MARKETING
27 Best WordPress Plugins for Your Website
Building a website for your business? Writing a blog or crafting an artist’s portfolio? WordPress is a fantastic platform to promote your work or sell merchandise. And to make the best out of it, you’re going to need the best WordPress plugins to kickstart it. If you want your site to look professional and optimize it to the fullest, these plugins can help immensely.
They will make your site run faster, add layers of security, and help you analyze data to monitor its performance. In this guide, you will find the most essential plugins and how you can install them to make your website become a booming success.
What Is WordPress?
For non-web developers, WordPress may look just like any other blogging platform but it can do so much more than that. Through this platform, you can build any website that you want for any purpose. An incredible percentage of websites all over the world are powered by and even hosted on WordPress. While you may have to pay for some of its more advanced features, it is mostly an open-source platform which means anyone can use all of its basic features for free.
This makes building a website accessible to anyone, even those with zero experience in web development. It has probably the most user-friendly interface and is packed with tools that make it easy for you to manage your website even if you are not a programmer. However, it has two types of formats and in terms of WordPress plugins, it makes all the difference in the world.
You can either build your site directly from your browser or download the WordPress app and install it on your computer.
WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
It’s easy to confuse the two because they basically have the same name, just different domains. While this topic requires a more in-depth discussion, in terms of plugins, WordPress only allows you to use them in the “.org” site.
WordPress.org allows you to create a self-hosted site for free but it’s not as simple as it sounds. As with most “.org” websites, it is a non-profit, open-source software but the term “self-hosted” needs some explanation. To create a website under the .org format, you need to have a hosting service. If you want to use a custom domain, you need to purchase one from a registry. You will then use the platform to build the site and use whatever tools are available, both free and premium ones.
WordPress.com is a for-profit business that still has a free tier but with limited access to tools. You will have to choose a subscription from the available WordPress plans in order to use a custom domain. One of the key differences between the two is that you cannot install plugins under the .com platform unless you subscribe to a paid plan. WordPress will serve as your hosting service and this is why many people still choose to use the .com software so that they can manage everything in one place.
What Is a WordPress Plugin?
A plugin performs a set of functions that can enhance your website. Whether it’s for content management, search engine optimization (SEO), web security, or e-commerce, a plugin adds features to your site that are not included in the service. There are free ones and paid ones. Why not just include all the free features for everyone? It’s because not everyone will need every feature. If WordPress packs all these free plugins for every user, each will be stuck with a bunch of features that they don’t really need and it will just be confusing. It makes much more sense that these plugins remain optional.
You have a multitude of plugins at your disposal when it comes to WordPress. This is why it’s important to know how to choose the best WordPress plugins that will work best to your advantage.
Installing plugins that you can’t really use will only be a waste of your time and storage space. To narrow down your options, take a look at the list below and see what type of websites they are most suited for. To make it even easier, we’ve compiled the plugins into categories so you can immediately look at the ones that you need.
Best WordPress Plugins for Content Creation
These WordPress plugins help you shape or design the look and feel of your site. You can use them to build more professional-looking pages and apply themes that fit your website’s purpose. These are the best WordPress plugins for those who have never dealt with back-end programming or non-developers in general.
Elementor
This plugin is an almost completely fool-proof drag-and-drop tool. With this, you can design beautiful websites using WordPress templates if you want, without even knowing how to code. Visitors will hardly know if you hired a professional to do it no matter how complicated your site looks. Believe it or not, even professional developers and web designers use this plugin.
You can edit your web pages and see how they look in real time even without using the preview. You can design and edit elements on the exact page you’re working on. This allows you to build your website with a designer’s touch. You can add hover effects, funky headlines, use unique fonts, backgrounds, and more. Another great thing about Elementor is that if you don’t want to customize all that on your own, you can simply choose a theme, and voila! Apply different themes on different pages or use the same one, dealer’s choice.
Envira Gallery
If you’re a creative looking for the right plugin, Envira is for you. You can create stunning photo galleries with this plugin. It’s best for photographers, actors, musical artists, and painters, and anyone who wants to display their work through images. Why use a gallery? Uploading a ton of photos one by one is time-consuming, and it also doesn’t have a very appealing visual effect. With a photo gallery, you can create a seamless user experience and allow your visitors to browse through your photo collections with ease. WordPress does have its own photo gallery feature, but it’s not as flexible as Envira.
You can drag and drop your photos to your web pages and speed up their load times once your website goes live. It is also optimized for SEO which means you can add tags and alternate texts to your photos so that they help increase your search rankings on Google. An alternate text is a description that you write on your photos which will appear in case the photos don’t load. These texts also affect your search rankings. Using Envira, you can build your gallery, arrange it, and add special effects within minutes. It is also mobile-friendly, which means you don’t have to tweak anything for your photo gallery to look nice on mobile browsers.
