and more.

With Google Data Studio, you can visualize your data in numerous charts, graphs, and pivot tables, like time series, bar charts, pie charts, tables, heat maps, geo maps, scorecards, scatter charts, bullet charts, and area charts. The tool also lets you customize your reports and dashboards’ logos, images, shapes, background, font, object properties, and more.

If you want to share or collaborate your report or dashboard with someone, you can do it all on Google Marketing Platform. Google Data Studio even has templates to help you quickly and easily set up reports and dashboards.

To learn how to use Google Data Studio, better understand your data, and present it to your team in a more visually appealing way, check out the tutorial below.

Google Data Studio tutorial

1. Login to Google Data Studio.

Just like Google Analytics, Google offers a robust free version of Google Data Studio. To access Google Data Studio, visit datastudio.google.com and sign in with the same account that you use for Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Google Data Studio is part of Google Marketing Platform, so its interface will look like Google Drive’s interface. Your Data Studio portal will only store your Data Studio documents, which are separated into two categories: reports and data sources.

2. Create a new report.

In the reports section, click the “+” button at the top left or bottom right of the screen. A blank page should appear.

If you want to quickly create a data report from Google Analytics, Search Console, Google Ads, YouTube Analytics, Google Sheets, or Google BigQuery, you can use one of Data Studio’s report templates.

3. Connect your data.

To connect data to your report, click the “Create New Data Source” button at the bottom right corner of the screen. You can connect your report to 18 Google data sources and 98 partner data sources, if you already use a Data Studio partners’ tools.

Once you choose your data source, you need to let Data Studio connect to your Google Analytics account. After that, select your account, property, and view.

Next, a spreadsheet of fields or metrics that your data source tracks will pop up. Press the “Add To Report” button at the top right corner of the screen to connect the data to your report.

4. Customize your report.

Your report will be a blank grid that you can add different types of visualizations to. Before you add your visualizations to your report, though, you can customize its layout and theme.

If you want to add another data source to your report, click the “Resource” button and then press “Manage added data sources”.

Click the “Add a Data Source” button and pick the data source you want to connect to your report.

5. Add a visualization.

There are a ton of different ways you can visualize data in Data Studio. You can create a time series, bar chart, combo chart, pie chart, table, geo map, scorecard, scatter chart, bullet chart, area chart, and a pivot table. You can also add text, images, and shapes to your report.

Once you choose your visualization, drag its preferred size on your report and release. Your visualization should immediately appear.

6. Edit your visualization.

In the right sidebar of your report, you can edit your visualization’s data source, dimension, metric, and date range.

You can also sort your data, filter it, add another Google Analytics segment to your visualization, and edit its style.

Additionally, you can turn one visualization of a certain data set into another visualization. For instance, you can change a bar graph into a time series of the same exact data.

 

Once you finish your first visualization, you can add as many as you want to your report.

Data Analysis Made Easy

Data analysis might be the last task on your to-do list every day, but with Google Data Studio, you can pull and configure your data much faster than you can with Excel. This gives you more time to extract insights from your data, proving your campaign’s results and -- most importantly -- green lighting your next idea.

25% of People Think All Searches Will Be Done by Voice in the Next 5 Years

Watch any commercial break in full, it seems, and you're almost guaranteed to see an ad for some sort of voice assistant device.

In the past two months alone, Amazon, Facebook, and Google have all announced the release of either new or new versions of their own video smart speakers: voice-assistant-enabled devices that are also equipped with video capabilities. 

Portal, Facebook's video smart speaker

But before the video smart speakers came along, there were the voice assistants themselves: the Siris, Alexas, and Google Assistants of the world that with a touch of a button or a simple vocal command can answer our questions, make phone calls on our behalf, or schedule reminders. 

It's that first task -- answering our questions -- that may have the greatest long term potential. At least 20% of all mobile search queries on Google, for instance, are done by voice: a number that many predict will continue to rise. 

But where do internet users themselves see voice search going -- and how does it align with how they prefer to seek information online today? We decided to find out.

Voice Search Predications: Current and Future Preferences

We asked 800 internet users across the U.S., UK, and Canada: How do you think searches for information online will change within the next five years?

About a third of respondents believe that, while most searches will be done by voice, text searches won't be completely eradicated. 

But when it comes to a future where voice search overtakes text completely, about a quarter of respondents identified that as their predictions.

That was especially true among respondents in the U.K., where the highest number of respondents -- 35% -- said that they believe most searches will be performed by voice within the next five years.

