Keeping up with your email inbox can be a daunting task. Getting bogged down in long, rambling messages? Or maybe the opposite is true, and you keep missing important emails  buried within the clutter. Fortunately, there's a solution that can help.

With Zapier's ChatGPT integration, summarizing your email's essential details has never been easier. With just a few clicks, you can automatically get a summary for each email in Slack or a handy daily digest that includes all the critical info you need from each email all in one go.

In this article, we'll walk you through the steps of setting up this powerful Zap—our word for Zapier's automated workflows. Whether you're a busy professional or simply seeking to optimize your work day, this tutorial will help you streamline your email management and stay on top of your inbox.

How it works

For this project, we'll be using ChatGPT's GPT-4o mini to summarize our emails, and then we'll send the summaries to Slack.

If you'd like to start with a template, click on the Zap template below to go to the Zap editor. You'll need to create a Zapier account if you don't already have one. Then, follow the directions below to set up your Zap.

Alternatively, if you prefer to receive the notifications as a daily digest rather than individually, we'll walk through how you can use Digest by Zapier for this purpose. 

If you'd like to go the digest route, you can start with the following Zap template:

Before we begin developing our Zap, you'll also need an OpenAI account if you don't already have one. Go to platform.openai.com to sign up for your account. You'll also need a free Slack account, which you can sign up for at www.slack.com. 

Are you ready to build this yourself? Let's get started!

Step 1: Set up your Gmail trigger step

Head over to Zapier, and click the Create Zap button to create a new Zap. 

Search for and select Gmail for the trigger app and New Email in Gmail for the trigger event (if you're using the Zap template, these will already be selected for you). You'll also be asked to connect your Gmail account to Zapier if you haven't already.

Once you click Continue, select INBOX in the Label/Mailbox field. You can optionally leave this blank to trigger for all emails. But since that will also trigger for sent messages and drafts, INBOX is the best choice unless you do heavy email filtering/labeling to remove emails from your inbox.

Click Test trigger, and you should see a recent email from your inbox, as shown below:

Next, click Continue with selected record.

Step 2: Set up your ChatGPT email summary prompt

If you haven't set up your Zapier connection to OpenAI, you'll have to do that now. To start, head back over to platform.openai.com to log into your account. At the top right of the page, click on your profile icon and click API keys:

From that page, click on the + Create new secret key button to generate a new API key. You'll need this key to connect to your OpenAI account within Zapier. Copy this key and store it somewhere safe.

Head back over to Zapier and add a new action step at the bottom of your Zap. Search for the ChatGPT app and choose the Summarize Text event:

Click on Choose account, and set up a new account by providing the API key you just generated in OpenAI. If you already have set up your account connection, simply select your existing account and click Continue.

In the Text to be summarized field, you can pull in data from your Gmail step. You'll want to map the body of any new email content so ChatGPT can summarize it. Just click the + icon inside the empty field where you want the data to go and select Body plain from the list of options. (You can also pull in the subject line and anything else included in the email (like the date or name of the sender) if you think it's important. You don't need to include any instructions, as the action is set up to summarize text using extreme TLDR generation (which basically means providing short summaries without losing the original meaning or context). 

Your model will be set by default to GPT-4o mini, which we recommend using as it's the fastest and cheapest model available. You can also leave all of the other fields (tokens, temperature, etc) for this step set to their default values as they may affect performance. Click Continue.

Next, click Test step to send the email over to ChatGPT. Review the summary and make sure everything looks okay. Here's the summary ChatGPT generated for me:

If you want to get a notification in Slack for each email you receive, continue to the next step.

If you want to get a daily digest of all of your emails, skip ahead.

Get notifications for each email step 3: Set up your Slack message

Next, we'll set up the action step that will send the email summary back to you in a Slack message. This could also be set up to send as an email or SMS if you prefer, but we'll be using Slack for this example.

Add a third action step and search for the Slack app. Select the Send Channel Message event. Remember to connect your Slack account if you haven't already connected it to Zapier.

Next, we'll set up the action step. Select the Slack channel you want these messages to be sent to. I create

d a new channel called email-summaries for this purpose. 

In the Message Text field, copy and paste the following, replacing the bracketed content with data from your previous Zap steps, which you can select from the Insert Data dropdown:

*New email summary*

From {Gmail From Email}

Summary: {Summary}

<{Gmail Message URL}|Go To Email>

Your Message Text field should look like the following image when complete:

This will create a message in Slack that includes the sender's email address, the summary generated by ChatGPT, and a link to open the email directly in Gmail for easy responding.

Switch the Include a link to this Zap? field to No and leave the remaining fields as is. Once you've finished adjusting your fields, click Continue.

Now it's time to test your step. Click Test step to send the summary message to your Slack channel and make sure everything is working properly. If everything looks good, you're now ready to publish and start using your Zap.

Get a daily digest step 3: Set up your digest entries

If the idea of receiving instant notifications for every email you receive sounds too distracting, the daily digest is an ideal solution for you. Instead of setting up a Slack notification for the third step, we can use a built-in Zapier tool called Digest by Zapier to store up the email summaries throughout the day and then release them to us all at once at a designated time. 

Add a new action step to the bottom of your Zap. Select Digest by Zapier for your action app and Append Entry and Schedule Digest for your action event. Click Continue.

Navigate to the Action section and give your digest a descriptive title like Daily email summaries. 

For the Entry field, simply copy and paste the copy below. Then replace the bracketed content with the variables from the prior steps by selecting them from the Insert Data menu.

From {Gmail From Email}

Summary: {Summary}

<{Gmail Message URL}|Go To Email>

For the Frequency field, select Daily, and for the Time of Day field, choose when you'd like to receive the digest. Your completed action step should look like this:

Click Test step to add an entry to your digest and make sure your action step is set up correctly.

Get a daily digest step 4: Set up the Slack action to release your daily digest

Finally, we'll set up the action step that will release your daily digest and send all of the email summaries to you in a Slack message. This digest message will automatically send at the Time of Day you specified in the prior action step. 

Add an action step and search for the Slack app. Select the Send Channel Message event and connect your account.

In the next section, select the channel you want these messages to be sent to. I created a new channel called email-summaries for this purpose. 

In the Message Text field, copy and paste the following, replacing the bracketed content with the data received from your previous digest step by selecting them from the insert Data dropdown:

*You received {Digest Count} emails today*

{Current Digest}

Your Message Text field should look like the following image when complete:

This will create a message in Slack that includes the total number of emails received and the digest with all of the email summaries that were created throughout the day, formatted as we specified in the prior step. 

Switch the Include a link to this Zap? field to No and leave the remaining fields as is. 

Next, click Test step to send the summary digest to your Slack Channel and make sure everything is working properly. If everything looks right, you're now ready to use your Zap! 

Putting it all together

Whether you're a busy professional or simply looking to optimize your email management process, setting up either of these workflows can help streamline your day and keep you on top of your inbox. Give it a try and see the difference it can make!

This article was originally published in May 2023, written by Michael Toth. It was most recently updated in October 2024 by Elena Alston.

If your company uses Microsoft Outlook to manage both your email and calendar applications, then you probably spend a decent chunk of time in the Microsoft ecosystem. That's a given. But what about the rest of your tech stack? 

Whatever apps you use, you'll want a reliable way to connect them to Outlook, so that you can automate business-critical tasks to free up your time and get more priority work done. With just a few Zaps—what we call our automated workflows—you can reach inbox zero and stay ahead of your schedule. Here's how. 

Table of contents:

• Automate your Microsoft Outlook email

• Automate your Microsoft Outlook calendar

Automate your Microsoft Outlook email

Staying on top of your Microsoft Outlook email can feel impossible. We get it. The stakes are high. Minimizing redundant tasks within your inbox and speeding up your communications is key for scaling your business.

Automating some of these tedious tasks can help you streamline your inbox so your team stays updated, your projects keep moving forward, and your new leads get a fast (and personalized) response—all from the same place. Here are a few ideas to do just that. 

Create to-do lists from email requests

Often worried about what action items are slipping through the cracks of your inbox? Me, too. Fortunately, you can turn your Microsoft Outlook into a streamlined list of tasks by creating a Zap that sends emails to your task manager of choice. 

With an organized list of tasks, you never need to worry about missing bills, project action items, customer requests, or whatever else comes into your inbox. Instead, you can let the automation do the administrative work and focus on getting things done.

Send emails to leads automatically

No matter how tired or busy you are, following up with new leads as soon as possible is non-negotiable. The sooner you can build a relationship with them, the sooner you can make a sale. But keeping on top of all the emails you need to send is time-consuming.

Save time by setting up a few workflows that automatically send personalized email messages to new leads. This allows you to follow up promptly and cuts down on the number of emails you have to write.

Don't have the scope or resources to write custom messages at scale? Use AI instead. Whether you're emailing a lead back after they've reached out or a specific opportunity changes in your CRM, these Zaps will fill in the gaps for you. 