Smart Slider
This WordPress plugin is also great for creatives but will also be beneficial for e-commerce sites. It works almost like a gallery except that you can make images and videos move as in a slide show as the name suggests. It’s an excellent way to showcase media on your website. Pros and beginners alike use this plugin. It is powerful and intuitive and is also SEO-optimized. Why install this plugin even if you’re not a photographer or an artist? It lets you tell stories of what your business is about. If you own a food business or an online shop, you can easily display your products creatively.
You can add buttons, rows, and columns to your slides, and make them look professional. Absolutely no tech skills necessary. Just pick a template and start building your slide show! You can choose whether you want your visitors to swipe through the media, scroll through them, or use keyboard navigation, or all of them.
TablePress
This is perhaps the best WordPress plugin for those who want to display any type of data on their website. It lets you create Excel-like tables and integrate them into your site. You can design them to fit perfectly with your website’s theme. This is incredibly useful if you want to manipulate data within the table. You can use formulas, sort, and filter entries.
Popup Builder
While this plugin is more like a marketing tool, it also helps make your web pages look great. As the name suggests, it allows you to design popups for any purpose you like. You may need popups so visitors can easily subscribe to your newsletter or schedule an appointment. With this tool, your popups will look more suited for your website’s theme.
The goal is to grab your visitors’ attention to make them take action whether it’s to subscribe, purchase a product, or view another piece of content. You can choose from a huge variety of themes. It is so easy to use. You can set the location of where the popups appear, add animation and effects, and set how many times they appear and for how long. You can also add sound effects.
Other uses for adding popups include prompting visitors to log in, confirm their age if your site has an age restriction, chat with a representative, or fill out a form.
Smash Balloon Social Post Feed
A lot of business transactions now happen on social media, and it will help your business grow if you create social media pages in addition to your website. If you want to integrate your social pages to your site, Smash Balloon is one of the best WordPress plugins to use.
Using this plugin, you can display your Facebook posts on any page on your site. If you have a Facebook group, you can also display posts and conversations from that group on your pages. Take note that your Facebook group’s privacy must be set to “Public”; otherwise, it will not show up. You can set it to automatically show photos, videos, and comments from your page to your site simultaneously.
The social feed will also automatically be designed to match your website’s theme so you don’t have to worry about it looking out of place but you have the option to change it. What’s great is that even your Facebook feed’s content will contribute to your SEO rankings! It features built-in caching, which means that displaying your social feed will not slow down your site. The plugin will load them at lightning speed. Your visitors can also hit “like” on your posts directly from your site.
FooGallery
An alternative to the Envira Gallery Smart Slider plugins featured above is FooGallery. Like Envira, this plugin is a gallery management tool perfect for creatives. Easily add stunning photos to your site and arrange them in unique and eye-catching layouts. You will be able to see how your gallery looks like in real-time. No need to save and preview.
You can pick a template and then make as many custom changes as you want. Adjust the size, spacing, and alignment of your photos. You can also add borders, shadow effects, and hover effects to make it look more interesting. It is perfect for those without experience in web development because you can simply drag and drop photos within the gallery to rearrange them. Even pros will enjoy this plugin because it allows you to use or add your own lines of code as well.
Best WordPress Plugins for Security and Performance
These are the best WordPress plugins to protect your site from cyber attacks and improve your site’s performance. Performance means how fast your web pages load including media content. It is important because it improves the general user experience of your visitors, makes your site load faster on mobile devices, and also improves your rankings.
Really Simple SSL
This security plugin allows your site to automatically move to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). It adds a layer of security to your site. When you visit different websites, you may notice that some of them start with an HTTP (http://) URL and some have the extra “s.” This extra “s” means that the site has a secure connection. The plugin detects your settings and configures your site to run on HTTPS. All incoming requests—the number of times a website visit “requests” to load a page, are redirected to HTTPS. It will fix any insecure content you have on your site.
Wordfence Security
Wordfence is one of the best WordPress plugins to set up a firewall and scan malware on your site. Its malware scanner detects threats and malicious IP addresses to keep your website secure. This plugin is quite a comprehensive security tool. It blocks suspicious traffic but unlike other cloud-based malware software, it does not break encryptions.
It also prevents data from leaking, protecting both you and your visitors. Wordfence is true to its name because it builds a “fence” around your site by scanning for vulnerabilities. It even scans files, comments, and any dangerous links within comments. Other tools included in the plugin are live traffic monitoring as well as detecting hack attempts.
UpdraftPlus Backup Plugin
It’s not just threats that you have to protect your site from. You also need to protect your content from getting deleted in case something goes wrong. This plugin simplifies the backup process and lets you restore any lost data easily, making it one of them. Easily create a backup and restore them with a click. It lets you schedule regular backups as well as manually backup your site whenever necessary. You have the option to keep your backup files into other cloud services. These include Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.
