Monthly Archives: July 2022

In the business world, professionals are obsessed with tactics because they can help them meet their short-term goals. But if all you do is focus on the short-term, you won’t spend enough time or energy figuring out how you can succeed in the long-term.

Fortunately, building a strategy can help you achieve both your short-term and long-term goals. Strategy focuses on principles, which help you think, instead of tactics, which help you execute, so it allows you to concentrate on why your business does certain activities, not just how you do them or what you do. Read on to learn exactly what a business strategy is and how you can build an effective one today.

Your business strategy should be based on your overall vision for the company. For some brands it will be global market expansion. For others it may be more important to double down investing in existing markets they are already successful in. Regardless of your end goals, creating an effective business strategy will require thorough research beforehand.

1. Identify your business’ aspirations and values.

In business, traditional goal setting lets you measure what you do, but it doesn’t lend itself to gauging how you do it or why. And if you only focus on the results, it can sometimes incentivize you to take a course of action that prioritizes your organization’s needs over your customers’ needs.

To help you focus more on your purpose and process instead of just your results, consider setting and anchoring to an aspiration, or your vision for your business in the future when building your business strategy — it’ll inspire you to do work that better serves your customers. Once you set an anchor to an aspiration, you can add your goal to the equation, which will help you simultaneously produce customer-centric work and hit your numbers.

2. Conduct a self-assessment.

Once you’ve figured out your business aspirations and values, it’s time to conduct a self assessment to help you evaluate the best avenues for business growth and success.

You can do this by conducting a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your business. What do you do well and how can you capitalize on that? What can be improved and how?

3. Pinpoint which segments of your market you want to capture.

Your product or service most likely isn’t the best fit for your entire market, so it’s crucial to pinpoint the segment or segments of your market that benefit the most from your product or service.

Customers who genuinely need and want your product or service are also the customers who retain the longest and are least likely to churn, boosting your customer lifetime value and lowering your customer acquisition costs.

4. Determine how you’ll beat your competition.

Ricky Bobby’s legendary saying that “If you ain’t first, you’re last” doesn’t necessarily apply to the business world, but it does have some bearing on it. Your customers won’t buy two of the same products or services, so if you want to capture as much of your segment of the market as possible, you need to place first in the majority of your target customers’ minds.

Some of the best ways to stay top-of-mind are crafting a creatively refreshing brand, differentiating your product or service from the rest of the crowd, and pricing your product relative to its perceived value.

5. Set clear goals.

Now that you’ve completed your research and established a vision for your business, it’s time to set some goals.

Think about what you want to accomplish and work backward to figure out the steps to get there. Setting business goals will help inform your strategy and how each department collaborates to achieve your objective. To start, you can come up with:

Business goals: These are high level objectives you’d like the organization as a whole to accomplish.
Department or team goals: These are key objectives delegated at the department level to help the organization achieve their overall goals.
Employee-specific goals: Using departmental goals, establish goals for individual employees to contribute to reaching business goals.

These cascading goals will make sure that all stakeholders involved in executing your business strategy are on the same page and properly aligned.

6. Make a plan.

With your business goals defined, it’s time to make a plan to accomplish them. This plan should include actionable tasks your team can take and should outline the steps needed to achieve your mission or objective.

This plan can be rolled out as either a short-term or long-term plan or a combination of the two. Additionally you’ll want to check in with your plan often to make sure everything is still on track, and make adjustments as the business requires them.

7. Figure out which competencies are needed to beat your competition and sustain your business’ success.

Unfortunately, passion isn’t enough to beat your competition and rocket to the top of your industry. Talent and skill are just as crucial. Depending on your aspirations, goals, and market, you need to figure out which types of teams and employees you need to develop and recruit to not only beat your competition, but to also sustain your success.

For example you may need to recruit more engineering staff or hire a data science team with experience in your niche to achieve your goals.

8. Decide which management systems are needed to hone these competencies.

If your business is a team, then your managers are the coaches. They’re responsible for developing, supporting, and inspiring your employees to do their best work possible.

Establish check-ins with your team to ensure both employees and managers have what they need to succeed. Invest in technology that enables your team to work together more efficiently and propels your business goals forward. Because no matter how much raw talent your employees have,they’ll never reach their potential and, in turn, help the business reach its potential if they don’t refine the skills and discipline necessary to compete and succeed.

9. Measure your results.

It’s not enough to simply set goals and hope things work out. You’ll need to actively monitor your progress if you want to achieve greatness. As mentioned previously, you should be checking your plan monthly to make sure things are running as they should.

Evaluate your metrics to ensure your team is meeting key performance indicators (KPIs). If they are not meeting them, find out why and come up with a solution to get things back on track.

10. Be flexible and willing to adapt.

Along with measuring your results, it’s also a good to examine where your strategy is falling short and make changes.

Are their changes in the industry or external factors that impact your current strategy? This may be an opportunity for you to adjust your approach. Your plan is your roadmap, but it should also be flexible enough to pivot along with your business.

11. Consider hiring a business strategy consultant.

If all of the steps above seem overwhelming and you have the resources, consider hiring outside help. Business consultants can provide guidance and training to help you achieve your business goals.

Pros

Expertise: Consultants often have a narrow area of focus — meaning when you hire one, you’re getting an expert in your selected field. They can help you build a framework or structure that aligns with your goals. They can also add a different perspective to tackling issues your team has tried and failed to resolve on their own.
Unbiased: Since a consultant is not an employee of your company, they are not hindered by existing viewpoints or tradition and can look at your company with fresh eyes. This makes it easier for them to hone in on your goals and the best strategy to achieve them.