Send team notifications for business activity 

We all know the phrase "time is money." When your team is informed and on the same page, everyone can get what they're working on done faster, adding up to big savings over time. 

If you have multiple coworkers checking mail or getting notifications in the same inbox, it can become a logistical nightmare. By setting up automatic workflows, you can save time and energy while keeping your team in the loop on company info, customer activity, sales reports, and more.  

Automate your Microsoft Outlook calendar

A fully organized calendar is key to getting stuff done. From managing meetings, setting up reminders, and following up after important events, automation can turn your calendar into an organized and efficient super machine.

Here are a few ideas to create a smoother schedule for you and your team:

Cross-post between calendars

Depending on your role, you may have to manage multiple calendars. Perhaps you have different calendars for each team you manage or you're managing a client calendar on top of your own. 

These Zaps will cross-post new events to your calendar of choice, so you don't have to worry about juggling multiple schedules or posting to the wrong calendar.

And, if events get canceled or updated, these Zaps will automatically update or remove them across all calendars, so that everything stays synchronized without you needing to manually adjust each one.

Do you find it helpful to track where you're spending your time? Using time-tracking tools can help you better manage your workload. And with these Zaps, Zapier will create a new Microsoft Outlook event for every new time entry so you (or even your manager) can track your progress and prioritize tasks. 

Prep for future meetings and events

If you're like me, being over prepared is how you manage stress. But weekly schedules get busy, and it can feel nearly impossible to prepare for every single meeting.

Fortunately, you can set up Zaps that automatically create agenda docs or to-do lists in any app for new calendar events, so you and your team can pitch in on the move.  

That way, you'll be reminded to put in some time on meeting prep alongside the rest of your daily to-do list, instead of being surprised by your calendar. 

Collaborate with your team

Keeping your team as informed and prepared as you are is vital for company success. But that can be easier said than done. From aligning on project updates to sending meeting reminders, it's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. 

To take some of the manual burdens off your plate, you can automatically send messages in your chat app of choice for upcoming, updated, or canceled events so everyone can prep in time. As for project updates, any time a new task gets added to your system, Zapier will create an event in your calendar for you. Here's to staying on the same page—automatically. 

Streamline the way you use Microsoft Outlook

With Zapier, you can easily manage Outlook and power the way you work with automation. You'll go from spending hours organizing your emails and meetings—to hours of time back in your day to focus on the work that matters. 

This is just the start of all that you can do with Outlook and Zapier. Zapier supports thousands of apps, so you can automate almost any task at work. Start building your Zap now and see what you can create!

This article was originally published in April 2021, written by Ellie Huizenga. It was most recently updated in October 2024 by Elena Alston.

AI content generators are being used by the masses—everyone from students to playwrights to content marketers are turning to these tools to help them churn out content faster. So it should come as no surprise that AI content detectors are also being adopted to check how much of a given piece of content is written by AI. 

It's not just teachers checking students' essays or editors checking writers' articles. It works the other way around, too. 

For example, I spent hours running my writing samples through these detectors, chasing a "human" score that proved I actually wrote them. But it wasn't until hour ten of running another sample through that I realized I was focused on the wrong thing. 

Here, I'll share why relying on AI content detectors is a bad idea—plus, what to focus on instead to ensure your text sounds like it was written by you, a real human. 

Table of contents: 

• How do AI content detectors work? 

• How reliable are AI content detectors? 

• AI content detectors: An experiment in reliability 

• Do AI content detectors work? 

• How to spot AI-generated content without using AI content detectors  

How do AI content detectors work?

AI content detectors use many of the same principles and technologies as AI writing generators and AI text generators to scrutinize sentence structures, vocabulary choices, and syntax patterns to distinguish between human and machine-generated text. For example, if a writing sample lacks variation in sentence structure, length, or complexity, the AI content detector might flag this as AI-generated content (the assumption being that human-generated content is usually more dynamic).

How reliable are AI content detectors?

Despite the benefits AI content detectors pose, my experience has taught me that these tools still have a long way to go before we can reliably depend on them to give us a human-vs-AI score. 

I shared the specifics of my experience in a LinkedIn post that went viral. Here's the gist of it: a potential client asked me to complete a writing test and run my piece through an AI content detector. Since my final draft is always human-written, I didn't think I had anything to worry about. But then I found myself spending 45 minutes trying to get a 100% human-written score to pass the test. It was extremely frustrating. 

This is what prompted me to conduct a series of experiments to test how reliable (or unreliable) these AI content detectors really are.  

AI content detectors: An experiment in reliability 

For my experiment, I tested four pieces of content: 

• One poorly-written, AI-generated piece

• One poorly-written, human-generated piece

• One well-written, AI-generated piece

• One well-written, human-generated piece

I ran them all through three popular AI content detectors: ZeroGPT, Copyleaks, and TraceGPT.

Test 1: Badly-written AI content

Full disclosure: I love experimenting with AI prompts. I've played around with AI writing generators enough to know how to write an effective prompt and, conversely, how to write an ineffective one. 

To generate my first writing sample via Claude, I used my best ineffective prompt writing skills to use. My prompt was simple: 

Answer two questions ("What is an influencer marketing strategy?" and "Why is an influencer marketing strategy important?") in 100 words and make the answers readable for an online audience. 

Here's what it gave me: 

When I ran Claude's output through ZeroGPT, it detected that the text was 100% generated by AI. 

TraceGPT also detected the text as AI-written, although it marked that it was only 75% likely (versus highly likely).

And finally, Copyleaks. It was able to detect that the content was AI-generated, but it didn't provide a percentage of how much was written by AI.  

Verdict: All three AI content detectors accurately analyzed the input text as AI-generated.  

Test 2: Poorly-written human content

For my second test, I fed the AI content detectors an article I wrote on TikTok marketing strategies. I wouldn't normally promote my old content—especially since it includes cringe phrases that AI overuses today—but I'm making an exception here to prove a point. To be clear, I wrote this three years ago—well before ChatGPT was even a thing.  

Here's a sample of what I wrote: 

According to ZeroGPT, my article was nearly 75% written by AI. (If I had to guess, it was probably flagging my cringe-worthy phrases as AI-generated text.) 

TraceGPT also failed the test: it was 65% sure the text was AI-generated.

Copyleaks was the only AI content generator that correctly analyzed my article as human-generated. 

Verdict: ZeroGPT and TraceGPT failed to correctly identify the text as human-generated; Copyleaks passed.

Test 3: Well-written human text

Now that we've tested poorly-written writing samples, it's time to move on to well-written ones. 

For this experiment, I fed it this article that I wrote (without the aid of AI tools) for Zapier: Asana vs. Basecamp.

Here's how each AI content detector fared. 

ZeroGPT detected the article as 16% AI-generated. What's interesting is that it flags the intro, the section where I've used a lot of I-focused language, as having been generated by AI. Since AI-generated content usually lacks a point of view, it would be logical to deduce that I-focused indicates human-generated content. 

TraceGPT was also 43% sure the text was AI-generated. 

Copyleaks, for its part, correctly identified my article as human-generated. 

Verdict: ZeroGPT and TraceGPT missed the mark again; Copyleaks nailed it. 

Test 4: Well-written AI content

For my final test, I fed the AI content generators text from one of my LinkedIn posts about finding and cultivating internal SMEs (subject matter experts), which I have no problem admitting was 100 percent generated by AI.

Unlike my poorly written AI-generated text sample from experiment one, this text was generated using a very detailed prompt. It included details on my target audience, examples of previous LinkedIn posts I wrote so that the AI would mimic my writing style, and the format I wanted Claude to output. 

ZeroGPT identified the text as 100% human-generated. 

TraceGPT followed suit, giving it a 0% likelihood that the post was generated by AI. 

Copyleaks also thought the text was completely human-written.

Verdict: All three AI content detectors failed to accurately analyze the text as AI-generated. (At least I know that all my experimenting with AI prompts is paying off.)

Final results

Here's a summary of how each AI content detector performed: 

• ZeroGPT passed one out of four tests, earning it a 25% accuracy rate. 

• TraceGPT passed one out of four tests, earning it a 25% accuracy rate. 

• Copyleaks passed three out of four tests, earning it a 75% accuracy rate. 

This experiment wasn't a perfect science, of course. For one thing, my sample size was quite small. For another, I didn't introduce a control. But it was enough to convince me that AI content detectors aren't sophisticated enough (yet) to reliably distinguish between human and AI-generated content. 

Do AI content detectors work? 

As my experiment showed, AI content detectors can work—but it's a real crapshoot. Here are a few reasons why AI content detectors might fail to accurately differentiate between human- and AI-generated text. 

• Too reliant on patterns. AI detectors look for patterns to help it distinguish between human and AI-made. Let's take variability, for example. In theory, if the text has a lot of variation in sentence structure and length, the detector would likely flag that as human-generated. But variability isn't a guaranteed indicator of human-written text. Some humans write like robots, and some AIs write like poets. 