This WordPress plugin may come in very handy not only if your site gets hacked but also if your servers crash or your hosting service goes down. It’s so important to keep a backup of your files and this plugin is one of the most reliable ones. It has been tested on over three million websites.
Smush
One of the best WordPress plugins out there in terms of speeding up your site’s load times is Smush. It features “lazy load” and compresses images to improve your site’s speed. Lazy load optimizes media content on your site so they appear faster on the browser; it defers offscreen images so they don’t add to load times.
This plugin resizes and compresses your images without reducing their quality. It can compress multiple file types including JPEG, PNG, and GIF. It works with any WordPress theme and is easy to set up.
Login Lockdown
This is the best WordPress plugin for websites that require users to log in, hence the name. What it does is record every failed attempt done by any user. It tracks their IP address and quickly disables the login function if they enter the wrong password too many times within a short time frame. This will prevent hackers and bots from using password detection tools. You can modify how long this block is enforced.
Best WordPress Plugins for Web Analytics and SEO
Web analytics is crucial to gauge your website’s success when it comes to specific goals. It involves collecting data and reporting so you can measure its performance. An example of a goal is to reach a certain amount of users that click on your calls to action (CTA). Web analytics tools will provide you with those pieces of information. SEO plugins help your site rank higher on search engines.
Yoast SEO
The most popular and also one of the best WordPress plugins when it comes to SEO is Yoast. It is the default SEO tool for WordPress.org websites. This software has helped millions of sites rank on Google and other search engines. It has a complete set of tools and features that you can use to manage your SEO. The plugin helps visitors find you by optimizing keywords found on your posts and pages. It offers templates for content titles and meta descriptions. It also helps you write SEO-friendly content. Aside from SEO analysis, it also analyzes the readability of your content. Readability is how easily understandable your written content is. Yoast supports multiple languages including German, French, Spanish, Arabic, etc.
It also features automatic internal linking so you don’t have to search for pages and pages of posts to see which internal links are applicable to your articles. The plugin will suggest relevant posts related to any article that you’re writing. It will alert you if any post doesn’t have any links directing to it. Why is internal linking important? It allows “site crawlers” to keep finding content on your site. This increases your search rankings and performance. How? It makes sure that visitors don’t get to a dead end while browsing. Once they are on a page, they will keep finding relevant content and keep reading. The longer they stay on your website and the more links they click, the better.
MonsterInsights
This plugin is powered by Google Analytics. It’s a powerful tool that can help you double your traffic and even sales. With MonsterInsights, you will see exactly how many people are visiting your site, which pages they are viewing, and how much time they spend on posts and pages. It provides you with the stats that matter most. Using this tool, you can craft data-driven strategies to drive your business to success. If you’re an artist or a professional blogger, it will help you find the right audience. The plugin lets you use all of Google’s advanced analytics tools. You can generate reports and even print them. It’s so easy to use and understand so you don’t have to know all the technicalities of web analytics to use this plugin.
Its features include Behavior Report. This shows you exactly how people discover your site, which search terms they used on search engines, and which websites referred them to you if any. It also includes content reporting, which gives you insights on which content is performing best. But it has so many other features that will help you analyze what’s going on in your website.
Broken Link Checker
As the name suggests, this WordPress plugin can detect broken links on your site. Internal and external linking is crucial strategies to make your website grow. As you can imagine, it would be extremely tiresome to check each and every page or article to see if there are any broken links.
This plugin tests all links on your content and fixes broken links to improve your SEO. These include links on posts, comments, and even custom fields. If it detects bad links, it will notify you through your dashboard. It also prevents search engines from following those broken links so it doesn’t pull down your rankings. The great thing is you don’t even have to manually update each post with a broken link. You can fix it directly from the plugin’s dashboard!
Matomo Analytics
If you want to use an analytics tool outside of Google Analytics, Matomo is a great alternative. This plugin will give you an easy way to look at customer insights on your WordPress website to help grow your online business. It is packed with various web analytics features that provide the stats that you need while also protecting the privacy of your visitors. By using a highly ethical data gathering method, you can develop trust with your customers.
This is especially important for those running businesses that require gathering personal information like credit cards and addresses. It allows you to run web analytics on your own servers. There is no third-party software involved so both your site’s and your customers’ data are safe. Data is stored in WordPress, ensuring that there’s no cross-selling of information involved.
Rank Math
Though not as popular as Yoast, Rank Math has a lot to offer in terms of SEO tools. This WordPress plugin helps drive more traffic your way. It gives you practical recommendations to optimize your posts with its intelligent SEO automation features. You will operate your WordPress website as if you have a full SEO team working for you. This is perfect for those who are only learning about SEO and are not yet very familiar with it. It’s easy to set up using Rank Math’s Setup Wizard, which will configure everything for you with just a few clicks. You can optimize unlimited focus keywords and guide you in using them effectively on your posts and pages.