That most respondents foresee a future where most searches will be done by voice, but text search will still remain, is reflected in some moves by the companies that build voice assistants.

When Google recently revamped its Assistant app, for example, it made it easier for users to enter commands or search queries by voice and touch -- after discovering that nearly half of all interactions with it included both.

Source: Google

It also aligns with what appear to be current user preferences, which we discovered when we asked another set of 800 internet users across the U.S., UK, and Canada: How do you prefer to search for online information?

Interestingly, most users still prefer to search by text -- on their desktops -- while a slightly smaller number prefer to search by text on mobile.

If most users still prefer to search by text, how can voice overtake it as the preferred method of seeking information online?

It could be a matter of scale. As automation begins to appear in a growing number of facets in our day-to-day lives -- such as in cars, restaurants, and retail -- consumers will adjust according to the "new normal."

Historically, this phenomenon has repeated itself with many advancements in technology. Just as millions of consumers have acclimated to an increasingly digital world -- with the permeation of things like social media, streaming entertainment, and online video potentially replacing cable -- the trajectory of voice search adoption could follow a similar path.

"I think a lot of consumers are frustrated with poor voice experiences," says Senior SEO Content Strategist Aja Frost. "As the technology gets better, it'll be easier and easier to get the right answer on the first try."

That trajectory may also play out with the growing adoption of voice-equipped devices, such as smart speakers. According to Nielsen, 24% of households reporting having a smart speaker, which is an incremental increase from the previous year.

"As people become more comfortable with voice assistants on their phones ... they'll also become more accustomed to basic voice searches," Frost explains. "It's not a huge transition from, 'How many tablespoons in 1/4 cup?' and 'What's the weather outside?' to, 'What are the best Indian restaurants in X neighborhood?' and 'How do I unclog the dishwasher?'"

As always -- stay tuned.

The 36 Best Instagram Captions for Every Type of Post

If you're anything like me, you take about four minutes choosing a filter for your Instagram photo, and about four hours deciding on a caption.

Worst of all, after much creative effort and advice from friends, I'm usually barely able to write a caption that goes beyond, "Had a fun day with friends!".

And I'm a writer -- go figure.

Next time you're contemplating a caption to go with your Instagram photo, take a look at our complete list of captions for any mood you need to evoke.

Funny Instagram Captions

1. My favorite exercise is a cross between a lunge and a crunch ... I call it lunch.
2. I need a six month holiday, twice a year.
3. I tried to be normal once. Worst two minutes of my life!
4. Started from the bottom now we're ... still at the bottom.
5. There are 16 year olds competing at the Olympics and I still push on pull doors.
6. Namast’ay in bed.
7. That awkward moment when you're wearing Nike's and you can't do it.
8. I'm just a girl, standing in front of a salad, asking it to be a cupcake.
9. What if I told you, you can eat without posting it on Instagram?

Clever Instagram Captions

1. Patience -- what you have when there are too many witnesses.
2. Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s the Clarendon filter.
3. It's okay if you disagree with me. I can't force you to be right.
4. Life is short, false ... it’s the longest thing you do.
5. There may be no excuse for laziness, but I’m still looking.
6. You have stolen a pizza my heart.
7. Seven billions smiles, and yours is my favorite.

Savage Instagram Captions

1. What's a queen without her king? Historically speaking, more powerful.
2. Be a little more you, and a lot less them.
3. I'm an acquired taste. If you don't like me, acquire some taste.
4. Well behaved people don’t make it into history books.
5. I'm sunshine mixed with a little hurricane.
6. I do a thing called what I want.
7. They say good things take time... that's why I'm always late.
8. I'm not bossy, I have leadership skills.

Song Lyrics for Instagram Captions

1. "I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist." -- Sia, "Chandelier"
2. "I live for the nights that I can’t remember, with the people that I won’t forget." – Drake, "Show Me a Good Time"
3. "I hope you never lose your sense of wonder." -- Lee Ann Womack, "I Hope You Dance"
4. "You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one." - John Lennon, "Imagine"
5. "Feeling good living better." -- Drake, "Over My Dead Body"
6. "Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight, like this city is on fire tonight" -- OneRepublic, "Good Life"
7. "Time makes you bolder" -- Fleetwood Mac, "Landslide"
8. "If I fail, if I succeed, at least I’ll live as I believe" -- Whitney Houston, "The Greatest Love of All"
9. "The rest of the world was in black and white, but we were in screaming color." -- Taylor Swift, "Out of the Woods"
10. "Lightning strikes every time she moves" -- Calvin Harris, "This Is What You Came For"
11. "We aren't ever getting older" -- Chainsmokers, "Closer"
12. "Sing with me, sing for the years, sing for the laughter, sing for the tears" -- Aerosmith, "Dream On"

The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Hashtags for 2019

Did you know an Instagram post with at least one hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than a post with no hashtags?