• Mistake personalization for human text. AI detectors have a weakness for personal touches. Add a few "I"s and "me"s, maybe a personal story or two, and they're convinced it's human-written. But AI can add personal anecdotes, too.

• Well-written prompts. If you know how to write an effective AI prompt, you can get your AI content generator to produce text that reads more authentically human. 

How to spot AI-generated content without using AI content detectors

Even if we ditch AI content detectors, AI content generators aren't going anywhere. So how can you actually tell whether or not a piece of content is written by AI? Focus on these areas: 

Content structure

Human writers tend to use a what-why-how structure to organize their content. Here's how that structure breaks down: 

• What: Clearly state the main point or concept.

• Why: Explain the importance or relevance of the point.

• How: Provide practical steps or examples to implement or understand the concept.

For example, if a human were to write a very oversimplified blurb about how to build a content marketing strategy, it might read like this: 

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of content like blog posts and infographics to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. It builds trust with your audience and establishes your brand as an industry leader. To get started, create a calendar for regular blog posts, research and use relevant SEO keywords, and share your posts across platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram. For example, a local bakery might post weekly recipes using seasonal ingredients to optimize for keywords like 'homemade apple pie' and share mouth-watering photos on Instagram.

It's straightforward, yet AI content generators tend to mess it up. They'll often jump straight from what to how without explaining the why. Or it might give a bunch of how-to points without providing additional context (the what or why). Here's an example of how AI would discuss the same topic: 

Content marketing is important. Post blogs regularly, use SEO keywords, and share on social media.

Notice the difference? The human-written text flows more naturally from one sentence to the next. There's also a level of specificity that's missing in the AI-generated version.  

Lack of subjective opinion

AI content generators are programmed to be neutral, so they tend to speak in generalities and avoid expressing a strong opinion. That's why you'll get wishy-washy text filled with words like "might" and "potentially"—it's the AI's way of playing it safe. 

Humans, on the other hand, have the freedom to choose: play it safe, stay neutral, express an opinion with conviction, or anything in between. 

For example, where a human critic might write, "This new policy is a disaster waiting to happen," an AI content generator will take a less controversial stance and write something like, "This new policy might potentially have some drawbacks." 

Word choice

AI content generators struggle to capture the nuanced emotions that humans naturally express in their writing, which is why AI-generated content tends to read flat overall. To add to this, AI tends to rely on certain filler words and phrases—for example, "in today's fast-paced world," "leverage," and "synergy"—when it doesn't have more specific or relevant content to offer.

Based on my own AI tests, Reddit threads, and the results of other studies, here's a non-exhaustive list of common AI words and phrases to look out for. 

It's worth noting that the use of these words on its own isn't a for-sure indication that the text is AI-generated—you have to analyze the word choices in conjunction with the bigger picture. Does the text repeatedly use any of the words from this list? Are sentences stuffed with multiple words from this list? If yes, it might be an indication that the text is AI-generated (or that the human writer was lacking creativity). 

Focus less on achieving a perfect human score and more on developing quality content 

When I've run articles through an AI content detector in the past, it was primarily to understand whether or not the piece was ready to publish. It acted as a sort of quality control on how human the piece felt and, therefore, how likely other humans would be to read it. 

But there's another tried-and-true way to increase the likelihood that other humans will read your work: develop high-quality content. It's easier said than done. But you're better off improving your copywriting skills (and avoiding common copywriting mistakes) than you are trying to game an AI content detector. 

Related reading: 

• How to train ChatGPT to write like you

• How to use OpenAI's GPT to spark content ideas

• 8 ways real businesses are using AI for content creation

I've always been terrible at RSVPing. I'm the person who'll get a wedding invitation in the mail, look at it for a solid ten seconds, think, "I should respond to this," and then promptly lose it under a pile of bills.

But the wedding-industrial complex has figured out how to exploit my laziness: the QR code wedding invite. No more scrounging for a pen, licking a pre-stamped envelope, or doing anything more strenuous than pointing my phone at a pixelated square like I'm checking in for a flight.

This is exactly what Google Ads lead forms are like. Instead of clicking through to a clunky landing page, hunting for a form, and probably getting hit with a CAPTCHA asking you to identify every tiny fire hydrant in a low-res grid, Google bakes the form right into the ad itself.

Just like those RSVPs, Google Ads lead forms eliminate unnecessary steps and any excuse not to convert. Below, I'll break down how they work, steps to set them up, and ways to automate the process. By the end, you'll have everything you need to make capturing leads as effortless as scanning a QR code.

Table of contents:

• What are Google Ads lead forms?

• How to set up Google lead forms

• Automating lead distribution with Google lead forms

• Google Ads lead forms FAQ

What are Google Ads lead forms?

Google Ads lead forms let advertisers add a lead generation form directly to a Google Ad. Potential customers fill out their contact details—such as name, email, and phone number—without leaving Google's warm cocoon. After all, people are weirdly more comfortable sharing their personal info with a faceless algorithm that shadows them like something out of Brave New World than trusting your business with it.

Here's how Google Ads lead forms work:

• The form triggers when a user clicks on the ad's call to action.

• The user enters their info or, if available, it's pre-populated by Google (terrifying but convenient).

• Once submitted, the data is stored in the advertiser's Google Ads account, where it can be downloaded or connected to a CRM or marketing platform via Zapier or webhooks.

Before you plaster lead forms on all your Google Ads, keep some requirements in mind.

• Google lead forms are only available on search, video, Performance Max, and display ads.

• They are only shown to users signed in to Google. So don't panic if they don't show up in the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool.

• Forms are applied at the account or campaign level only—no cherry-picking individual ads or ad groups.

• Certain categories of ads aren't eligible for lead forms. These include verticals related to alcohol, gambling, healthcare, and politics.

• When creating a lead form, you'll need to provide a link to your website's privacy policy.

Additionally, Google is rightfully strict about the use of personal information. Make sure anything you gather from lead form extensions stays in accordance with their data collection and use policies.

How to set up Google lead forms

It takes about five minutes to set up a Google lead form extension.

1. In your Google Ads account, select Campaigns on the left-side navigation menu. 

2. Expand the Assets dropdown, and click Assets.

   

3. On the Assets page, click the blue plus (+) button, and select Lead form.

   

4. Select either Account level (for use with any Search or Performance Max campaigns) or Campaign level (for specific campaigns). Now, it's time to build the form that captures potential leads.

5. Create a headline, business name, and description.

   

6. Select up to 10 data collection questions (e.g., name, phone number, email).

7. Add optional qualifying questions relevant to your industry. You can search for questions by industry, word, or phrase.

   

8. Insert the link to your website's privacy policy.

9. Select a background image from your Assets library or upload a new one.

10. Customize the form submission message with a headline, description, and a call to action.

    

11. Under Export leads from Google Ads, you can connect your CRM through Zapier (hey, that's us!) or a webhook to automatically export leads. Read on for more details about this step.

    

Automating lead distribution with Google lead forms

One of the most valuable aspects of Google Ads lead forms is its ability to automate lead management. While you could manually download leads in a CSV file like an old-timey data prospector, Google can automatically export leads via webhook integration or Zapier.

A webhook automatically sends your lead information from Google Ads to other apps using a unique URL and key. But it requires some technical know-how and compatible software. Plus, you'll probably want to set up additional actions, like an email to the prospect or a notification to your sales team. Your native lead management system will need to support these, too.

If webhooks sound like too much effort (because they kinda are), integrate Google Ads with Zapier to automatically export leads to wherever you want them to go, whether that's a CRM, a marketing app, or even just as a Slack message to a sales rep. For ideas on how to set this up, check out our article on ways to automate Google Ads lead forms using Zapier, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Google Ads lead forms FAQ

Now that we've explored the basics of Google Ads lead forms, let's go over some questions that often come up.

Are Google Ads lead forms worth it?

Google Ads lead forms are absolutely worth considering if you're aiming for streamlined lead generation. They simplify the process for users, allowing potential customers to express interest without leaving the ad and reducing friction in the customer journey. Their effectiveness depends on targeting the right audience and crafting compelling ad copy.

How much does Google charge for leads?

Google doesn't charge per lead. Instead, it charges per click, just like regular Google Ads. The actual cost can vary wildly depending on your industry, target audience, keyword competition, and campaign optimization. It could be anywhere from a few cents to several dollars per click, but you retain control over your budget by setting daily or campaign limits.

What types of information can I collect using Google Ads lead forms?

Google lead forms allow you to collect information from potential leads, such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers. You can also customize forms to request additional details like company names, job titles, or even specific product or service preferences. This flexibility helps ensure you're gathering the data most relevant to your business goals, making follow-ups more targeted and effective.

Related reading:

• How to automate Google Ads

• What is a lead magnet?