You also have the option to add a search widget where you can integrate a Google Search Console. Your visitors don’t have to leave your site to search for information on the web. This is a powerful strategy to make them stay on your website longer. Remember, the longer a customer or visitor spends time on your site, the faster your rankings will increase. The plugin will also perform detailed SEO tests so you will know which keywords give you the most traffic. It also features 404 monitoring, internal linking suggestions, and translation support.
Best WordPress Plugins for Marketing and E-Commerce
These WordPress e-commerce plugins provide you with marketing tools that will help you build a seamless e-commerce website to increase your sales and reach your marketing goals.
AddToAny Share Buttons
Social media integration has become an essential marketing strategy. In today’s culture, businesses both brick-and-mortar and online will barely survive without a strong social presence. This plugin will help you increase engagement on your social media pages. Your visitors can share your posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms in one click without leaving your site. You can set up floating share buttons on any page. This encourages them to share your content.
It also features Follow buttons so they can instantly follow you on Instagram, YouTube, etc. You can customize these buttons to fit your WordPress website’s theme. This plugin is especially useful to social media influencers and those who want to build a website for their vlogs. It is currently the most popular social media share button plugin used on WordPress.
MailChimp for WordPress
Another powerful marketing strategy these days is email marketing. The MailChimp plugin for WordPress lets you integrate MailChimp’s features and customize everything on your dashboard. This plugin lets you build an email list. It allows visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter instantly. You can design professional-looking signup forms that are user-friendly and are optimized for mobile. Integrate it with other WordPress plugins that are used for creating contact forms, registration forms, and events manager. By integrating MailChimp’s service, you can easily send out campaigns to up to 2,000 subscribers.
WooCommerce
Currently the most popular open-source e-commerce software, WooCommerce is also one of the best WordPress plugins for e-commerce websites. It’s a great plugin for your online store that will help you manage your business and grow your client list. But it’s not only for online businesses, it is also being used by brick-and-mortar stores that are taking their businesses online. WooCommerce allows you to create enticing storefronts using themes that perfectly fit your site’s look and feel. You can customize the design of your online shop in minutes. Display and arrange your products in a few clicks.
The plugin also allows you to conveniently set up and manage your payment methods. You can set up your store to accept not only credit card payments but also other methods. These include online wallets, PayPal, Square, and even cash. All transactions are secure. The plugin also lets you set up your shipping methods. You can print USPS labels directly from your WordPress website’s dashboard.
impleCode Product Catalog
Another great way to display your products and make them enticing is by using the impleCode Product Catago plugin. It’s a simple catalog but has a lot of e-commerce functionalities. By adding this plugin, your customers can request a quote with one click. The design is fully customizable. You can use the available templates or if you want, you can also use CSS codes.
Organize your products into categories. You can also activate the feature that lets them filter through the products. This way, your customers can easily find what they are looking for on your site.
ShopMagic
If you want to get serious about your marketing campaign, the ShopMagic plugin can be a tremendous help. This WordPress plugin features automation of follow-up emails. It’s an extremely effective marketing automation software for WordPress websites. One example of its automation feature is cart recovery.
This means that it will automatically send an email to customers who have abandoned their carts on your site. It is designed to convert sales and improve customer retention. Take note that this is a WooCommerce extension. So, make sure that you have the WooCommerce plugin featured above as well.
Best WordPress Plugins for Advanced Users/Web Developers
These are the best WordPress plugins for those with experience in programming or web development. These plugins let you tinker a little bit more on the backend side of things.
Advanced Custom Fields
By installing this plugin, you can take full control of designing your site. It lets you edit screens and as the name suggests, add custom field data. You can add these custom fields on any page on your site including posts, media, and comments. It features over 30 field types. Even the preset templates are developer-friendly!
Code Snippets
Though this plugin is designed for professionals, it has a clean and simple interface. It lets you run Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) snippets on your site. By adding PHP codes, you can extend your WordPress website’s functionalities. The plugin has a graphical interface. You can easily activate and deactivate it anytime.
Query Monitor
This is an advanced developer tool panel that enables you to debug database queries. Fix PHP errors, enqueued scripts, broken HTTP API calls, and more. You can quickly detect functions that are not performing properly. It also shows you warnings when the plugin detects errors on your site. You will have detailed information on your database and web server.
BuddyPress
If you want to add community features to your WordPress site, BuddyPress is one of the best WordPress plugins for that. You can build a modern, sophisticated social network within your site. This is specifically designed for website builders and developers. It is focused on easy integration and extensibility. You can get your visitors to signup for a membership, create user profiles, and interact with other members.
Header, Footer, and Post Injections
While WordPress has its own header and footer functionalities, advanced users may want more customization. This plugin provides that level of flexibility. It also provides you a centralized point to manage all of your other plugins. You can add codes anywhere on any page. It also enables shortcodes.