Cons

Expensive: Hiring a consultant is definitely an added expense and will most likely cost more than paying an existing employee.
No guarantees: Although consultants are experts, they don’t come with guarantees of success. Their is no guarantee of reaching a certain performance metric or number of sales. However, you can always vet consultants by asking for recommendations, looking at references and examining their work history.

Hiring a business strategy consultant is a great option if your team has been struggling with the steps above without success. A third party may pick up on business insights you may have missed. 

Principles Over Tactics

We live in a day and age where the internet is overloaded with advice. You have access to countless amounts of tips and tricks that could potentially help you build a successful business. But without the ability to think critically about whether these tips and tricks actually apply to your specific situation, you’ll never reach long-term success.

That’s why strategy is so important. It grounds your business in principles that can apply to almost any situation and, in turn, help your business achieve both its short-term and long-term goals.

This article was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If you have a promising idea for an online ecommerce business, it’s important to create an ecommerce business plan to ensure your vision has enough stock to be profitable.

Having a business plan for your online store will help you define your target market, establish your monthly and quarterly sales goals, and increase the likelihood of long-term ecommerce success.

In this post, we’ll go over what an online store business plan is and how you can create one for your ecommerce startup. Let’s get started.

Whether a company operates as a startup or has years of operations and growth under its belt, an ecommerce business plan is essential for evaluating a business and determining areas of improvement.

An ecommerce business plan is especially important, with an increasing number of shoppers conducting business online. It’s estimated this number has reached over 2 billion. Having an ecommerce business plan keeps you organized and is useful when seeking investors who need to understand your company.

So, let’s dive into some examples of ecommerce business plans and what goes into writing one using our free template.

Ecommerce Business Plan Template

Download Your Free Template Here

HubSpot’s template provides clear steps to structuring one for your ecommerce business. Throughout this section, I’ll use the example of a photography company specializing in online photo editing.

1. Give an executive summary.

An executive summary is a one-to-two page overview of your business. The purpose of an executive summary is to let stakeholders know what the business plan will contain. HubSpot’s free template offers some tips on how to write one, as I’ve done below:

It’s important to provide an executive summary so that an investor or executive, who doesn’t have the time to read your full plan, can quickly see the most important highlights of your business.

2. List and describe your business.

This is the section that needs the most detail because it highlights what you’re selling. To begin, provide an overview of your product or service. For instance, a photography company would probably list their photo packages arranged by price and services, as I did below:

HubSpot’s template also provides direction on how to describe your company’s purpose and break down values. It also advises businesses to include team structure, if applicable. Below that, you should go into detail about your product and service lines.

3. Detail your products and services.

Once you have described your business and its purpose, you’re ready to dive deeper into your plan. What products and services do you or will you offer? This is an opportunity to list each item and its purpose, allowing you to answer the question ‘why?’ Why are you choosing to offer these specific products and services?

After detailing your products and services, outline your pricing model. What is the cost associated with each service? Determining price, especially as a startup, can be challenging. However, sales pricing calculators help determine the best pricing strategy.

Download This Template

4. Conduct a market analysis.

For the market analysis, provide the operational climate of the industry you’re in. To illustrate, at this step, the photography company would need to analyze its position in a world of rival companies like Adobe or online services like Canva. Below, I’ve done a quick competitor analysis, available in the template:

Download This Template

Using directions in the template as a guide, I was able to come up with more selling points of the company and how it stands out from competitors.

Filling out the market analysis section of the business plan assists with providing the framework for future campaigns. You’re able to define your target market and ideal customer. Refer to my example below for how to structure this analysis in your ecommerce plan.

Download This Template

Good market analysis includes your target audience, projections of your company’s goals, and a breakdown of the competition’s goals and weaknesses. This is a counterpoint of how your business improves upon those weaknesses.

For a complete guide on how to create a market analysis, we have one here.

5. Strategize your marketing plan.

For any business, the marketing plan is crucial. It serves as a roadmap for how your company will build brand awareness, reach your target audience, and boost sales and revenue. As seen in this template, your marketing plan will focus on positioning strategy, acquisition channels, and tools and technology.

Positioning strategy fixates on how you will position yourself to your audience. How will you address their challenges and goals? How will you use the tools at your disposal to accomplish this?

The marketing plan will also require you to focus on where your customers come from. Are they finding your business through search engine marketing? Do they discover your business from your blog or social media accounts? Identifying your acquisition channels allows you to identify which ones to prioritize.

Lastly, your marketing plan should lay out the tools and technology your marketing team will need and use. Will you use a content management system (CMS) like CMS Hub? List all the software and programs your company will use to execute its marketing plan.

Download This Template

6. Create a sales plan.

When creating your sales plan, describe your methodology, organization structure, sales channels, and tools and technology. For example, when discussing methodology, will you focus on an inbound strategy where you attract customers to your business through your content or an outbound strategy where you initiate contact with your prospects? This part of your ecommerce business plan will also require you to outline the people in charge of selling your products and services, as well as what channels they’ll use to sell your products.

Similar to creating your marketing plan, the sales plan will also require a brief on what tools you plan to use. While your marketing plan might need a CMS, your sales plan might need a customer retention management (CRM) software like HubSpot to manage your relationships with current and potential customers.

Download This Template

7. Outline legal notes and financial considerations.

In the following two sections of your business plan, describe the legal and financial structures. The photography company should provide detail on the legal considerations like online safety rules, ecommerce regulations, and the company’s costs.

Listing legality and every cost needed to start ecommerce is crucial information for investors and stakeholders. In this section, it’s important to be honest and thorough to give partners a realistic idea of how to contribute.