• 5 ways to analyze lead gen efforts

• Optimize your ads with automation

• How to build a lead generation funnel

This article was originally published in December 2020 by Adam Smartschan. The most recent update was in October 2024.

Welcome emails can make or break something you've worked so hard for.

You got the lead, but if you blow your welcome email, good luck getting that person's interest back. On the other hand, if you absolutely nail it, you might have not just a loyal customer, but a loyal customer who'll spread the word about your business.

I've helped all sorts of businesses with their marketing—everyone from eCommerce companies to folks promoting their newsletters—and I know that each business type needs a different style for their welcome email.

Here's how to approach your welcome email based on your industry.

1. Newsletters

2. Software as a service (SaaS) and other apps

3. eCommerce stores

4. Brick-and-mortar stores

5. Service businesses

6. Non-profit organizations

7. Creators and personal brands

8. Membership websites

9. Financial services

1. Welcome email template for newsletters

People sign up for your newsletter because they want more of what you're creating. It's one of the first stages of the customer journey, so you want to introduce them to your brand—it's not time to directly sell them on your products or services.

The best welcome emails for newsletters show your new subscribers what to expect. You might send them a recent or popular issue as soon as they subscribe, and you should let them know the schedule they should expect to hear from you on.

Newsletter welcome email example

The welcome email I got from Intelligent Tuesday, a newsletter for the eCommerce company Intelligent Change, included a popular issue, so I could see what's coming to my inbox. But they also added a little blurb at the top to welcome me and give me an overview of what to expect. 

Other things you could include:

• Profiles of the writers who contribute to your newsletter

• A reminder that you can unsubscribe at any time

• Links to other content, like blog posts, eBooks, or webinar recordings

2. Welcome email template for SaaS and apps

When someone gets a welcome email for your SaaS product or app, it's not necessarily because they wanted to hear from you: it's because they signed up for a free trial of your product or opted in to their first paid month (and didn't uncheck that marketing emails box).

But getting someone to sign up for the free trial—or even start a paid subscription—is only step one. The next step is getting them excited enough to log in and use it. If they don't use it, they won't start (or keep) paying.

That's why, for SaaS welcome emails, you want to get your reader excited to hop into your product ASAP, learn how to use it, and add it to their regular schedule. 

SaaS welcome email example

I recently signed up for the three-day trial from Brain.fm, a patented music platform that's supposed to help you focus better (you can also use it for leisure time and sleep). I could immediately tell they worked hard on the welcome email—and it worked.

Reading this made me genuinely excited to use their product. They told me 100,000 other high-achievers were tuning in (yep, I liked being called high-achieving!), and they also reminded me that this isn't just nice background music. It's science.

Other things you could include:

• A link to a quick tutorial to show them how to get started

• Links to educational or inspirational content about your product

• A reminder that people can contact you for support at any time (and instructions on how)

• Social proof, testimonials, and links to case studies

• Links to popular features or content, depending on your service

3. Welcome email template for eCommerce

A welcome email for an eCommerce business usually comes after someone has either (a) opted in to a discount in return for providing their email address or (b) made their first purchase from your store. The template below can work for either one, but you'll want to be sure you adapt it to fit where the person is in their buyer's journey.

In either case, the person getting this email doesn't actually have their hands on your product yet (like they do with an app or newsletter). That means you want to keep them interested while they wait. There are a lot of ways to do that, but it's important to be sure they feel a connection to your brand and build up the excitement about what you have to offer. 

eCommerce welcome email example

Seek Discomfort did a great job of reminding me why I was buying from their company by sending me this post-purchase welcome email.

They talk about their company values and acknowledge that they understand the kinds of folks who purchase from them ("Seekers"—love the nickname). This welcome email helped me feel a relationship with the brand before I even had the product I'd ordered. It made me excited for the product to arrive and helped me avoid any buyer's remorse.

Other things you could include:

• A selection of your most popular products or bundles

• Links to content reflecting your business mission and values

• Information about upcoming sales, collections, or events

• Product education for whatever they purchased

• Links to social media (so they can promote your item when it comes)

4. Welcome email template for brick-and-mortar stores

Yes, brick-and-mortar stores need email lists, too. Folks sign up for brick-and-mortar emails during a purchase (usually to claim a discount) or after they've made their purchase (to get access to a membership, more discounts, or just updates on things like promotions and events).

There's a higher barrier-to-entry for getting a return customer to a brick-and-mortar store. It's not as easy as "click into the email and purchase." That means it's really important for your welcome email to connect your subscribers with your brand and give them a solid reason to come into the store (usually via perks for being a subscriber).

Brick-and-mortar business welcome email example

When I visited the coffee shop Bluestone Lane, they asked if I wanted to become a member to get access to perks. As a frequent visitor, I decided to opt in.

Their first email to me explained the benefits subscribers (like me!) get at their cafes. I learned that I can skip the line and add points to my loyalty profile for a more seamless in-person experience. Brick-and-mortar subscribers are looking for the perks coming with sharing their information—so make sure to show them.

Other things you could include:

• Photos of the inside of your store, including some of your most popular products

• Information about upcoming events or promotions

• Your address, phone number, and hours of operation

5. Welcome email template for service businesses

If you offer a service, it's likely that it's pretty personalized. Maybe you're a business coach, a management consultant, or even a lawyer. In all of these cases, your work is catered to your clients, which means your welcome email has to be hyper-personalized, as part of a seamless client onboarding process.

Your welcome email should include any necessary onboarding documents and a link to a client intake form, so you can get to know the client better (in whatever way you need for your business).

Service business welcome email example

When you sign up for the interior design service Havenly, they do a great job of telling you what the next steps are, and they link you (with a very prominent CTA button) straight to where you need to go. They also make it personal by including your designer's name.

As a bonus, they include obvious links to learn more about the service or contact them if you have questions. As a service provider, you want to be really clear that customer service is your priority, and this email from Havenly does just that.

Other things you can include:

• An embedded client intake form (if it's short)

• A short bio of the person or people who'll be providing the service

• FAQs

6. Welcome email template for non-profit organizations

If you run a non-profit, your cause is almost certainly more worthy and urgent than most of the marketing that happens online. Even so, you're at the mercy of the same trend that marketers of all stripes are struggling with—an increasing scarcity of attention among consumers.

To stand out, you have to connect meaningfully with your target audience. For many non-profits, that means focusing on the individual stories of people affected by your work. The most powerful non-profit welcome emails find a way to balance high-level statistics with photos, videos, and testimonials that humanize your efforts.

Non-profit welcome email example

After donating to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, I got a transactional email confirming the donation, which was quickly followed by an email welcoming me as a supporter. What I love about their approach is their dedication to individual stories: each email in the National MS Society's welcome series features a real MS survivor. They also do a good job of connecting to the broader cause—and creating urgency—by referencing recent statistics that illustrate the scale of the problem.

To prompt action from users, the email urges readers to learn more and to choose their preferred way of making an impact: joining a fundraising event, supporting research, or sharing your story.

Other things you can include:

• A clear CTA to donate again (or become a recurring donor)

• A video showcasing your work in action

• An introduction to key team members or volunteers

• A link to your annual report or impact page

7. Welcome email template for creators and personal brands

If you're a creator, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is being too "business-y" in your writing. Your subscribers signed up because they want to hear your unique voice—not another email full of cautious corporate-speak. Use your welcome email to put your personality and point of view on display.

Creator welcome emails also tend to be longer than most. Many creators have blog posts, podcasts, and YouTube videos, plus a whole assortment of social channels. You might think including all of this in a welcome email risks overwhelming your audience, but each of your readers consumes content differently; if someone mainly consumes podcasts, it's in your interest to steer them toward that channel as quickly as possible.

Creator welcome email example

Paul Millerd is a creator I've followed for a few years now. The welcome email for his newsletter Boundless (now called Pathless) is a great example of how to let go of formality: Paul writes casually and shows up as his full self.

After thanking his readers for subscribing, Paul shares his story and explains the key themes he explores. Then, he shares a wide range of ways to engage with his work, including a book, a podcast, a list of popular blog posts, social media accounts, a course, and a booking calendar for 1-on-1 conversations.

Other things you can include:

• Showcase testimonials from your audience

• Include a sneak peek of upcoming projects

• Share a behind-the-scenes glimpse into your creative process

• Invitation to join your community (e.g., private group, membership)

8. Welcome email template for membership websites

Membership businesses, like SaaS businesses and other subscription-oriented businesses, face their highest churn risk right after members sign up. If new members fail to engage, they'll struggle to get any value. That makes the welcome email—and the onboarding emails that come after it—crucial for the health of the business.

Of course, a welcome email on its own isn't a magic wand for retention and member engagement. But by helping new members feel included right away—while directing them toward your "stickiest" resources—you can help them get value faster and stick around longer.