Where to Find WordPress Plugins
Whether you are using WordPress.com or WordPress.org, the plugin menu is accessible from your dashboard. On the left menu, open the submenu of the Tools section and click on Plugins. From there, you will see plugins under different categories. Remember that you have to be subscribed to a Business Plan if you are on the “.com” platform to install them.
How to Install a WordPress Plugin
After navigating to the Plugins page described above, click on the plugin that you want and click install on the upper right of the page. You can then immediately find the plugin on your dashboard. You have the option to deactivate any plugin anytime.
Final Word
Adding WordPress plugins is a remarkable way to enhance your website. Even if you have the native WordPress features at your disposal, a plugin makes it incredibly easier to customize your site. So, pick from the plugins above and create the best WordPress website today!
Author: By Natalia – Robots.net
MARKETING
How to create editorial guidelines that are useful + template
Before diving in to all things editorial guidelines, a quick introduction. I head up the content team here at Optimizely. I’m responsible for developing our content strategy and ensuring this aligns to our key business goals.
Here I’ll take you through the process we used to create new editorial guidelines; things that worked well and tackle some of the challenges that come with any good multi – stakeholder project, share some examples and leave you with a template you can use to set your own content standards.
What are editorial guidelines?
Editorial guidelines are a set of standards for any/all content contributors, etc. etc. This most often includes guidance on brand, tone of voice, grammar and style, your core content principles and the types of content you want to produce.
Editorial guidelines are a core component of any good content strategy and can help marketers achieve the following in their content creation process:
- Consistency: All content produced, regardless of who is creating it, maintains a consistent tone of voice and style, helping strengthen brand image and making it easier for your audience to recognize your company’s content
- Quality Control: Serves as a ‘North Star’ for content quality, drawing a line in the sand to communicate the standard of content we want to produce
- Boosts SEO efforts: Ensures content creation aligns with SEO efforts, improving company visibility and increasing traffic
- Efficiency: With clear guidelines in place, content creators – external and internal – can work more efficiently as they have a clear understanding of what is expected of them
Examples of editorial guidelines
There are some great examples of editorial guidelines out there to help you get started.
Here are a few I used:
1. Editorial Values and Standards, the BBC
Ah, the Beeb. This really helped me channel my inner journalist and learn from the folks that built the foundation for free quality journalism.
How to create editorial guidelines, Pepperland Marketing
After taking a more big picture view I recognized needed more focused guidance on the step by step of creating editorial guidelines.
I really liked the content the good folks at Pepperland Marketing have created, including a free template – thanks guys! – and in part what inspired me to create our own free template as a way of sharing learnings and helping others quickstart the process of creating their own guidelines.
3. Writing guidelines for the role of AI in your newsroom?… Nieman Lab
As well as provide guidance on content quality and the content creation process, I wanted to tackle the thorny topic of AI in our editorial guidelines. Specifically, to give content creators a steer on ‘fair’ use of AI when creating content, to ensure creators get to benefit from the amazing power of these tools, but also that content is not created 100% by AI and help them understand why we feel that contravenes our core content principles of content quality.
So, to learn more I devoured this fascinating article, sourcing guidance from major media outlets around the world. I know things change very quickly when it comes to AI, but I highly encourage reading this and taking inspiration from how these media outlets are tackling this topic.
Learn more: The Marketer’s Guide to AI-generated content
Why did we decide to create editorial guidelines?
1. Aligning content creators to a clear vision and process
Optimizely as a business has undergone a huge transformation over the last 3 years, going through rapid acquisition and all the joys and frustrations that can bring. As a content team, we quickly recognized the need to create a set of clear and engaging guidelines that helps content creators understand how and where they can contribute, and gave a clear process to follow when submitting a content idea for consideration.
2. Reinvigorated approach to brand and content
As a brand Optimizely is also going through a brand evolution – moving from a more formal, considered tone of voice to one that’s much more approachable, down to earth and not afraid to use humor, different in content and execution.
See, our latest CMS campaign creative:
It’s pretty out there in terms of creative and messaging. It’s an ad campaign that’s designed to capture attention yes, but also – to demonstrate our abilities as a marketing team to create this type of campaign that is normally reserved for other more quote unquote creative industries.
We wanted to give guidance to fellow content creators outside the team on how they can also create content that embraces this evolved tone of voice, while at the same time ensuring content adheres to our brand guidelines.
3. Streamline content creation process
Like many global enterprises we have many different content creators, working across different time zones and locations. Documenting a set of guidelines and making them easily available helps content creators quickly understand our content goals, the types of content we want to create and why. It would free up content team time spent with individual contributors reviewing and editing submissions, and would ensure creation and optimization aligns to broader content & business goals.
It was also clear that we needed to document a process for submitting content ideas, so we made sure to include this in the guidelines themselves to make it easy and accessible for all contributors.
4. 2023 retrospective priority
As a content team we regularly review our content strategy and processes to ensure we’re operating as efficiently as possible.