Hashtags are powerful. They can help your posts reach a target audience, attract followers in your niche, increase engagement, and develop a more positive and recognizable brand image.

Here's the thing, though: with great power comes great responsibility (#spiderman).

Hashtags can skyrocket your business to new heights, but if used too frequently or without a clear strategy in mind, they become pointless and inefficient, e.g.: #happy #superhappy #ecstatic #jumpingforjoy #whatsanothersynonym.

We want your business's Instagram posts to receive optimal engagement, so we've put together an ultimate guide for using Instagram hashtags in 2018. With this guide, you won't just attract followers -- you'll attract the right followers.

Why are hashtags important?

Hashtags are essentially Instagram's sorting process. With around 95 million photos posted on Instagram every day, it's difficult for Instagram to efficiently deliver the right content to the right people. Hashtags help your post get discovered by viewers most interested in seeing it.

Krystal Gillespie, HubSpot's Social Media Community Manager, explains the importance of hashtags this way: "Hashtags are like a funnel. For instance, #marketing is incredibly broad and attracts all types of posts. We've found #digitalmarketing or #marketingmotivation gives us a more specific, targeted reach. The audience searching for these hashtags are also trying to narrow their search to what we offer related to Marketing, so we're actually reaching more of the right people."

Essentially, hashtags are a better way to categorize your posts. They help you reach a target audience, and more importantly, they help your target audience find you. These users are more likely to engage with your post because your post is exactly what they wanted.

Top Instagram Hashtags 2018

1. #love
2. #instagood
3. #me
4. #cute
5. #tbt
6. #photooftheday
7. #instamood
8. #iphonesia
9. #food
10. #motivation

Adding one of the most popular Instagram hashtags to your post doesn't necessarily mean you'll see more interaction. Since the hashtags above are so popular, they are being used by millions of people, so your post will most likely be obscured by the competition. Narrowing your hashtag topic is important, but we'll get to that next.

Here are some of the top Instagram hashtags of 2018.

1. #love

Instagram users build their photo galleries on good feelings. For this reason, the #love hashtag is ever present next to the pics of friends, family, vacations, and beautiful scenery.

2. #instagood

Occurrences of this hashtag are inspired by the @instagood Instagram account, which scours the Instagram community for excellent photos and videos that are just too #instagood not to share. Add this hashtag to your content for a chance to be reposted.

3. #me

This is the quintessential selfie hashtag, indicating to the Instagram community that the photo it's captioning is a picture of you.

4. #cute

#Cute puts your content in a pool of Instagram photos and videos that elicit "awes" from all over the Instaverse. If you think your puppy is the cutest puppy that ever lived, it deserves a photo with this esteemed hashtag.

5. #tbt

#Tbt stands for "Throwback Thursday," and encourages Instagram users to post an old photo of themselves or an event they're reminiscing over. Everyone likes content from the good old days -- here's your hashtag for enjoying the nostalgia.

6. #photooftheday

Managing a business account? This hashtag is a surefire way to attract more followers and repeat visitors. If you plan to post daily content, all around a common theme, add the #photooftheday hashtag to increase your exposure.

7. #instamood

#Instamood is all about the vibe or emotion a photo or video elicits. Pretty scenery, a day at the beach, or a night out with good people were all prominent under the #instamood hashtag in 2018. Landscapes are a popular starting point when figuring out what to post on Instagram, according to Jumper Media, and they fit into this hashtag perfectly.

8. #iphonesia

#Iphonesia is dedicated to the burgeoning community of Instagrammers in Indonesia.

9. #food

Meal pics are the bread and butter (no pun intended) of a people-oriented Instagram account -- and 2018 was no exception. Use the #food hashtag to caption your next delicious Instagram photo.

10. #motivation

On Twitter, #MondayMotivation encourages inspiring quotes and messages to help people start the week off on the right foot. On Instagram, the #motivation hashtag has come to caption anything from a photo of a user after a big gym session, to a computer screen right before he or she gets to work.