Ecommerce Business Plan Examples

1. Maple Ecommerce Plan

This sample plan, provided on LinkedIn, is for a fictional company called Maple, an online store that sells exclusive Apple products. Maple’s sample plan is great because it provides easy-to-follow charts and graphics while highlighting the most important information. For example, their market analysis included a SWOT plan for the business.

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Outlining the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities of Maple in this format is easy for potential investors to follow. Notating each value with a letter keeps the format consistent, which is carried throughout the plan. For businesses that find their information is best presented in graphics, Maple is a good plan to follow.

2. Nature’s Candy Ecommerce Plan

Nature’s Candy is an online retailer that provides nutritional supplements. Its business plan is available online and is helpful in seeing how businesses go from planning to execution. Below is a preview of its plan in the financial forecasting section.

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This example shows who will be on payroll yearly, giving investors an idea of how their investment will work in the long term. Planning ahead also shows stakeholders’ dedication to starting up your business.

3. NoHassleReturn Ecommerce Plan

Fictional company NoHassleReturn’s sample ecommerce plan is an expansive, detailed version of how ecommerce would translate to a completely online store. The company itself is structured to offer a way to make returning items bought from an online store a simple process, and the steps to take are featured below.

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Having a sequence of processes like this is useful if your company is a niche idea. Investors and stakeholders need to know how your business will be new and unique for the market.

Even though writing out a business plan seems like a painstaking process, we have a step-by-step guide to help. This will keep you organized and keep you on track when structuring your business.

4. OGS Capital Ecommerce Plan

This sample ecommerce business plan comes from OGS Capital, where they created a test business plan for Botswana’s first private psychiatric hospital focused on inpatient and outpatient clinical health care. It features detailed sections for the business model, marketing plan, financial projects, and more. This level of detail is demonstrated below in their executive summary section.

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While some ecommerce business plans will explain the executive summary through a series of paragraphs, the layout in this sample makes the information more digestible. The project is separated into sections that detail the business idea, as well as its goals and strengths. The business idea includes price projects, geographical focus, and target customers. Goals for this project are created for 10 years with specific, individual goals built at one-, five-, and seven-year time markers. Lastly, this executive summary highlights the strengths of this business plan to solidify this project and its importance.

5. Egrocery Ecommerce Plan

For centuries, people have left their homes to buy groceries from stores, supermarkets, farmer’s markets, and more. At-home grocery delivery has grown in popularity and is reflected in this sample ecommerce plan for a fictional business named eGrocery. This sample plan establishes the company as an online grocery retail business with plans for connecting customers to distributors for fast, convenient at-home deliveries.

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In its business model section, eGrocery outlines how it will implement both a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) model to get products from distributors, retailers, and wholesalers to its household customers. This section provides an effective demonstration of the company’s overall function.

6. Shannon & Shavonne Inc. Ecommerce Plan

Shannon & Shavonne Inc. is a fictional United States-based online retailer that offers its customers an abundance of products in fashion, home appliances, electronics, and more. The depth seen in this plan is particularly helpful, especially with the detail seen in outlining the business structure and each job’s roles and responsibilities.

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The plan first lists all the necessary roles, from the chief executive officer (CEO) to a call center agent. It then describes the responsibilities of each role. As displayed in the image above, an information technologist (IT) would be tasked with managing the organization’s website, updating the online store, and ensuring the security of the company’s payment platform. The clear distinction of roles helps manage employee expectations and accountability.

7. Firstcry.com Ecommerce Plan

In this sample, we have Firstcry.com — a fictional ecommerce site that creates eco-friendly baby and feminine hygiene products. Because the company is looking for funding to launch the business, its plan focuses on its financial highlights and projections, which is crucial information for investors.

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While disclosing what the startup funds will be used for, this plan also estimates its top-line projections over the next five years. As seen in the chart above, they include revenue, expenses, interest, and net income. The plan even breaks down how many customers per day and annual orders will be needed to reach this goal.

When it comes to building an ecommerce business plan, you’ll likely find that the more detail you include, the better.

Planning is the first step.

When starting a business, planning is always a crucial first step. If you find that you’ve launched a company without a concrete plan, it’s never too late. Successful businesses require strategy, and that’s what an ecommerce business plan gives you. It allows you to strategize what your business does, how it operates, and why it’s essential. Not only does it help you pinpoint who the key players of your company are, but it helps you identify who your target audience should be.

With the steps listed in this article and the examples to take inspiration from, you’re one step closer to building an ecommerce business plan for success.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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There’s a lot of content out there about productivity – everything from hacks to shortcuts to tips and tricks for how to get more done in less time.

But what about those times when you’re bored? Well, there is no shortage of websites to cure your boredom.

Here’s a shortlist of the most wonderfully entertaining places to waste time on the internet outside of email and social media.

1. Wordle

In early 2022, people’s timelines on social media – particularly Twitter – started filling with green, yellow, and black squares.

It seemed like everyone was playing a game called Wordle – a game where you have six chances to guess the five-letter word of the day.

It’s the same word for all players, making it a fun way to connect with people around the world. In addition, you can only play it once a day, which builds anticipation and excitement for what’s to come.

What’s more, the game tracks players by device. As such, you can keep track of your streak every day and share it on social media to show others how many tries it took to make the right guess.

2. Heardle

If you love the concept of Wordle but wish there was a musical version, you’re in luck.

Heardle emerged shortly after Wordle blew up for music lovers and connoisseurs alike. It works by playing a short snippet of a song and giving you six tries to guess the right song.

It’s another great game to play when you have some extra time on your hands.