In our last retrospective. I asked my team ‘what was the one thing I could do as a manager to help them be more impactful in their role?’
Editorial guidelines was the number 1 item on their list.
So off we went…
What we did
- Defined a discrete scope of work for the first version of the editorial guidelines, focusing on the Blog and Resources section of the website. This is where the content team spends most of its time and so has most involvement in the content creation process. Also where the most challenging bottlenecks have been in the past
- Research. Reviewed what was out there, got my hands on a few free templates and assembled a framework to create a first version for inputs and feedback
- Asked content community – I put a few questions out to my network on LinkedIn on the topic of content guidelines and content strategy, seeking to get input and guidance from smart marketers.
- Invited feedback: Over the course of a few weekswe invited collaborators to comment in a shared doc as a way of taking iterative feedback, getting ideas for the next scope of work, and also – bringing people on the journey of creating the guidelines. Look at all those reviewers! Doing this within our Content Marketing Platform (CMP) ensured that all that feedback was captured in one place, and that we could manage the process clearly, step by step:
Look at all those collaborators! Thanks guys! And all of those beautiful ticks, so satisfying. So glad I could crop out the total outstanding tasks for this screen grab too (Source – Optimizely CMP)
- Updated content workflow: Now we have clear, documented guidance in place, we’ve included this as a step – the first step – in the workflow used for blog post creation:
Source: Optimizely CMP
Results
It’s early days but we’re already seeing more engagement with the content creation process, especially amongst the teams involved in building the guidelines (which was part of the rationale in the first place :))
Source: My Teams chat
It’s inspired teams to think differently about the types of content we want to produce going forwards – for the blog and beyond.
I’d also say it’s boosted team morale and collaboration, helping different teams work together on shared goals to produce better quality work.
What’s next?
We’re busy planning wider communication of the editorial guidelines beyond marketing. We’ve kept the original draft and regularly share this with existing and potential collaborators for ongoing commentary, ideas and feedback.
Creating guidelines has also sparked discussion about the types of briefs and templates we want and need to create in CMP to support creating different assets. Finding the right balance between creative approach and using templates to scale content production is key.
We’ll review these guidelines on a quarterly basis and evolve as needed, adding new formats and channels as we go.
Key takeaways
- Editorial guidelines are a useful way to guide content creators as part of your overall content strategy
- Taking the time to do research upfront can help accelerate seemingly complex projects. Don’t be afraid to ask your community for inputs and advice as you create
- Keep the scope small at first rather than trying to align everything all at once. Test and learn as you go
- Work with stakeholders to build guidelines from the ground up to ensure you create a framework that is useful, relevant and used
And lastly, here’s that free template we created to help you build or evolve your own editorial guidelines!
MARKETING
Effective Communication in Business as a Crisis Management Strategy
Everyday business life is full of challenges. These include data breaches, product recalls, market downturns and public relations conflicts that can erupt at any moment. Such situations pose a significant threat to a company’s financial health, brand image, or even its further existence. However, only 49% of businesses in the US have a crisis communications plan. It is a big mistake, as such a strategy can build trust, minimize damage, and even strengthen the company after it survives the crisis. Let’s discover how communication can transform your crisis and weather the chaos.
The ruining impact of the crisis on business
A crisis can ruin a company. Naturally, it brings losses. But the actual consequences are far worse than lost profits. It is about people behind the business – they feel the weight of uncertainty and fear. Employees start worrying about their jobs, customers might lose faith in the brand they once trusted, and investors could start looking elsewhere. It can affect the brand image and everything you build from the branding, business logo, social media can be ruined. Even after the crisis recovery, the company’s reputation can suffer, and costly efforts might be needed to rebuild trust and regain momentum. So, any sign of a coming crisis should be immediately addressed. Communication is one of the crisis management strategies that can exacerbate the situation.
The power of effective communication
Even a short-term crisis may have irreversible consequences – a damaged reputation, high employee turnover, and loss of investors. Communication becomes a tool that can efficiently navigate many crisis-caused challenges:
- Improved trust. Crisis is a synonym for uncertainty. Leaders may communicate trust within the company when the situation gets out of control. Employees feel valued when they get clear responses. The same applies to the customers – they also appreciate transparency and are more likely to continue cooperation when they understand what’s happening. In these times, documenting these moments through event photographers can visually reinforce the company’s messages and enhance trust by showing real, transparent actions.
- Reputation protection. Crises immediately spiral into gossip and PR nightmares. However, effective communication allows you to proactively address concerns and disseminate true information through the right channels. It minimizes speculation and negative media coverage.
- Saved business relationships. A crisis can cause unbelievable damage to relationships with employees, customers, and investors. Transparent communication shows the company’s efforts to find solutions and keeps stakeholders informed and engaged, preventing misunderstandings and painful outcomes.