The above 10 hashtags might have helped define Instagram over the last year, but there are still plenty more that end up trending every year. The following hashtags can help inspire photos and videos that Instagram users always seem to find captivating -- and are sure to in 2019.

Top Trending Instagram Hashtags

1. #life
2. #travel
3. #fitness
4. #repost
5. #igers
6. #instadaily
7. #followforfollow
8. #likeforlike
9. #nofilter
10. #ootd
11. #fashion
12. #fun

1. #life

This one goes out to all the photos and videos that encompass the essence of your life.

2. #travel

Away for the weekend? Show your followers where you are, using this hashtag to indicate you're traveling somewhere new.

3. #fitness

Get in on a trending community of workout warriors with photos and videos from your best exercise sessions, using the #fitness hashtag to share the moment.

4. #repost

Reposting is a common function on Instagram that allows you to share content from other users, with credit back to the original user. Use the hashtag, #repost, to tell others on Instagram that you were inspired by this photo or video.

5. #igers

#Igers is short for "Instagram users." If you've got a photo or video that encompasses the Instagram community, show your solidarity with this colloquial hashtag.

6. #instadaily

This hashtag is similar to #photooftheday -- one of the most popular hashtags of 2018 above this list -- and is perfect for Instagrammers who post every day.

7. #followforfollow

Interested in building a fast list of followers on Instagram? #Followforfollow tells everyone who browses this hashtag that you'll follow users who choose to follow you. This hashtag is always trending highly.

8. #likeforlike

#Likeforlike is similar to the #followforfollow hashtag explained above. Use this hashtag if you want to increase engagement on your Instagram account, telling users that you'll like their photo or video if they like yours.

9. #nofilter

Instagram offers so many different filters to help enhance photos, it's practically assumed that any picture on Instagram has been edited. But if you're posting a pic that was beautiful all by itself, let the world know that this gem didn't need a filter to look so nice.

10. #ootd

#Ootd stands for "Outfit of the Day," a hashtag dedicated to Instagram users who love showing off new clothing and styles on a regular basis.

11. #fashion

#Fashion is a fairly self-explanatory hashtag. Fashion brands and clothing models alike are some of the most prolific users of this hashtag.

12. #fun

If it's not fun, it's not Instagram-worthy. Make it known to millions of Instagram users that you had a blast in your latest photo or video with this popular hashtag.

How to Use Hashtags on Instagram for Business

1. Keep your hashtags organized.
2. Figure out your magic number.
3. Narrow your hashtags.
4. Research what other people are hashtagging.
5. Test out related hashtags.
6. Follow your own hashtag.
7. Create a brand campaign hashtag.

1. Keep your hashtags organized.

To create an efficient hashtag system, you can use Excel or an Instagram analytics tool. If you choose an excel sheet, you'll need to manually keep track of which hashtags you use, how often, and which ones correlate to your most popular posts. Over time, you'll see relationships between certain hashtags and your most popular posts, and this can help you decide which hashtags work best for your brand.

If you have a more advanced social media team, you might want to consider a tool like Iconosquare, which automatically stores top hashtags and provides reports on which hashtags reach the most people.

For smaller businesses with limited budgets, Krystal Gillespie says that, "an excel sheet is the best way to start. Once you get more advanced I would highly recommend using a tool to track the data. A manual system can get overwhelming when you're posting three times a day and using about 20 hashtags per post."

2. Figure out your magic number.

Most top brands -- 91% of them, to be exact -- use seven or fewer hashtags per post, so it's easy to assume that's the magic number for everyone … right? Krystal explains that this isn't always the case: She told me HubSpot has been more successful with hashtags ranging in the low 20s.

The point is, you can't know how many hashtags work best for you until you test it. For HubSpot, it took the team several months to find a number that worked best, and during our trial period, we ranged from seven to 30. Give yourself the same flexibility for trial and error.

3. Narrow your hashtags.

There are two big reasons more specific, smaller-volume hashtags are better for your brand: first, you can compete in a smaller pool. HubSpot, for example, doesn't typically use the hashtag #marketing because it's too broad. If you search #marketing, you'll find pictures of restaurants, inspirational quotes, before-and-after hair style pictures, and memes.

The randomness of #marketing leads me to the second reason specific hashtags are a good idea: as a user, I'm more likely to find what I need if I search for something specific, and when your business comes up for my specific search request, I'm more likely to be happy with what I found.

Krystal explains: "Keeping a hashtag close to the interests of your brand really helps. We try to use hashtags tailored for a specific topic and then narrow it down further -- for instance, we'd use #SEOTips if our marketing post was mostly about SEO."