Membership welcome email example

Memberships are all about creating belonging quickly. Peak Freelance, a freelance writing community, gives you two ways to start getting value: a membership hub (including courses and content) and a Slack group. It's especially smart to nudge readers toward the Slack group as soon as possible, since getting involved in community conversations makes it much more likely that they'll stick around.

I also like that Peak Freelance sends its emails from the founders rather than impersonally from "the organization."

Other things you can include:

• Introduce key members of your team

• Share success stories from other members

• Invite readers to sign up for members-only events or webinars

• Include a video tour explaining how to navigate the membership hub

9. Welcome email template for financial services

Bank advertisements love to feature normal people enjoying life: a woman staring out the window while journaling, for example, or a man talking with his father over coffee. (Both are real ad examples from Bank of America.) Marketers in the financial space have long been wise to the fact that finance itself is a fairly dry and uncompelling topic; to talk about money effectively, you have to connect it to more meaningful life goals.

As a financial services brand, use your welcome email to talk a little about money and a lot about your customers' goals—and how your product or service can support them.

Financial services welcome email example

YNAB attracts users who feel overwhelmed by money and want to take control over their financial life. The challenge for YNAB's welcome email is to tap into that core motivation and avoid getting bogged down in the drier details of how the app works.

The email—which is presented as a personal letter from the company's founder—is casual, empathetic, and a little funny ("You're the captain of your financial ship, and fear not, this isn't the Titanic.") But what I really love is how YNAB consistently frames its product in the context of the bigger personal journey of reducing financial stress.

Other things you can include:

• Share testimonials from other customers

• Mention any community challenges (e.g., savings challenges, investment competitions)

• Make it easy for users to track their financial progress or performance

Automate your welcome emails

It would be great if you had the bandwidth to write all these emails from scratch, personalizing each one perfectly for the new customer. But that's the opposite of a good business model, so you're going to need to employ some marketing automation.

Your email marketing tool should take care of this welcome email automation once people are subscribed to your list, but Zapier can help you turn your leads into subscribers and continue to nurture them after that first welcome email. Learn how to automate your email marketing.

Related reading:

• 12 newsletter templates for Word

• 31 email marketing examples to use for your next campaign

• 33 email marketing best practices

This article was originally published in April 2022 by Eva Gutierrez. The most recent update was in October 2024.

Designing visuals isn't my forte. But as a freelance writer, I had to find an app that would allow me to create graphics to accompany my content and help promote my services. After all, visual posts are what drive engagement across traffic-heavy platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and X-formerly-Twitter—and they can be a big SEO boost for blog articles. 

That's why I turned to Canva. It lets anyone (even non-designers like me) create professional-grade creative assets—everything from social media posts to websites to multimedia presentations. 

Here, I'll walk you through the basics of how to use Canva so you can get the most out of it. 

Table of contents: 

• What is Canva? 

• How to use Canva

• How to create a design on Canva 

• Canva features 

What is Canva?

Canva is a graphic design platform that lets you create different types of designs including social media graphics, presentations, websites, and videos. The platform is intuitive and easy to use which means that anyone, regardless of skill level, can use it right away. And if you want to supercharge the design process, Canva also offers a suite of AI design tools called Canva AI. 

How to use Canva 

To get started with Canva, you'll need to first create an account (it's free). To do this, go to canva.com, and click Sign up. You can use an email address, or you can sign in with your Google or Facebook account. 

Already have a Canva account? Click Log in, and follow the prompts to sign in. 

Note: While the free account offers plenty of tools to create basic designs, most of its advanced features, including its AI tools, are limited to users on a paid tier. 

How to navigate your Canva dashboard 

Before we dive into creating a design in Canva, here's a quick breakdown of each tab in the side menu of your Canva dashboard. 

• Home. By default, your dashboard will display your Canva Home page. This is where you'll find a list of your recent designs, along with options to create specific types of designs—for example, Instagram Story, Presentation, and Website.

  

• Projects. This lists all your designs. You can group your files into specific folders or group them using filters like Owner, Categories, or Newest edited.

  

• Templates. This is where you'll find thousands of templates across multiple categories that you can use for free to help you kickstart your creation. The templates are grouped by category—for example, Business, Social Media, and Marketing—but the fastest way to find the template you need is by entering it in the search bar.

  

  The Templates tab is also where you'll find work kits (a curated collection of design templates and tools for specific categories), stock photos, and icons. You can also click Creators you follow to follow specific Canva creators and use their design templates. 

  

• Brand. This is where you can access your brand kit—your collection of brand fonts, colors, logos, and photos—and brand templates. Note: This feature is limited to users on a paid plan.  

• Apps. If you want to speed up the design process, you can connect with hundreds of design apps in Canva's app marketplace. You can also connect with other apps that you use to store or share your designs, including Google Drive, Mailchimp, and Later.

  

How to create a design on Canva 

1. Click Create a design in the side panel next to the side menu (you can access this button from any tab). 

2. Choose the type of design you want to create.  

   

3. A blank page or your design template will appear in the Canva editor where you can edit your design. 

   

Since there are endless ways you can edit your work, I'll show you how to use different tools to help you tweak your design. If there's a specific tool you want to learn how to use, feel free to jump ahead. Otherwise, keep scrolling. 

How to work with text in Canva

• How to add a text box

• How to resize a text box

• How to upload fonts 

• How to curve text 

• How to flip text

• How to highlight text

• How to hyperlink

How to work with images in Canva 

• How to change the background color

• How to upload images 

• How to add images 

• How to resize an image 

• How to crop an image 

• How to replace an image

• How to remove the background 

• How to make an image transparent

• How to change the page orientation 

How to work with elements and apps in Canva 

• How to use frames 

• How to group elements

• How to bulk create 

• How to use Canva charts

• How to use tables 

• How to create QR codes

• How to print from Canva 

How to work with videos in Canva

• How to add a video 

• How to edit a video 

• How to add music 

How to add a text box in Canva

1. From the editor side panel, click Text. 

2. Click Add a text box, and it'll automatically appear on your page.

Alternatively, you can drag and drop any of the default text styles or text templates (font combinations) onto your page. 

How to resize a text box in Canva 

1. Click the text box you want to resize. 

2. To change only the width, click and drag one of the white pill handles (left or right side of the box) to make it wider or narrower. To change both the width and height, click and drag one of the white corner dots. 

   

How to upload fonts to Canva

Canva offers a massive library of fonts—more than you could possibly need. But if the font you want to use isn't there and you're on a paid tier, you can always add your own (up to 500 per brand kit). 

1. From the Canva dashboard, click Brand. 

2. In the side panel, click Brand Kits, and select Fonts. 

3. Click Add new, and select Upload a font. 

   

4. Upload your font file using one of these formats: .otf (open type font), .ttf (true type font), or .woff (web open font).

If your font doesn't upload, check out Canva's font upload troubleshooting tips. 

How to curve text in Canva

In the design below, there's an arch with the text "be kind" in a straight line above it. Let's say I wanted to bend the text so that it follows the shape of the arch. Here's how to curve text in Canva to achieve that. 

1. Click the text you want to curve. 

2. In the toolbar, click Effects. 

3. In the Effects side panel, click Curve. 

4. You can adjust your text to curve up or down, and you can make it more or less curved. To curve it up, enter a number between -100 and 0; to curve it down, enter a number between 0 and 100. The closer to 0, the straighter your text; the closer to 100, the more your text will curve into a round shape. 

   

Want to wrap text in Canva? You can't. It's a feature Canva users have been asking for, but for now, the only way to do this is by inserting separate text boxes and manually wrapping each one around a shape. 

How to flip text in Canva

Similar to wrapping text in Canva, there's no straightforward way to flip (mirror) your text. But there is a workaround. The only drawback is that it's limited to users on a paid tier. 

To do this, you're going to first turn your text into an image file and then mirror it. Why? Because for some inexplicable reason, Canva lets you mirror images but not text. 

1. Create your design with the text you want to flip. 

2. Click Share, and select Download. 

   

3. Under File type, select PNG. 

4. Click the checkbox next to Transparent background. 

5. Click Download. By downloading your text as an image, you'll be able to flip it. 

   

6. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Uploads. 

7. Click Upload files, and select the text image you just downloaded. 

   

8. Once uploaded, click the image to add it to your design. 

9. Adjust your image so that it aligns perfectly with the text that you'll leave in its original form (not mirrored). 

10. In the toolbar, click Flip, and select Flip horizontal or Flip vertical. 

    

How to highlight text in Canva

If you want to draw the viewer's attention to specific text in your design, there are a few ways to do that.

How to highlight text in Canva using effects

1. Select the text you want to highlight. 

2. In the toolbar, click Effects. 

3. In the Effects side panel, click Background. 

4. From the side panel, you can change the highlight color, as well as the roundness, spread, and transparency.  

   

How to highlight text in Canva using elements

1. In the side menu, click Elements. 

2. Enter "highlight" in the search bar. You can also search for specific types of highlights like "highlight circle" or "highlight bar." 