- Faster recovery. With the help of communication, the company is more likely to receive support and cooperation. This collaborative approach allows you to focus on solutions and resume normal operations as quickly as possible.
It is impossible to predict when a crisis will come. So, a crisis management strategy mitigates potential problems long before they arise.
Tips on crafting an effective crisis communication plan.
To effectively deal with unforeseen critical situations in business, you must have a clear-cut communication action plan. This involves things like messages, FAQs, media posts, and awareness of everyone in the company. This approach saves precious time when the crisis actually hits. It allows you to focus on solving the problem instead of intensifying uncertainty and panic. Here is a step-by-step guide.
Identify your crisis scenarios.
Being caught off guard is the worst thing. So, do not let it happen. Conduct a risk assessment to pinpoint potential crises specific to your business niche. Consider both internal and external factors that could disrupt normal operations or damage the online reputation of your company. Study industry-specific issues, past incidents, and current trends. How will you communicate in each situation? Knowing your risks helps you prepare targeted communication strategies in advance. Of course, it is impossible to create a perfectly polished strategy, but at least you will build a strong foundation for it.
Form a crisis response team.
The next step is assembling a core team. It will manage communication during a crisis and should include top executives like the CEO, CFO, and CMO, and representatives from key departments like public relations and marketing. Select a confident spokesperson who will be the face of your company during the crisis. Define roles and responsibilities for each team member and establish communication channels they will work with, such as email, telephone, and live chat. Remember, everyone in your crisis response team must be media-savvy and know how to deliver difficult messages to the stakeholders.
Prepare communication templates.
When a crisis hits, things happen fast. That means communication needs to be quick, too. That’s why it is wise to have ready-to-go messages prepared for different types of crises your company may face. These messages can be adjusted to a particular situation when needed and shared on the company’s social media, website, and other platforms right away. These templates should include frequently asked questions and outline the company’s general responses. Make sure to approve these messages with your legal team for accuracy and compliance.
Establish communication protocols.
A crisis is always chaotic, so clear communication protocols are a must-have. Define trigger points – specific events that would launch the crisis communication plan. Establish a clear hierarchy for messages to avoid conflicting information. Determine the most suitable forms and channels, like press releases or social media, to reach different audiences. Here is an example of how you can structure a communication protocol:
- Immediate alert. A company crisis response team is notified about a problem.
- Internal briefing. The crisis team discusses the situation and decides on the next steps.
- External communication. A spokesperson reaches the media, customers, and suppliers.
- Social media updates. A trained social media team outlines the situation to the company audience and monitors these channels for misinformation or negative comments.
- Stakeholder notification. The crisis team reaches out to customers and partners to inform them of the incident and its risks. They also provide details on the company’s response efforts and measures.
- Ongoing updates. Regular updates guarantee transparency and trust and let stakeholders see the crisis development and its recovery.
Practice and improve.
Do not wait for the real crisis to test your plan. Conduct regular crisis communication drills to allow your team to use theoretical protocols in practice. Simulate different crisis scenarios and see how your people respond to these. It will immediately demonstrate the strong and weak points of your strategy. Remember, your crisis communication plan is not a static document. New technologies and evolving media platforms necessitate regular adjustments. So, you must continuously review and update it to reflect changes in your business and industry.
Wrapping up
The ability to handle communication well during tough times gives companies a chance to really connect with the people who matter most—stakeholders. And that connection is a foundation for long-term success. Trust is key, and it grows when companies speak honestly, openly, and clearly. When customers and investors trust the company, they are more likely to stay with it and even support it. So, when a crisis hits, smart communication not only helps overcome it but also allows you to do it with minimal losses to your reputation and profits.
MARKETING
Should Your Brand Shout Its AI and Marketing Plan to the World?
To use AI or not to use AI, that is the question.
Let’s hope things work out better for you than they did for Shakespeare’s mad Danish prince with daddy issues.
But let’s add a twist to that existential question.
CMI’s chief strategy officer, Robert Rose, shares what marketers should really contemplate. Watch the video or read on to discover what he says:
Should you not use AI and be proud of not using it? Dove Beauty did that last week.
Should you use it but keep it a secret? Sports Illustrated did that last year.
Should you use AI and be vocal about using it? Agency giant Brandtech Group picked up the all-in vibe.
Should you not use it but tell everybody you are? The new term “AI washing” is hitting everywhere.
What’s the best option? Let’s explore.
Dove tells all it won’t use AI
Last week, Dove, the beauty brand celebrating 20 years of its Campaign for Real Beauty, pledged it would NEVER use AI in visual communication to portray real people.
In the announcement, they said they will create “Real Beauty Prompt Guidelines” that people can use to create images representing all types of physical beauty through popular generative AI programs. The prompt they picked for the launch video? “The most beautiful woman in the world, according to Dove.”