Think of it this way: #dogs is more popular, but it has a wide demographic. If I search #goldenretrieverpuppies and I find your post, I'm more likely to engage with it because it's exactly what I wanted.

4. Research what other people are hashtagging.

An easy way to generate hashtag ideas is to make a list of your followers or competitors and research what they're hashtagging on their own photos. It can also be particularly helpful to research what influencers in your industry are hashtagging -- by definition, influencers are people with a large social media following, so they must be doing something right.

5. Test out related hashtags.

When you type a hashtag into Instagram's search bar, Instagram shows you related hashtags in the scroll-down menu. Instagram also delivers related hashtags on the next page after you click on a hashtag. This is a simple way to create a longer list of hashtags to try out.

6. Follow your own hashtag.

Another way to use Instagram hashtags for your marketing purposes is to follow your own hashtag. Krystal explains, "On Instagram I actually follow the hashtag #hubspot so I can find anyone who talks about us and connect with them. As long as your account isn't private, people will be able to find you via the hashtag."

Following your own hashtag is an effective way to engage with other people talking about your brand and develop better relationships with them.

7. Create a brand campaign hashtag.

This is the trickiest item on the list, but if done successfully, it can pay off big time. Some businesses have successfully attracted followers by creating their own campaign hashtag. A campaign hashtag needs to be funny, clever, or at least memorable in order to work.

Campaign hashtags are particularly useful for promoting a new product or upcoming event, or even just inspiring people. Red Bull, for example, encouraged followers to post Red Bull pictures with a #putacanonit hashtag (see what I mean about clever?). LuLuLemon, rather than running a more traditional ad campaign, developed a positive connotation for their brand by asking followers to post real, active pictures of themselves with a #sweatlife hashtag.

Now that we've covered the importance of using Instagram hashtags for your business, you might be wondering how to search for Instagram hashtags within the app, or how to use the search function to find related ideas. If you're unsure of the technical process for hashtag searching, here's how:

How to Search Hashtags on Instagram

To search hashtags on Instagram, tap the magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen, then tap the search bar at the top. Selecting the "Tags" option will enable you to search hashtags and related hashtags based on the popularity of each one.

1. Open Instagram and tap the search icon.

Instagram wants you to use hashtags, and has made it extremely easy to find the perfect ones for your post. To start, open the Instagram app on your mobile device and tap the magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen.

2. Tap the search bar at the top of your screen.

The search screen on your Instagram might first send you to a newsfeed-style page with suggested content based on topics you've demonstrated an interest in on social media. To switch to a hashtag search, tap the search bar at the top of this page, as shown in the screenshot above.

3. Tap "Tags."

Once you've tapped the search bar at the top of your screen, Instagram will give you four options with which to filter your search. Instagram refers to hashtags as simply "Tags," as shown in the screenshot below. Tap this "Tags" option, then tap the search bar above it, and begin searching topics for which you want to find a trending hashtag.

You don't have to include the pound sign (#) in your search -- your results will be the same with or without it -- but you will need to use this pound sign in the caption of your photo once you choose a hashtag.

4. Browse hashtags based on post count and current content.

Voila! You should see multiple options for hashtags based on your search. Browse around at each related hashtag that Instagram suggests for you -- you might find that a hashtag with slightly fewer posts includes photos or videos that are more in line with the content you're posting.

Happy hashtagging!

In a Land of Automated Milk and Honey, Marketers Are Presented With an Opportunity

If I remember correctly, I was about 12 years old when I met my first robot.

At that time, robots were a novel concept rarely seen anywhere beyond a science fiction movie or TV show. This wasn't just any robot. It didn't sound like a series of beeps and boops, nor did it speak in monotone. It conversed with me like any human would, asking me about what I had for lunch and complimenting my earrings.

Little did I know that this somewhat primitive human-robot interaction would set into motion a series of events that would bring me back to California, time and time again, for many more interactions with machine-taught, artificially intelligent beings and gadgets.

It would also progress the age-old debate that comes with advancements in technology: At what point does the benefit of technological advancement become mitigated by humans having their jobs replaced by machines?

After spending a few days in San Francisco engaging with an array of automated concepts -- markets, coffee shops, and restaurants -- here's some of what I learned.

A Land of Automated Milk and Honey

A Birds-Eye View of Income in San Francisco

According to a study conducted by the Brookings Institute, San Francisco has the sixth-highest household income inequality in the U.S., with some of the wealthiest households earning over 15X as much as some of the lowest-income ones.