3. GeoGuesser

Ever wish you could take a trip around the world in a day or less? With GeoGuesser, you can.

This fun game tests your geography by showing you a randomized place around the world and having you guess where it is.

It’s not only a great way to test your knowledge but also discover new places to add to your travel bucket list.

Most of these locations are in tourist attractions, allowing you to get a 360-peek at these places before you even visit.

4. Know Your Meme

Memes go viral every day and it can be hard to track down where they originate from.

Know Your Meme answers that question by digging into every viral meme and finding out who is in the original image, who first posted it, and what it’s about.

You’ll find viral memes, trending memes, and likely memes you’ve never seen before. It’s a fun deep dive that at best, will arm you with a few fun memes to share on social media.

5. The Oatmeal

The Oatmeal is another one of my absolute favorite places to spend time online. It’s a huge library of awesome content – specifically graphics. Even if you’ve read everything already, it’s the kind of stuff you can read over and over again.

Some of my favorite posts include:

Babies vs. Cats
Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

6. Supercook

If you want to surf the internet in a semi-productive way – but not so productive that you actually have to leave the house – then check out Supercook.

Here’s how it works: You tell it which ingredients you have in stock in your home, and it’ll give you a big list of recipes you can make using just those ingredients.

It’s a fun way to stay thrifty, clean out the fridge, and make sure food doesn’t go to waste.

7. OCEARCH Shark Tracker

Tracking sharks as they swim around the ocean may not be the most conventional way to waste time on the internet but it might be the coolest.

The Track Sharker tool by Marine Research Group OCEARCH lets you track tagged sharks – who all have names by the way – as they travel all over the world.

You can even zoom in on a specific location to see which sharks are hanging out there and where they’ve been swimming and traveling for the past year. Go, Rocket, go!

8. Apartment Therapy

If you’re even a little bit of a fan of home decor or DIY projects, this is a website you might find yourself spending hours and hours on. There’s a ton of awesome visual and written content on here.

My favorites include their “before and after” series, their “small spaces” series, and the tours of people’s actual apartments and homes.

Plus, they have a whole lot of helpful articles giving tips on everything from how to redo your stairs to ideas for using that awkward space above your fridge. There’s no shortage of useful and fun information on here, making it prime for endless browsing.

One of our own was recently featured on ApartmentTherapy too — check out INBOUND Elijah‘s adorable spot here.

9. Gravity Points

Gravity Points is a digital “pen” created by Akimitsu Hamamuro, and it is quite mesmerizing. The website simulates the effect of gravity by allowing you to plot small gravity centers across your screen. Then, even smaller floating objects will flock to these gravity centers and orbit them.

The more gravity centers you plot, the more these forces will start to compete, making your screen all the more chaotic. And yes, your gravity points can absorb one another to create a black hole.

It’s outer space right there on your computer screen.

10. Pottermore

As a marketer, you might dive so deep into branding your business, you have no time to brand yourself. Even if you’re not a massive Harry Potter fan, Pottermore can scratch that itch for you.

Pottermore is widely recognized as the official website for finding your Patronus, your wand type, the Hogwarts House you belong to (of course), and much more.

The quizzes you take to earn these identities are just obscure enough to hold your excitement for the result, and might even encourage you to read (or reread) the famous Harry Potter books — something you should definitely do to balance out your time-wasting website sessions.

11. The Toast

If you’re into great (and hilarious) fiction writing, then you’ll definitely want to bookmark this site. Every day, writers Nicole Cliffe and Mallory Ortberg publish a post on “everything from literary characters that never were to female pickpockets of Gold Rush-era San Francisco,” reads their About page.

To get an idea of whether it’s up your alley, start with their post, “A Day in the Life of Seth MacFarlane, Human Male (Definitely Not a Swarm of Hyper-Alert Bees and a Metal Jaw.)“

It’s just so good.

12. The Onion

If you haven’t spent some quality time reading the online satirical newspaper The Onion, then you’re seriously missing out on a good laugh.

The publication started in 1988 and they’ve managed to successfully maintain a high standard for humor and writing ever since.

Their headlines are laugh-out-loud funny in and of themselves — from “Free-Thinking Cat Sh**s Outside the Box” to “Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race of Skeleton People” to “Buyer Of $450 Million Da Vinci Painting Sort Of Assumed It Would Come With Frame.”

This awesome episode of NPR’s This American Life gives you a really cool peek into The Onion‘s editorial process.

13. Cracked

Similar to The Onion, Cracked is a pseudo magazine for your everyday life —and yes, it will crack you up.

While The Onion gives you a satirical take on a real news trend, Cracked makes snarky pop-culture observations that are ironic or just ridiculous by design. Sometimes the writers will say the one thing everyone’s thinking, but is afraid to say out loud. That’s Cracked for you.

You might just be passing time on this online magazine, but with respect to some of its most popular articles and pictures, it’s time well spent. Here are a few ridiculous think pieces from Cracked to whet your appetite:

The Actual Answers to 6 Famously Unsolved Movie/TV Mysteries
7 Hilarious Ways Reality Would Ruin Famous Movie Scenes
5 Random Questions You Didn’t Know You Wanted Answered
6 Underrated (and Selfish) Benefits of Parenthood

14. Mental Floss

Mental Floss is a super addicting online magazine with articles covering a really wide range of topics. Their articles are really well written and researched, and usually on topics that don’t get a lot of airtime.

For example, in their “Big Questions” section, they tackle weirdly intriguing questions like why shells sound like the ocean and why yawns are contagious. Readers can even submit their own big questions.