I applaud them for the powerful ad. But I’m perplexed by Dove issuing a statement saying it won’t use AI for images of real beauty and then sharing a branded prompt for doing exactly that. Isn’t it like me saying, “Don’t think of a parrot eating pizza. Don’t think about a parrot eating pizza,” and you can’t help but think about a parrot eating pizza right now?
Brandtech Group says it’s all in on AI
Now, Brandtech Group, a conglomerate ad agency, is going the other way. It’s going all-in on AI and telling everybody.
This week, Ad Age featured a press release — oops, I mean an article (subscription required) — with the details of how Brandtech is leaning into the takeaway from OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who says 95% of marketing work today can be done by AI.
A Brandtech representative talked about how they pitch big brands with two people instead of 20. They boast about how proud they are that its lean 7,000 staffers compete with 100,000-person teams. (To be clear, showing up to a pitch with 20 people has never been a good thing, but I digress.)
OK, that’s a differentiated approach. They’re all in. Ad Age certainly seemed to like it enough to promote it. Oops, I mean report about it.
False claims of using AI and not using AI
Offshoots of the all-in and never-will approaches also exist.
The term “AI washing” is de rigueur to describe companies claiming to use AI for something that really isn’t AI. The US Securities and Exchange Commission just fined two companies for using misleading statements about their use of AI in their business model. I know one startup technology organization faced so much pressure from their board and investors to “do something with AI” that they put a simple chatbot on their website — a glorified search engine — while they figured out what they wanted to do.
Lastly and perhaps most interestingly, companies have and will use AI for much of what they create but remain quiet about it or desire to keep it a secret. A recent notable example is the deepfake ad of a woman in a car professing the need for people to use a particular body wipe to get rid of body odor. It was purported to be real, but sharp-eyed viewers suspected the fake and called out the company, which then admitted it. Or was that the brand’s intent all along — the AI-use outrage would bring more attention?
This is an AI generated influencer video.
Looks 100% real. Even the interior car detailing.
UGC content for your brand is about to get really cheap. ☠️ pic.twitter.com/2m10RqoOW3— Jon Elder | Amazon Growth | Private Label (@BlackLabelAdvsr) March 26, 2024
To yell or not to yell about your brand’s AI decision
Should a brand yell from a mountaintop that they use AI to differentiate themselves a la Brandtech? Or should a brand yell they’re never going to use AI to differentiate themselves a la Dove? Or should a brand use it and not yell anything? (I think it’s clear that a brand should not use AI and lie and say it is. That’s the worst of all choices.)
I lean far into not-yelling-from-mountaintop camp.
When I see a CEO proudly exclaim that they laid off 90% of their support workforce because of AI, I’m not surprised a little later when the value of their service is reduced, and the business is failing.
I’m not surprised when I hear “AI made us do it” to rationalize the latest big tech company latest rounds of layoffs. Or when a big consulting firm announces it’s going all-in on using AI to replace its creative and strategic resources.
I see all those things as desperate attempts for short-term attention or a distraction from the real challenge. They may get responses like, “Of course, you had to lay all those people off; AI is so disruptive,” or “Amazing. You’re so out in front of the rest of the pack by leveraging AI to create efficiency, let me cover your story.” Perhaps they get this response, “Your company deserves a bump in stock price because you’re already using this fancy new technology.”
But what happens if the AI doesn’t deliver as promoted? What happens the next time you need to lay off people? What happens the next time you need to prove your technologically forward-leaning?
Yelling out that you’re all in on a disruptive innovation, especially one the public doesn’t yet trust a lot is (at best) a business sugar high. That short-term burst of attention may or may not foul your long-term brand value.
Interestingly, the same scenarios can manifest when your brand proclaims loudly it is all out of AI, as Dove did. The sugar high may not last and now Dove has itself into a messaging box. One slip could cause distrust among its customers. And what if AI gets good at demonstrating diversity in beauty?
I tried Dove’s instructions and prompted ChatGPT for a picture of “the most beautiful woman in the world according to the Dove Real Beauty ad.”
It gave me this. Then this. And this. And finally, this.
She’s absolutely beautiful, but she doesn’t capture the many facets of diversity Dove has demonstrated in its Real Beauty campaigns. To be clear, Dove doesn’t have any control over generating the image. Maybe the prompt worked well for Dove, but it didn’t for me. Neither Dove nor you can know how the AI tool will behave.
To use AI or not to use AI?
When brands grab a microphone to answer that question, they work from an existential fear about the disruption’s meaning. They do not exhibit the confidence in their actions to deal with it.
Let’s return to Hamlet’s soliloquy:
Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
In other words, Hamlet says everybody is afraid to take real action because they fear the unknown outcome. You could act to mitigate or solve some challenges, but you don’t because you don’t trust yourself.
If I’m a brand marketer for any business (and I am), I’m going to take action on AI for my business. But until I see how I’m going to generate value with AI, I’m going to be circumspect about yelling or proselytizing how my business’ future is better.
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