Source: Brookings Institute

The tech sector -- which is highly concentrated in San Francisco and the surrounding Silicon Valley area -- is often blamed for this income disparity. It's said by some to generate wealth for those who reach some of the higher ranks of these companies, to “prodigious” heights that create a rapidly growing moat between tech's high earners and, well, everyone else.

"Prodigious" is a word used by Russell Hancock, president of nonprofit Joint Venture Silicon Valley, in a 2014 interview with MIT Technology Review. “But when we used to have booms in the tech sector, it would lift all boats," he added at the time. "That’s not how it works anymore. And suddenly you’re seeing a backlash and people are upset.”

A worker strike in San Francisco

An Increasingly Cashierless World

The growth of the tech industry leaves some wondering if it advancements bleed into the aforementioned disparity. Last week, for instance, I wrote about the experience of visiting an Amazon Go store in San Francisco: the fifth location opening of the ecommerce giant's famously cashierless stores.

And while the experience was one that I might describe as "neat," it got me wondering about the repercussions of an increasingly cashierless society.

The latest Amazon Go store in San Francisco, California

The Amazon Go store is far from the only cashierless retail experience in San Francisco. In the span of only a few days, I visited not only this particular store, but also, a cashierless restaurant and a self-described robotic coffee bar.

Consider that the role of cashier is filled by 3.5 million Americans. In an increasingly automated world, what becomes of them -- and what should we do now to prepare for it?

A robot serves my coffee order, after preparing it without human intervention

Automation (And Growth) for All

The replacement of humans by machines is not a new concept. Similar phenomenons played out when the assembly line was created, when horse-drawn carriages were outpaced by the automobile, and when air travel became more convenient than traveling by railroad or sea.

Many argue that automation creates more new jobs than it does eliminate them, which poses the question: How can automation be built and approached in a way that actually benefits everyone involved?

An ordering kiosk at eatsa, one of San Francisco's automated restaurants

"The transition [to automation] needs the right education and training to enable people to take advantage of the new opportunities," says HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar. "We should be invest more now in that training and education for innovations like automation, which we know is only going to grow."

And while an investment in this education and training is a worthy one, many are left wondering who's going to fund it -- in a way that builds automation in a positive manner, helping users, businesses, and employees alike grow.

A robot barista at San Francisco's CafeX

The answer, Bodnar says, could also exist in "a partnership": between the private and public sector, and between businesses.

Consider small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs), for instance which often "operate at a local level," says HubSpot VP of Marketing Jon Dick. Addressing automation in a constructive, growth-oriented way creates possibilities for such businesses to invest in education and training on a community level.

And where SMBs budgets are small, larger vendors with whom they work might play a role, Dick says. "You could imagine large tech companies distributing funding through customers or partners."

In other words, the investment in building better automation in a way that helps everyone grow -- which includes having a stake in the early education and training to fill the roles it create -- doesn't have to be a foreboding one.

Rather, it leads to a crucial moment for companies to work with together. This collaboration has a ripple effect -- not just for building better technology and growth opportunities for all, but for how else these partnerships between businesses could strategically evolve over time (for example, in the area of co-marketing or co-branding for future initiatives).

At the end of the day, "This is an ethical issue," says Bodnar -- one "that can have significant impact on the brands who choose to hold themselves to a high ethical standard."

Coming soon: brand-new Site structure training!

We’ve got good news for you! Coming November 1st, we’ll release a completely renewed and improved Site structure training. Are you struggling to make your most important pages rank? Are your new articles not showing up properly in the search results? Or do you want to maintain control over your content on your growing website? Then this training is for you. Curious as to why we renewed the training? And to what you’ll learn in this course? Read on!

Why is site structure important?

A solid site structure is crucial for SEO. First of all, it benefits your users: if your site is easy to navigate, visitors will know their way around your website and easily find what they are looking for. In addition, more visitors will end up on the pages you want them to reach, like sales pages. As a result, a good site structure will benefit your SEO. Search engines use so-called user signals to find out how visitors experience your website. If they spend a lot of time on your site and return often, they probably enjoy your site and find it useful. Google uses this information to rank your site higher!

Site structure is also important because search engines need links to find your content and put it in their index, so people can find your site. If you don’t have a clear site structure, chances are that Google can’t find your page, and this means people won’t see your page in the search results! Moreover, by setting up a good linking structure, you can show search engines which of your pages are most important. It helps them understand which pages should rank for important keywords.