   

3. Click the element you want to use. 

4. Resize and reposition the element to highlight your desired text. 

5. Once you position your highlight element over your text, you may need to rearrange which element is at the front (text) and which is at the back (highlight). To do this, right-click the highlight element, click Layer, and select Send to back. Note: The Layer option will appear in the dropdown only if multiple elements are sitting on top of each other. 

   

How to hyperlink in Canva

Let's say you're building an infographic, and you want to link certain elements to another page. Canva makes it easy to hyperlink text, elements, images, and videos. The only drawback is that these hyperlinks work only with PDFs. Or, if you're designing a video, hyperlinks are clickable only in the Presenter window while on Presenter view. 

Here's the easiest way to hyperlink in Canva. 

1. Highlight the element you want to hyperlink. 

2. Use your keyboard shortcut: command+K (on Mac) or Ctrl+K (on Windows). 

3. Enter the URL. Or, to link to another page within your Canva design, click the search bar (under Enter a link or search), and select the page you want to link to. 

4. Click Done. 

How to change background color in Canva

By default, every new design—not templated ones—starts with a white background. But it's easy to change. 

1. Click the blank page.

2. From the floating toolbar, click the Background color icon (it looks like a color wheel). 

   

3. Select the color you want to use: solid, gradient, or one from your brand kit. You can also enter the hex code for a specific color. 

   

How to upload images to Canva

Here's the easiest way to upload images to Canva. 

1. From the Canva editor side panel, click Uploads. 

2. Drag and drop the file from your computer into the Uploads side panel. Alternatively, click the ellipsis (...) next to Upload files, to upload files from Facebook, Google Drive, Instagram, or Dropbox. 

   

How to add images in Canva

Instead of uploading your own images to Canva, you can also use images from Canva's rich library of options. It's got everything: photos, stickers, videos, shapes, and graphics. You can also generate your own AI image using Magic Media (part of Canva's suite of AI tools). Users on a free plan get up to 50 credits; Pro users get up to 500 images and graphics, along with 50 videos. 

1. From the Canva editor side panel, click Elements. 

2. Enter the image you want to use in the search bar (or scroll through the suggested options). 

   

3. Click the image you want to use to add it to your page. 

How to resize an image in Canva 

There are a few ways to resize an image in Canva. The first two methods listed allow you to manually resize your image, while the last one lets users on a paid tier automatically resize images.

How to resize an image in Canva using the resize handles 

1. Click the image you want to resize so that the resize handles appear (they look like white pills along the borders and white circles on the border corners). 

2. Click and drag any of the handles to the size you want. 

How to resize an image in Canva to a specific dimension

1. Click the image you want to resize. 

2. In the toolbar, click Position. 

3. From the Position side panel, enter your image dimensions (width and height). 

   

4. Optionally, click the lock icon under Ratio to prevent any accidental changes to the aspect ratio. 

   

How to automatically resize an image in Canva

For users on a paid tier, you can quickly resize your images to meet the size specs for any platform. 

1. Open the design you want to edit. 

2. From the top menu, click Resize. 

3. Choose one of the suggested sizes or click a category to browse other dimensions. You can also enter custom dimensions. 

   

4. Click Continue to preview the new size. 

5. If it looks good, click Resize this design. 

   

How to crop an image in Canva

Canva lets you manually crop your images to a specific size using a freeform cropping tool. Or you can select a specific aspect ratio to help crop your image to a preset size. The key difference with using a set aspect ratio (versus freeform) is that no matter how big or small you adjust your crop window, it'll still be the same ratio you selected. 

How to crop an image in Canva using a freeform aspect ratio

1. Click the image you want to crop. 

2. In the toolbar, click the Crop icon (it looks like two overlapping corner borders).

   

3. A freeform border (meaning there's no set aspect ratio) will appear around a portion of your image. 

4. Click and drag the crop handles to capture the parts of the image you want to keep. 

   

How to crop an image in Canva using a set aspect ratio 

1. Click the image you wish to crop. 

2. In the toolbar, click the Crop icon (it looks like two overlapping corner borders). 

3. In the Crop side panel, select the aspect ratio you want to use. For example, if you're creating an image to share as an Instagram Story, select 9:16.  

4. Crop the image as you normally would. 

How to circle crop in Canva 

You can also crop images into perfect circles using the circle crop feature in Canva. This is great for logos and profile pictures that require a circular shape.

1. From the side menu, click Elements. 

2. Enter "frame" in the search bar. 

3. From the Frames results, click the circular frame to add it to your page. 

   

4. Search for the image you want to add (this is the image that will be cropped). You can also choose one of your image uploads. 

5. Drag and drop your image into the circular frame for a perfect circle crop. Note: If you click the image to add it to your canvas, it won't work—Canva will simply layer the image above your frame. 

   

How to replace an image in Canva 

If you want to replace an image in Canva while preserving the original image's size and position, you'll use a similar method to creating a perfect circle crop. 

1. Open the file with the image you want to swap out. 

2. Use the Elements tab to search for the image you want to use. Or click Uploads to add your own image. 

3. Click the image you want to use to replace the original photo. 

4. Drag and drop your replacement image over the existing image. 

   

How to remove the background in Canva 

Want to remove the background from one of your images in Canva? If you're on a paid tier, there are two Canva AI tools you can use to do this. Note: If you want to test it out, Canva also lets users on a free account use each of these tools once. It's not much, but it's something. 

How to remove the background in Canva using Background Remover 

This option is good if you want to let Canva AI take over. It'll automatically detect the background in your image and remove it in one fell swoop. 

1. Open the file you want to edit. 

2. Click the image you want to remove the background from. 

3. In the toolbar, click BG Remover. 

   

How to remove the background in Canva using Magic Eraser 

If you prefer to remove the background in Canva manually or remove specific parts of the background, use the Magic Eraser tool. 

1. Open the file you want to edit. 

2. Click the image you want to remove the background from. 

3. In the toolbar, click Edit. 

4. Under Magic Studio (in the side panel), click Magic Eraser. 

   

5. Select the tool you want to use to erase: 

   • Brush. Use this to erase backgrounds. You'll also want to customize your brush size: If you have a lot of background to delete with little interference from other objects you want to keep, opt for a thicker brush size. If you need to weave in and out of nooks and crannies, go with a thinner brush. 

   • Click. Use this to erase objects in the background of your image. 

6. Sweep your brush over the areas you want to erase in your image. Or, if you're removing objects, click the objects you want to delete. 

7. Click Erase (for Brush) or Clear (for Click).   

How to make an image transparent in Canva 

Once you've removed the background of your image, you can make it transparent. This way, you can place that image of your majestic dog practically anywhere—over other images, on your website, in a presentation deck, or, more importantly, on every type of apparel available. 

Now that I've gotten you excited about printing your dog's face on a pair of socks, I should warn you that this feature is limited to users on a paid tier. (Canva does let you create one free transparent image, though, so use it wisely.) 

1. Click the image you want to make transparent (ideally, it's one without a background). 

2. Click Share, and select Download.  

3. Under File type, select PNG. 

4. Click the checkbox next to Transparent background. 

5. Click Download. 

   

How to change page orientation in Canva 

If you thought that something as basic as changing the page orientation would be available for free in Canva, you'd be wrong on two accounts: first, this feature is limited to users on a paid tier. Second, it's not straightforward to switch your design from portrait to landscape. 

1. Open the file you want to edit. 

2. From the top menu, click Resize. 

3. Click Custom size. 

4. Click the Width or Height value, and you'll notice options directly below for changing the orientation.

5. Click the page orientation you want to use: Portrait or Landscape. 

   

How to use frames in Canva 

If you need an easy way to make plain designs look more sophisticated, use Canva frames. From simple and unconventional shapes to holiday-themed frames, Canva offers loads of frames to help level up your designs. 

1. From the Canva editor side panel, click Elements. 

2. Enter "frame" in the search bar, and scroll through the options. 

3. Click the frame you want to use to add it to your canvas. 

Canva will automatically choose how to center your image within the frame. If you need to resize or reposition the image (not the frame), it's easy to do. 

1. Double-click the photo you added to the frame. 

2. Click and drag any of the resize handles to make your photo smaller or larger. You can also click and drag the photo to reposition it. 

3. Once you're done editing, hit Enter, or click a blank spot on your canvas. 

   

How to group elements in Canva

If you're working with multiple elements, such as shapes and text, you can group them. This way, you can resize, reposition, and apply any other treatment simultaneously. It's an easy way to save time, simplify the design process, and minimize errors. 

1. Press and hold shift while you select the elements you want to group. Or you can click and drag your cursor over the elements to highlight them. 

2. From the floating toolbar, click Group. Or, use your keyboard shortcut: command+G (on Mac) or Ctrl+G (on Windows). 

   

To ungroup, select the grouped elements, and click Ungroup in the floating toolbar. (You can't use your keyboard shortcut to ungroup.) Borders will appear around each individual element to indicate they're no longer grouped together. 