15. HowStuffWorks

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This website is dedicated entirely to —you guessed it — how things work. And by “things,” they mean everything: from airbags to regenerative medicine to velocipede carousels.

They’ve covered so much on this website, it’ll be hard to run out of things to read about.

Plus, they have a whole bunch of really cool podcasts that have branched off the main site over the years and are worth checking out.

My favorites are “Stuff You Should Know,” “BrainStuff,” and “Stuff Mom Never Told You.”

16. Lifehacker

Lifehacker is a hub of productivity tips, tricks, and downloads. It’s basically an archive of all the information it would be incredibly useful to know, but nobody ever really teaches you.

Aside from productivity, they also cover topics such as money-saving tips, clever uses for household items, and so on.

For example, did you know there are four lengths of naps that’ll benefit you in different, very specific ways? Along with the fun articles, they have some pretty awesome, in-depth articles, like this one on how to plant ideas in someone’s mind, as well as helpful listicles like the top ten obscure Google Search tricks.

There’s so much content on there that it can be hard to find posts on specific topics. Use the Lifehacker Index for an introduction to their top-performing posts and tips on how to find posts on any topic on the website.

17. Mix

Sometimes you want to surf the internet, but don’t want to do all the paddling. For that, there’s Mix.

You might know the above website by its former name, StumbleUpon, a site (and an add-on to your internet browser) that allowed you to select topics that interested you and then served you various news and information that fit those interests. Today, it’s called Mix, and it puts a new spin on StumbleUpon’s popular content randomizer.

Mix lets you set your reader profile and then share the articles, photos, and videos you discover from your own personal “mix.” It’s a convenient way to entertain yourself and learn new things by simply telling the web to surprise you.

18. Space.com

As long as your head is in the clouds, raise it above Earth’s horizon and head on over to Space.com.

This website reports on astronomy news and trends through friendly, easy-to-digest content that, sometimes, just serves to quench your thirst for a cool nebulous shot of our solar system. Who knows? Maybe you’ll tap your inner space enthusiast.

Whether you want to see an object burn up in our atmosphere or get real into the weeds of how a black hole forms, Space.com has something for everyone. Get your fix today with this amazing picture of a green aurora seen from the International Space Station, part of Space.com’s “Image of the Day” series.

19. Imgur

Imgur collects the most viral images of the week and collects them all in one place for your mindless scrolling and enjoyment.

What I like about Imgur is it’s usually more timely than Twitter or Instagram — more popular sharing networks where funny pictures and memes might appear a week or two later.

Use Imgur to waste time and introduce your friends to the funniest stuff on the internet first.

20. Zillow

It’s fun to check out real estate in areas you might want to live — and it’s just as fun to check it out in places you’ll probably never live, but would love to in a dream world.

Go ahead and explore what’s out there.

You can set up saved searches (some more realistic than others) to relive your discoveries later.

21. Wikipedia

You didn’t think I’d write a post on where to waste time on the internet without including Wikipedia, did you? Of course not.

You’ve gotta love spiraling into the proverbial Wikipedia black hole: Look up one thing, and then check out something that’s interlinked to it.

Before you know it, you’ll have charted the entire Russian Revolution. (Read: This is an actual glimpse into my colleague Corey‘s Sunday morning.)

22. Giphy

When you need to find the perfect GIF, you can’t just stop at the first result you get for “dancing” or “awkward” or “animals being jerks.”

I could spend (… and have spent) hours on Giphy looking for juuust the right GIF.

23. Wayback Machine

Feeling nostalgic? Check out what websites have looked like over the years via Internet Archive’s famous Wayback Machine. It lets you pick a date and see exactly what any website looked like at that time. (For a real trip, compare how Facebook looked back in the 2000s to today. Remember the wall-to-wall?)

If you just want to take a quick peek, check out this roundup of what nine famous websites used to look like.

All the images in that post were taken from the Wayback Machine.

24. The Oregon Trail

Here’s a little gift for those of you who made it to the end of this post: Internet Archive — yes, the same one responsible for the Wayback Machine — made it possible for people to play “Oregon Trail,” a game beloved by many Millennials.

If “Oregon Trail” isn’t your cup of tea, the other games made available by Internet Archive include “Duke Nukem,” “Street Fighter,” “Burger Blaster,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “The Lion King,” and “Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer.” Check out the full library here.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The content formats we rely on today have an uncanny resemblance to the content formats we relied on yesterday — our blog posts look like print articles, our offers look like books, and our slide decks look like presentations. While these formats are fine for the most part, marketers can take their content from “fine” to “exceptional” by using interactive marketing. 

Interactive marketing gives marketers a huge opportunity to engage audiences at record levels. Its early adopters have proven that if marketers want to cut through the noise, they can’t just do what they’ve always been doing. They need to refresh their work.

But obviously, you can’t properly use interactive marketing if you don’t know what it is — so here’s everything you need to know about interactive marketing broken down into easy-to-navigate sections:

What is interactive marketing?