Read more: What is the importance of site structure »

In short, you really need a solid site structure, so people and Google understand what they can find on your site. Still, most people seem to forget about their site structure. And unfortunately, this isn’t something a plugin can solve. You need to do this yourself. So, if you want to get ahead of your competition, this Site structure training is your chance!

Why did we create a new course?

Currently, we are in the process of revising our Academy training courses. Site structure has changed a lot over the years, as has our understanding of it. Context in text, and the context of links, has become increasingly important over the last couple of years. We thought the way we ourselves, and other SEO outlets, were approaching site structure left something to be desired. So we decided to completely redefine the concept of site structure in this training.

What’s different in the new course?

In this renewed course, we tackle site structure based on two types of internal linking: organizing and classifying links, and contextual links. On the one hand, you use links in menus, breadcrumbs, and taxonomies to organize your website and make it easy to navigate. On the other hand, you use links within your content to facilitate another way of navigating your site. We also discuss different types of websites, like blogs, online shops, and company website. So, after this training, you’ll know exactly what you should do to improve the structure of your website!

What will I learn?

In this course, we’ll teach you how to organize every aspect of your site, including your homepage, categories, and your site-wide navigation. In addition, you’ll learn how to guide your visitors and Google through your site. We’ll teach you how to choose your most important pages and let Google know which pages you want to pop up highest in the search results. Moreover, you’ll learn how to go about crafting good landing pages for both blogs and eCommerce sites, so people find the pages you want them to find! And last but certainly not least, we’ll teach you how to maintain your site structure. You’ll learn how to use redirects, how to check your internal linking structure, and how to prevent competing with your own content.

Online and on-demand

This new Site structure training is an online course that allows you to learn about site structure anytime and anywhere you like. It consists of five modules, which are divided into several lessons. Each lesson contains interesting videos, in which our SEO experts – like Jono Alderson – explain everything you should know about site structure. To improve learning retention, we’ve also created reading materials. In these PDF files, we explore topics more broadly and we use different examples from the ones we use in the videos. To complete a lesson, you take a quiz. These quizzes test whether you understand the theory, and if you’re able to apply this new knowledge to realistic example cases.

Get ready: available November 1st!

Are you ready to help Google understand – and rank! – your site better? We’ll launch this brand-new Site structure training on November 1.

Don’t want to miss the launch? Subscribe to our newsletter!

The post Coming soon: brand-new Site structure training! appeared first on Yoast.

What 4 of HubSpot’s Recruiters, Hiring Managers, & Executives Say About Being a “Jack of All Trades”

When Karla Cook, the current Editor of HubSpot’s Marketing Blog, first joined the team as a staff writer in July 2016, she realized she had more in common with most of her new teammates than she originally thought.

As a rhetoric major at Bates College, a liberal arts school in Maine, Karla spent more time analyzing political speeches and honing her debate skills than studying marketing methodologies. She had also just spent the last year and a half working as a Support Engineer at HubSpot and was working her way through a masters degree in Corporate Communications. 

In other words, she was what most corporate folks would call, a “jack of all trades”. But, as a pleasant surprise to her, so were many of her teammates at HubSpot.

On the Blog Team, five of the seven total members were liberal arts graduates with majors spanning from theatre, communications, psychology, government, and international relations. Most of the bloggers didn’t begin their careers in marketing either. Grant writing, admissions, business analysis, production, and journalism sparked most of the team’s journey into the working world.

A year after Karla joined the team, Cobloom (a SaaS growth marketing agency) released a research report about the SaaS blogs who attract the most organic search traffic in the world. HubSpot’s blog was ranked number one. 

With a team full of generalists who never studied or specialized in marketing, they still generated three times more organic traffic than Google’s own blog. So is the old saying that a jack of all trades is a master of none actually true? And why is there so much suffocating pressure put on college students to specialize in only one discipline?

As jobs become more specialized in today’s workforce, it seems logical to hone a specific skill set, especially during school.

But only learning the skills that match the exact requirements of a job today might not prepare you for your job tomorrow.

According to a study conducted by researchers from LinkedIn and the World Economics Forum, majoring in specialized subjects like marketing, finance, IT, and computer science don’t teach students the necessary skills to adapt to sudden industry changes and other fields of work, whereas broad majors like literature, history, political science, and economics do.

Mark Cuban, a billionaire investor, has also called liberal arts majors free thinkers who can quickly adapt to the rapid evolution of most industries nowadays.