How to bulk create in Canva

Let's say you want to create a batch of invitations that use the same design, but you need to change the recipient's name on each card. If you're on a paid tier, you can use Canva's Bulk create feature to get the job done.

1. Open the design file or template you want to use. 

2. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Apps. 

3. Enter "bulk create" in the search bar, or scroll down to More from Canva, and click Bulk create. 

   

4. In the Bulk create side panel, click Enter data manually to add the data you want to insert into your design (for example, recipient names), or click Upload data to bring in data from another data source like Excel or any CSV file. 

   

5. If you're entering your data manually, an Add data table will appear where you can input text or images. Once you've added all your information, click Done. 

   

6. From your design, click the element you want to connect to the data you've added. 

7. Click the More icon, which looks like an ellipsis (...), and select Connect data. 

   

8. Select the name of the data field you want to connect.

   

9. The data field should now appear highlighted in your design.

10. Click Continue to proceed. 

11. In the Bulk create side panel, review the data that will be used in your design. By default, Canva selects every data entry for your chosen data field. But you can deselect any data you don't want Canva to use. 

12. Once everything looks good, click Generate # designs.

    

A new Canva page will appear with your bulk creation—each one customized based on your data. 

How to use Canva charts

If you need a way to visualize your data, use Canva's Charts app. 

1. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Apps. 

2. Enter "charts" in the search bar, or scroll down to More from Canva, and click Charts. 

   

3. Select the chart style you want to use to add it to your design. 

   

4. Canva will automatically populate a templated chart, so you'll need to update it with your own data. To do this, click the chart design on your page. 

5. From the toolbar, click Data. 

6. In the Data side panel, enter your data. You can also click Expand data table to edit in a larger table. 

   

From the toolbar, you can also edit other elements of your chart design, including colors and fonts, along with other chart-specific elements. 

How to use tables in Canva 

If charts aren't what you need, you can also use tables in Canva to represent your data. 

1. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Elements. 

2. Enter "tables" in the search bar, or scroll down to Tables to explore your design options. 

3. Click the table you want to use to add it to your design.

   

4. Double-click any of the table cells on your page to add your data. 

How to create QR codes in Canva 

If you're designing a new restaurant menu, lost dog poster, wedding invite, or anything, really, you'll probably want to add a QR code. 

With Canva, making a QR code is as easy as scanning one. 

1. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Apps. 

2. Enter "QR code" in the search bar, and click QR code. Note: You can use any of the QR code apps listed, but I'm using Canva's built-in QR code generator. 

   

3. In the pop-up that appears, click Use in existing design (if you have one) or Use in new design. 

   

4. Once you've added the QR code to your design, it's time to modify the code itself. 

5. In the QR code side panel, enter the URL where you want your code to point to. You can also customize the code's colors and margins. 

6. Click Generate code. 

   

Canva will add your code to your page, which you can then resize and reposition within your design. 

How to print from Canva 

Now that your design is complete, it's time to print. 

1. Click Share. 

2. Click Download. 

3. Choose your file type (your options will vary depending on the type of file you created). If available, click PDF Print—this will give you the best resolution for printing. 

4. Click the checkbox next to Flatten PDF to convert your design into a single image per page. You can modify any other settings as needed. If you're using a professional printing service, click CMYK for the Color profile. 

   

5. Click Download. 

Now that you have your file, print it as you normally would. 

How to add a video in Canva 

Most people turn to Canva to edit text and images. But Canva lets you work with videos, too. Here are all the ways to add a video in Canva

How to add a video in Canva using Canva's video library 

1. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Apps. 

2. Enter "videos" in the search bar, or scroll down to More from Canva, and click Videos. 

   

3. Find the video that you want to use, and click it to add it to your design. 

   

How to add a video in Canva from YouTube 

You can also pull a video from YouTube into your Canva design. 

1. Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to add to your Canva design. 

2. Open the design that you want to embed your video in. 

3. Click anywhere on the page, and paste the URL you previously copied.  

Canva will embed the video directly into your design, complete with a thumbnail image. 

How to upload your own video in Canva 

1. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Uploads. 

2. Drag and drop the video file from your computer into the Uploads side panel. You can also pull in videos from Google Drive, Dropbox, Facebook, or Instagram. To do this, click Videos, and then click the app you want to connect with. 

3. Once uploaded, click the video to add it to your design. 

How to record yourself in Canva 

You can also record a new video directly in Canva. Here's the easiest way to do it. 

1. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Uploads. 

2. In the Uploads side panel, click Record yourself. (You may need to give Canva permission to access your camera and microphone.) 

   

3. Your screen will switch to the Canva Studio. 

4. Click the Settings icon, which looks like a cog, to choose what to share: Camera, Camera & screen, or only Screen. If you share your screen, follow the prompts to choose which screen or windows to share. 

   

5. Click Record to begin recording, and click Done when you're finished. 

   

6. Click Save and exit. 

The video will automatically appear on your canvas and in your library of video uploads. From there, you can resize and reposition your video as you normally would. 

How to edit a video in Canva 

Your editing options in Canva vary depending on your video source. But the way you access your editing tools is the same. Note: If you embedded a YouTube video, you won't be able to edit the video itself. 

1. Open the Canva design with the video you want to edit.

2. Click the video on your canvas. 

3. In the toolbar, click any of the available editing options.

   

How to add music in Canva 

If your video doesn't have any audio, or it could be improved with a little background music, Canva also lets you add music to your video. 

1. In the side menu of the Canva editor, click Apps. 

2. Enter "music" in the search bar, or scroll down to More from Canva, and click Audio. 

3. Find the audio that you want to use, and click it to add it to your video. 

   

As shown in the example above, you can also layer different sounds, edit the length and volume of each track, and fade the audio. 

Now that you have the basics, go click-happy 

I've barely scratched the surface of all that you can do in Canva, but for non-designers like me, this should be more than enough to get you started. Once you get comfortable playing with the basic design elements, take some time to explore other app features. The best way to discover how to use other Canva features? Click all the buttons. 

Related reading:

• The best free graphic design software to create social media posts

• The best Canva alternatives

• How to create a social media post with AI for free

Blogging is far from dead. As the last two years of X-formerly-Twitter drama has shown, allowing a social media platform to control your access to your audience has big risks. If you want a platform where you can share your thoughts properly and keep control of things, it's impossible to beat a blog. Plus, you can always share your blog posts on social media, through a newsletter, and anywhere else. The whole point of a blog is that it's your content to do with as you will.

Similarly, if you run a business and want to provide resources and recommendations to customers, the best way to do it is often to add a blog to your website. Best of all, your blog content gets indexed by Google—unlike almost all social media posts—so you can drive potential customers to your business through content marketing (and without having to pay for ads). Look at the blog you're reading right now: Zapier blog posts get millions of views per month and are one of the most valuable ways of getting new customers at Zapier. 

After testing all the most popular blog sites out there, these are the five best. And yes, two of them are WordPress, but there are a few great WordPress alternatives in here too.

The 5 best blog sites

• WordPress.org for total control

• WordPress.com for getting started quickly

• Ghost for an alternative to WordPress

• Wix for easily building more than a blog

• Blogger for using your own domain for free

What makes the best blogging platform?

Blogs have been around since the earliest days of the internet, so most people have a pretty solid idea of what one is—even if they've never really thought to spell it out. Here's how I think about it: a blog is a website, maybe with a few other pages, but the most important part is the feed of blog posts in reverse chronological order. 

There's a thin line between the software you need to create a blog and the kind of content management systems (CMS) used by large companies to power their websites. Many tools like WordPress and Drupal can be used to both build a blog or power a regular website (or do both at once).

When I was putting together this list, I used two criteria to decide on the essential blog-iness of the tools I was testing. They had to make it quick and easy to set up a real blog, and the backend where you write blog posts had to be nice to use and fully-featured. Squarespace, for example, is a great website builder that makes it possible to build a blog, but it's not particularly intuitive to set up, and the backend is awful to use. Drupal is an incredible CMS, but it's just too hard for non-developers to get started with to really be considered a universal blogging platform. I've tried it—it's just not worth the hassle for most people. WordPress, on the other hand, is both quick and easy for a regular human to launch a blog—and the backend is intuitive and great to use. 

So, on this list, you'll only find tools that pass the essential blog-iness test. But that wasn't enough. I also required all the blogging tools to be:

• Customizable. A big part of blogging is having a customized site, rather than just another generic Instagram account. I wanted tools that would allow you to choose your own theme and create your own branded blog. The easier it was to do, the better.

• Well supported. While I wanted the tools on this list to be as easy to use as possible, when you're setting up a website, you'll almost always encounter some weird technical stuff. I required these tools to have either a community of users writing tutorials and helping people solve problems or a dedicated customer care team. (Which support option you have to rely on generally comes down to how much you're prepared to pay per month.)