Common Types of Interactive Marketing Strategies

Benefits of Interactive Marketing

Interactive Marketing Examples

User-Generated Content | Glass Animals
Augmented Reality Shopping | Lancome
Interactive Series | Sweet Digs by Eko and Refinery29
Vimeo Virtual Courses That Get You Moving | Y7
The Structure of Stand-Up Comedy | The Pudding
Conversational Marketing | HubSpot
A Personal Thank You with Vidyard | Amnesty International Canada
Interactive Infographic| Family Fun in Scottsdale by Marriott
Interactive Virtual Events | Built to Last by Wistia
Interactive Slide Show | The New Media Message by Velocity Partners
Interactive Article | The Big Gronkowski by Ceros
Immersive Video | Scotland From the Sky by BBC Scotland
Playable Video Game Ad | Narcos: Cartel Wars
Interactive Voice Ad on Pandora | Doritos
Interactive Idea Generation | Outgrow

Applying Interactive Marketing to Your Campaigns

Common Types of Interactive Marketing Strategies

Interactive videos: Using video is a great way to explain a topic or entertain viewers. Savvy marketers have found new ways to engage viewers by adding CTAs in videos prompting them to subscribe or participate in the conversation in real time. Some videos allow viewers to answer questions by clicking a set of multiple choice answers right on the screen. Other formats immerse the viewer in beautiful landscapes — a technique that’s becoming more popular as the use of 360-degree video becomes more prevalent.
Quizzes, surveys, and polls: Quizzes and polls are a fun way to get visitors to interact with your site — and you can create them for just about any topic. Buzzfeed has excelled in this area, but it’s not uncommon to see them used for travel, home search, and interior design sites. They are popular tools for social media marketing as well.
Personalized content: From addressing customers by name in email to curating specific ads targeted at their individual needs, adding a personal touch gives the impression that you are speaking directly to them. Ever abandoned an item in your cart and received an email reminder about it later? That’s personalized marketing at work.
Interactive storytelling: Keeping readers engaged with a long-form article can be difficult — that’s why interactive storytelling can be a powerful resource for marketers. Uses infographics, gifs, video, clickable maps, charts, and other visual aids to help break up text and keep readers from getting burnt-out or bored.
Calculators: While calculators don’t sound super interesting, they are incredibly useful for organizations that want to showcase data. Looking for a home? You’ve probably used a mortgage calculator to get a ballpark estimate of your monthly payment.

Benefits of Interactive Marketing

Interactive marketing offers several advantages, including:

Boosted Conversion Rates 

Interactive marketing gives potential customers the chance to make a purchase immediately. For example, including a call-to-action at points of purchases is a common, effective interactive marketing tactic. I’m sure you’ve seen buttons during digital ads that say “purchase now” or different points on a website that include an “add to cart” button. 

Increased Audience Engagement

Delighting your audience is the key to engaging it — that’s why tactics like online quizzes, personalized content, and interactive videos are so helpful. It gives audiences a unique experience that makes interacting with your business fun. If your audience is having fun, they’re more likely to stay loyal to and potentially evangelize your company. 

Instant Feedback

You can easily and quickly gauge how your audience feels about your company through tactics like quizzes and polls. Is your website easily navigable? Do your products meet expectations? Are there any areas that need improvement? With interactive marketing, you can better connect to your audience and allow their voices to be heard so you can see what works and what doesn’t. 

Interactive Marketing Examples

Capturing attention sounds great in theory, but you may be unsure of how to incorporate interactive marketing into your strategy. To get some great ideas, learn from some of these great examples of interactive marketing:

1. User-Generated Content | Glass Animals 

Why we like it: 

The band’s website gives fans the opportunity to create music and art that the band will use for future projects, such as music videos, social media campaigns, and more. 
The website also includes an informal message from its lead singer explaining how the landing page is made to resemble his own desktop — giving fans a little insight into the mind of the singer and fostering a more personal connection.

England-based band Glass Animals took a fresh approach to its website’s landing page by making it appear like a computer desktop from the 90s/early 2000s. The website’s appearance entices visitors to click on different icons. 

The band’s singer, Dave Bailey, also left a message to fans saying to “Dig around. Use the sounds, use the artwork … ” and to email the band anything they’ve made so it can be used in a special project. Clicking on the folder that says “Cherry stems” reveals sound files visitors can use to create their own music or projects. 

There’s even an icon that says “MEME-IT” that allows users to generate their own memes of the band. The website provides a fun experience for visitors and gets fans involved in the band’s creative process. The website’s landing page almost feels like a game, and who doesn’t love games?

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2. Augmented Reality Shopping | Lancome 

Why we like it: 

The feature allows visitors to Lancome’s Instagram page to virtually “try on” some of the brand’s products before purchasing, giving them the opportunity to purchase with more confidence. 
The feature is easy to use and visitors can simply swipe through different shades the same way they would swipe through different filters on the app. 

Online shopping is popular among many consumers and has only gotten more popular since the start of the pandemic. However, one of the downsides of online shopping is that customers aren’t always able to try on a purchase before buying. 

Makeup company Lancome addresses this issue on its Instagram page by providing filters of different makeup shades users can access through their phone’s cameras. This allows customers to see how a shade would look on their face before deciding to buy.

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3. Interactive Series | Sweet Digs by Eko and Refinery29

Why we like it:

This series gets viewers directly involved with the show by having them choose furniture or answer questions in real time.
Additionally, it builds on Refinery29’s already successful content

If you’ve ever watched a house hunting or interior design show and either found yourself talking to the TV or gawking at the owner’s decor choices, Refinery29’s Sweet Digs is for you. It partnered with Eko, a platform known for creating interactive shows, to bring viewers inside the coolest and quirkiest homes — with a twist.

Instead of merely being a voyeur, viewers are prompted to interact with homeowners and renters. From recommending how they should redecorate to guessing how much certain furniture items cost, viewers can get in on the action. Even more satisfying, you’ll get to see if they chose the items you suggested at the end. It’s HGTV on steroids.

The best part is Refinery29 didn’t need to create a new marketing idea from scratch. Instead, it took a concept that already did well and improved upon it, using Eko’s interactive tools. This new content gives viewers a sense of agency over the content they’re consuming while also leveling up engagement.