Marketing is one of the ever-evolving industries that Cuban says liberal arts majors thrive in. Fifteen years ago, content marketing didn’t even exist. But, today, it’s the top hiring area in the creative job market, with 25% of executives planning to grow their team this year.

Meghan Keaney Anderson, a Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot, believes content marketing’s swift evolution will continue to accelerate. And the only way to keep up is by being adaptable.

"The world changes incredibly quickly in our industry. What is today a central skill, channel, or strategy may not be tomorrow. We need people who are adaptable and, more than that, who are fascinated by change and have a mental framework and curiosity to learn new approaches,” she says. “I've found that liberal arts majors in particular have a great disposition for that kind of work -- critical thinking, diverse interests, and a strong inclination to understand new areas."

Keaney Anderson suggests there may be some essential content marketing skills today that will be rendered superfluous in the future. There could even be roles sprouting up that don’t even exist right now. This isn’t intimidating to liberal arts majors or jack of all trades, though. They’ve learned how to learn and feel comfortable grasping new skills and concepts.

But one skill the industry will always need and marketers constantly need to keep honing is storytelling -- neuroscience proves that it's the best way to capture people’s attention, bake information into their memories, and forge close, personal bonds. We’re programmed to pay our undivided attention to a great story -- that’ll never change.

For a story to be compelling, though, it needs good writing behind it. But writing well in the marketing world doesn’t mean scribbling the most flowery and poetic prose possible. It means logically presenting or dissecting an argument in a clear, concise, and compelling way.

According to Emma Brudner, HubSpot's Director of both the Blog and Community Teams, diversifying your education or skillset will arm you with the critical thinking abilities needed to write well.

“Liberal arts teaches students to not only write, but also to think critically. David McCullough, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, once said ‘Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly.’ I love this quote and I think about it a lot when hiring writers.” she says. “For the type of writing my team does, being able to organize thoughts and information clearly is imperative -- even more important in my experience than the specific knowledge a more specialized degree, like marketing or advertising, might instill.”

While Brudner speaks to the importance of sharpening your critical thinking skills to write compelling content, developing your creativity is just as crucial for marketing success. According to neuroscience, it’s what drives innovation.

Creativity happens when you mash seemingly unrelated concepts together to form a new idea. Neuroscientists call this synaptic play, and the more incongruent the concepts are, the more synapses occur in your brain.

Studying a variety of disciplines or working in different fields supplies you with a bank of diverse knowledge and experiences to pull from to make these creative connections. And Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot’s Chief Marketing Officer, believes a brain full of diverse inputs will lead to much more inventive ideas.

“Connecting the dots is where so much of the success in marketing comes from. When you have a marketer who has done various aspects of marketing, they are able to understand how everything works together, which helps them accomplish much more than if their focus was isolated to only one deep discipline.”

Bodnar is describing something called cognitive diversity, where having a lot of different inputs in your head lets you connect dots that have never been connected before, giving you an entirely different perspective on things. This not only enables you to be more creative, but it also allows you to challenge the status quo and push your team to do better work.

Liberal arts majors and jack of all trades tend to have more cognitive diversity than their specialized peers, which is a huge reason why Sara DeBrule, the International Marketing Recruiting Team Lead at HubSpot, believes a jack of all trades can be a vital asset to any type of team.

“For a team where the majority of people are specialized, the case for hiring someone who is a jack of all trades is that they have enough perspective on the different types of marketing that they can test the assumptions of a team, push a team to operate in a more cross functional capacity, and round out the overall experience,” she says. “Jack of all trades can also be crucial for an early stage company where it's an all hands on deck effort and people need to leverage disparate skill sets on a daily basis and context switch.”

The Jack of All Trades Can Be a Master of All

When I was a freshman in college, skeptically studying economics at a liberal arts school, I spent countless hours scouring the internet for every article that weighed the pros and cons of a general and specialized education. Every liberal arts critic said I was going to lag behind my specialized peers at work. Every proponent said I was going to propel past them.

So after hours on the phone with my dad and getting his blessing to transfer to a school where I could major in finance, I decided to go with my gut. I took a chance on the arts. And it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.

My liberal arts education taught me how to learn, think critically, and, most importantly, write. And those skills got me a job at HubSpot. If I had taken the other route, who knows what I’d be doing. Odd are, I’d be wearing a suit to work everyday and crunching numbers in a spreadsheet, not knowing what I’d do with my career if an algorithm started doing my job better than I could.