4. Vimeo Virtual Courses That Get You Moving | Y7

Why we like it:

Adding details like a studio playlist helped Y7 patrons create the studio atmosphere at home.
Creating an online community not only helped the studio stay afloat, it provided patrons a sense of normalcy in uncertain times.

The experience is user-friendly and easy to navigate thanks to small details like a video QR code.

Pandemic restrictions shuttered many businesses that required in-person interaction, like gyms and fitness studios. Those that survived adapted their offerings for the virtual market. But let’s face it — working out at home just isn’t the same as getting a boutique fitness experience.

Trendy Yoga studio Y7, rose to the occasion. Using Vimeo OTT, the brand known for its candlelit classes and trap soundtrack moved instruction for all 15 studios online. It then kicked the online experience up a notch by helping its students create the studio vibe at home, complete with an in video QR code to access the class playlist.

All the little details paid off. These improvements in virtual teaching kept students coming back for more, enabling Y7 to stay in business and retain its loyal fanbase.

5. The Structure of Stand-Up Comedy | The Pudding

Why we like it:

The visuals and diagrams dissecting Wong’s routine are like taking a class on performance and creative writing at the same time.
It leaves the audience with a deeper understanding of not only how Wong crafts her routine, but also allows them to connect with her in an empathetic way.

The diagram is easy-to-understand and gives fans a better understanding of the artistry behind comedy. 

Stand-up comedians might seem like the lucky wisecrackers who are blessed with the talent to improvise some of the funniest jokes and bits you’ve ever heard, but in reality, they polish their performance with painstaking precision.

To crack their audiences up as much as possible, they make sure their routines’ stories seamlessly flow from one to the other. However, some comedians like Ali Wong take their stand-up preparation to an entirely different level.

In its interactive slideshow about how Ali Wong structured her Netflix special Baby Cobra, The Pudding, a digital publication that crafts visual essays about culture and entertainment, describes how she sculpts her routine into a narrative instead of just telling a bunch of separate jokes.

By visually outlining her entire routine, The Pudding reveals how Ali Wong weaved all her bits into a story, building her world and perception of life in a way that her audience can truly understand, which left them with a deeper feeling of empathy, meaning, and ultimately humor.

6. Conversational Marketing | HubSpot

Why we like it:

The chatbot’s prompts allow users to customize their own experience on the site, ensuring that they quickly get the information they are looking for.
Since the user is dictating their experience on the site, it eliminates any sales pressure, providing a better overall user experience.

Most people are already familiar with chats, text messages, and direct messaging in their daily life, so the chatbot feature is easy for visitors to adapt to. 

We rely on messaging apps to interact with friends and family, so it only makes sense that brands should incorporate them for communication to reduce friction in the buying journey. Despite this, marketers have been sluggish to adopt conversational marketing — using chatbots, live chat, Facebook Messenger, and other chat features — into their inbound marketing strategies. 

In fact, according to Business 2 Community, only 36% of companies have adopted these tactics. At HubSpot, we hope to change that by offering new messaging tools that can integrate with your entire marketing suite and database.

We double down on this idea by using our own conversational marketing software on our homepage. Website visitors are asked a question and given several choices of potential answers. This allows the prospect to engage in website content almost like a “choose your own adventure” story. This improves the overall site experience and ensures that the site is serving up the content (or actions) that will benefit them the most… without any sales pressure.

7. A Personal Thank You with Vidyard | Amnesty International Canada

Why we like it:

Giving donors a visual representation of how their donation aided Amnesty International’s various causes builds trust and establishes a personal connection.
Donors will most-likely share the video with friends and family, which could lead to an increase in donations.

In social settings, getting too personal too quickly is intrusive. However, when it comes to marketing, getting a little personal can go a long way in building brand loyalty.

Take this carefully crafted thank you video created by Amnesty International Canada using Vidyard’s platform. Personalized videos like the one above were sent to all of the organization’s donors. After reviewing their metrics, the organization reported higher donor satisfaction and retention from the use of these videos.

Sending a thank you card or email is nice, but adding a personal touch in the form of a video really won their donors over. When customers are happy with your product or service, they will inevitably share it with their network, providing you with valuable word of mouth promotion and credibility.

8. Interactive Infographic | Family Fun in Scottsdale by Marriott

Why we like it:

This interactive ad is a fun take on vacation planning.
The clickable flowchart acts as a tool to help viewers customize their vacation activities to the parameters they set (e.g., interests, age)

Marriott Hotels manages to make vacation planning even more fun while positioning their brand in front of potential customers with an interactive infographic. Vacationers who are headed to Scottsdale are able to take a customized path through the flowchart to receive destination advice. Just a little bit of animation goes a long way, and it adds a touch of personalization that normal infographics don’t.

The beauty of this is that infographics are a great visual tool that have a ton of utility. By using lemonly.com, Marriott pushes the envelope just a step further, which provides unexpected delight.

9. Interactive Virtual Events | Built to Last by Wistia

Why we like it:

By having an audio conference instead of a traditional virtual one, Wistia freed up their audience to attend whenever was convenient for them (while running errands, at the gym, etc).
Visitors could attend any session in whatever order they liked instead of being forced into a rigid schedule, making the event more accessible.

By now we’re all used to virtual events, but meeting and video fatigue is real. How do you keep guests engaged? By mixing it up. That’s what Buffer and Wistia set out to do when they created the first ever audio conference for brand builders.

That’s right, no staring at the screen or being stuck at a desk. The audio format allowed listeners to join in from wherever they were, be it during their commute or while taking an afternoon stroll by connecting to a podcast player.

Each session ranged in length from roughly 25-35 minutes, and gave listeners the option to “choose their own adventure” by simply selecting the sessions they wanted to attend. This reduced friction as listeners were free to attend only the sessions relevant to their interests instead of committing several hours of their time.

10. Interactive Slide Show | The New Media Message by Velocity Partners

Why we like it:

This slideshow beautifully illustrates the importance of showing rather than telling audiences why they should care about a particular topic.
The build-up from the basic slides walks us through the progression of how using more interactive and attention grabbing graphics changes the audience’s experience in real time.

In its interactive slideshow, which honestly looks like it belongs in Tron, Velocity Partners, a B2B marketing agency, explains why innovative marketers need to leverage new content formats in order to tell more refreshing stories.

Velocity Partners shows, not tells, how their interactive slideshow can captivate an audience. This is in stark contrast to how marketers have churned out so many blog posts, ebooks, and SlideShares that they’ve become dull and predictable. The end result of this message hammers home the point that the most engaging and surprising mediums are the best at delivering the most engaging and surprising stories.

11. Interactive Article | The Big Gronkowski by Ceros

Why we like it:

Ceros’ take on a visual representation of the article instead of traditional text is fresh, and immediately draws readers in.
Bucking the norms of article structure, readers can quickly toggle to the information they want to know first, rather than having it dictated to them.

When Rob Gronkowski temporarily retired in 2019, Ceros, an experiential content creation platform, decided to create an interactive article that spotlights the two things Gronk will always be remembered for — his athletic prowess and goofy attitude.

When you visit the interactive article, you can toggle between Gronk’s “Warrior” and “Goofball” side, clicking on hotspots that reveal his impressive achievements, his laundry list of injuries, and some of the funniest things he’s ever done. Once you finish interacting with the article, you’ll truly understand how Rob Gronkowski is just as athletic as he is goofy.

12. Immersive Video | Scotland From the Sky by BBC Scotland

Why we like it:

This 360-degree video nails the art of showing rather than telling.
Using Scotland’s immersive landscapes as the backdrop, the viewer is made to feel like they are exploring Glen Coe with the filmmaker.

The video’s like this are so visually stunning that they can encourage visitors to share the link with others, boosting engagement.

In 2019, Rough Guides, a renowned travel guidebook, named Scotland the most beautiful country in the world.

And a big reason why it’s such a spectacle is that Glen Coe, a Scottish valley that cuts through the ruins of an ancient supervolcano, is one of the most striking landscapes in the world.

With their immersive, 360-degree video of Glen Coe, BBC Scotland can grip viewers because they’re able to experience the landscape from an intimate point of view at every possible angle, making them feel like they’re actually there.

13. Playable Video Game Ad | Narcos: Cartel Wars

Why we like it:

The ability for people to go from just viewing the game to participating in it is a great way to draw them in.
Allowing potential customers to play the game before buying eliminates sales pressure and puts the customer in control of their experience.

In the past, video game apps had to use video or gif demos to advertise gameplay in hopes to attract new players and increase app downloads. The thing about watching videos, though, is that it’s a passive activity. The visuals of the game may be enough to attract prospective players’ attention, but it may fall short of giving them enough inertia to actually engage and play.

FTX Games found their way around this by partnering with Glispa for their game Narcos: Cartel Wars. Prospects are immediately drawn into the action of the game with the ability to try it before buying it. Rockets and explosions abound for a few rounds before the demo prompts the player to install the app and continue their game.

The good news is that this type of functionality is about to become much more mainstream with Facebook offering playable video ads on their platform. Much like the Cartel Wars example, these playable ads are composed of:

A short video preview
A playable demo to get people hooked on the gameplay
A call-to-action to get the users to take the next step

14. Interactive Voice Ad on Pandora | Doritos

Why we like it:

Doritos found a creative way to take the audience from passive to active listeners, complete with crunching chip sounds to get folks salivating.
The ad serves up questions to the audience and then uses AI to tailor their experience based on their answers.

Pandora for Brands has recently begun testing a new interactive ad functionality on their platform that allows users to verbally engage with the ad. Doritos is one of the first brands utilizing this new interactive format on Pandora.

The audio uses the distinctive Doritos crunch and then prompts the user to answer a yes or no question. Using artificial intelligence, the ad can then serve up a personalized experience based on how the listener answered.

This is exciting for the same reason as the playable video game ads are: They disrupt passive listening in an attempt to get the listener to engage and actually process the information being conveyed to them. Plus, by being able to respond hands-free, there is less friction in order to learn more.

15. Interactive Idea Generation | Outgrow

Why we like it:

The idea generator allows any marketer to input their industry and business website and automatically get ideas for different types of interactive content.
The results page shows personalized content and tools for specific industries, audiences, and positions in the conversion funnel.

In the past, idea generation required more generic statements or long calls because we could not easily personalize ideas and use cases for each customer at scale. The advantage of an idea generator is that it shows any marketer personalized sets of ideas for how they can use and better leverage your product or service immediately after they input a few data points.

Depending on the industry, audience, and position in the funnel, Outgrow will create a list of tools and content to help convert and attract website visitors. Depending on the need, it will suggest different quizzes, calculators, and chatbots to help engage traffic and provide more lead generation.

Applying Interactive Marketing to Your Campaigns

The campaigns in this article should give you a few takeaways to apply to your own marketing. As you create great content, you should also be thinking about:

How to disrupt expectation to earn attention, engagement, and interest
How to best personalize the experience for each individual prospect
How to reduce friction as much as possible to increase momentum

By putting concepts like these in action, you’ll be in a position to generate buzz, make your content stickier, enhance the experience, and fuel your flywheel.

This article was originally posted April 3, 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.