• Affordable. This isn't a list of the cheapest blogging platforms, but affordability and value for money were still key criteria. There are free blogging platforms that you can use to start a blog, but if you expect a large amount of traffic or want premium levels of support, you will have to pay something. 

I've been a tech writer for well over a decade—which is to say, I've been a blogger for a long time. To pick the best blog sites, I started with a list of around 25 potential blogging platforms, the vast majority of which I'd already tried out, reviewed, or used over the course of my career. A few good CMSes, website builders, and newsletter services were quickly cut for being too hard to set up or not having enough focus on blogging, and a few other options were too small to readily recommend or seemed to be discontinued.

That left me with around 10 options to test in full—and these are the five best. I'd love to say there are some undiscovered gems in there, but really, when it comes to something as crucial as powering a secure, fully-featured blog on the open internet, you really need to go with one of the big players.

The best blogging platforms at a glance

Best blogging platform for total control

WordPress.org

WordPress.org pros:

• Endlessly customizable and extensible

• Widely used, so finding how-to guides and professional developers is easy 

WordPress.org cons:

• Generally requires a fair bit of tinkering to get things working perfectly and looking great

More than 40% of all websites run on WordPress, from tiny local sites to major publications. It's the most popular blogging platform and CMS by far, and since it's open source, it's free for you to run on your own server (other than the hosting costs).

If you want to be in control of everything with your blog, from how it looks to what you post, then WordPress.org is the option for you. And while you can run your own server from your basement, it's a lot easier to use a hosting service (like Bluehost or Kinsta) that can automatically install WordPress for you. (Though maybe avoid WP Engine for now, because there's a heap of drama going down between it and WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg.)

Not only does WordPress make the basics easy to do, but it really is endlessly customizable. There are tens of thousands of themes and plugins that change how it looks and what it does. There are themes for photographers and designers to show off their work, plugins that let you sell products through your blog posts, and anything else you can imagine. It's a fairly wild world out there, but there is great community support that can help you navigate it.

The downside of running your own WordPress installation is that, unless you pay for managed hosting or employ a developer, you really are on your own. While basic stuff like installing a theme is relatively simple, customizing it so that it looks good and works with your content may take a bit of Googling. Similarly, while blogging with WordPress is easy and the Gutenberg editor is great to use, adding extra functionality with a plugin and getting it to work with your setup isn't always user-friendly. Depending on what you're trying to do and your level of experience with web tools, you may find WordPress a cinch—or a bit of a nightmare.

Still, the upsides of WordPress far outweigh the downsides. Even if you're starting from scratch, its peculiarities don't take that long to learn—and then you'll have a useful skill.

WordPress also integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like automatically share your new posts to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Learn more about how to automate WordPress, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Full disclosure: WordPress.org is the blogging platform I use for my dog product review site, Bing's Best Things, and I'll use it again in the future for any other side projects. 

WordPress price: Free; hosting costs from a few dollars to thousands of dollars per month; plugins and themes cost from free to thousands of dollars per month.

Best blogging platform for getting started quickly

WordPress.com

WordPress.com pros:

• The WordPress experience without some of the hassle

• A fast and simple way to launch a great blog

WordPress.com cons:

• More expensive and less customizable than hosting your own WordPress site

WordPress.com is a hosted version of WordPress, run by the developers. It's super simple to get up and running. There are free accounts, but you have to pay to get anything close to the full customizability of the self-hosted version.

Getting started is easy: head to WordPress.com, sign up for a free account, and within minutes, you can have a free blog with a .wordpress.com domain name (like harryszapiertestblog.wordpress.com) up and running. It'll be very basic, there are a limited number of themes to choose from (some of which you have to pay for), there are ads for WordPress.com displayed on your site, and you have no access to support staff.

To move much beyond a basic blog with a .wordpress.com domain, you need to subscribe to a paid plan. The $9/month Personal plan lets you use your own domain name, removes ads, and gives you email support. You're still stuck with a limited number of basic themes unless you buy a premium theme or pay for the $18/month Premium plan, which grants you access to more themes and styling options. It's not until you pay for the $40/month Business plan or $70/month eCommerce plan that you can upload and use third-party themes and plugins, like you can with your own WordPress server.

If you've ever used the self-hosted version of WordPress, you'll be right at home with WordPress.com. The backend is just a slightly simpler version, with most of the customization options removed. Put an afternoon into it, and you'll easily have a full blog up and running—though it will certainly look more generic than the one you can set up with a self-hosted WordPress install.

If you want the WordPress experience (or at least everything but the customization) without all the hassle of self-hosting, then WordPress.com is a great option. It's super quick to get a simple blog started for free.

WordPress.com price: Free plan available; Premium plans start at $9/month.

Best WordPress alternative for most people

Ghost

Ghost pros:

• The best WordPress alternative out there—at least for blogging or building an audience

• Lots of features like memberships and newsletter subscriptions built in

Ghost cons:

• Less customizable than WordPress

WordPress has been around since the early 2000s. Over the years, it's picked up a lot of new features, and it definitely has its quirks. Some people consider it bloated and based on out-of-date, or at least not-in-vogue, technologies. The open source community surrounding it certainly isn't drama-free either. All this led John O'Nolan, a former WordPress developer, to create Ghost roughly a decade ago.

Ghost is designed to be a powerful, hassle-free blogging and audience management platform, especially for subscription-based publications. It's a bit more focused on blogging and publishing other content like newsletters than WordPress, which, after years of development, has a lot of CMS DNA.

Ghost has a similar business model to WordPress. The platform is free and open-source: anyone can download it and, provided they have the knowledge and resources to set up a server, run it for free. It's a little trickier to get off the ground than WordPress, as there are far fewer pre-configured options, but it's totally possible if you're determined. The developers also offer a hosted version, Ghost Pro, starting at $11/month. (Ghost is actually structured as a non-profit, so all the revenue from Ghost Pro is put back into developing the open source software.)

While Ghost started out as a pure blogging platform, it's leaned into the paid newsletter and community boom over the past couple of years. Think of it as a blog-based Patreon and Substack competitor. While you can easily turn off or ignore any of the subscription and membership features, if you want to charge people for access to premium posts, a weekly newsletter, and other extra content, the options are there. It's also a big factor in the pricing structure: the cheapest Ghost Pro plan is limited to 500 members, but essentially unlimited people can visit your site and read your free blog posts.

If you want something that's a bit more focused, Ghost is a great alternative to WordPress. Even if you don't want to use the membership features, you're still ignoring less of the platform and options than you are with WordPress if you're just trying to run a blog. Ghost—once you have it running or pay for Ghost Pro—offers a simpler experience overall, though you lose out on the raw freedom to add whatever features you want to your site. Still, a lot of things like SEO management and memberships that are available with plugins for WordPress come as standard with Ghost, so the relative lack of extensibility is unlikely to be an issue unless you're looking to build something truly custom.

Ghost also integrates with Zapier, so you can do things like share your new blog posts to Buffer or send Google Docs drafts straight into Ghost. Here are some examples to get you started.

Ghost price: Free for self-hosted; from $11/month for Ghost Pro.

Best blogging tool for doing more than a blog

Wix

Wix pros:

• Makes it easy to build a great website—including a blog

• Simpler to use than WordPress

Wix cons:

• Expensive compared to the other options

• AI isn't a good way to write blog posts

Most website builders make for a pretty poor blogging experience. They either tuck the blog tools away in some weird subsection, are just awful to use, or both. Wix is the exception. Not only is it easy to build a website with it, but setting up a blog—and most importantly, posting to your blog—is just as simple. 

When you start a site with Wix, you're asked to describe what you're trying to build. If you use the word "blog," the AI site builder will literally add a blog. It's that simple.

Unfortunately, Wix's hard pivot to AI comes with a few quirks. For one, your blog will be pre-populated with some AI-generated examples, and the blog editor includes AI tools that it suggests can write your blog posts for you. I wouldn't recommend using these if you're serious about creating an authentic blog—though the tools that suggest headlines or help with SEO metadata can be handy. But ignoring the AI stuff, Wix's blog editor is solid and easy to do all the usual bloggy-things with.

Really, Wix is a great option for two kinds of people: those that want an even easier WordPress alternative, and those that want to build a full website where a blog is just one part of things. 

WordPress has its quirks, and if you aren't tech-savvy, it can be tricky to get things set up exactly how you want. Wix's website builder is a lot easier to configure than installing WordPress themes and plugins. The catch is that you can get a WordPress blog set up with a custom domain for a couple of dollars a month; for similar features, you're looking at least at Wix's $17/month Light plan. If you're running a business, that might not be a big deal, but if you're starting a personal blog, the price can add up. 

Similarly, while millions of people have built full websites using WordPress, Wix makes it simpler. If you want an online store, web bookings, or even just a big website, Wix's easier-to-use tools may make for a more pleasant experience—especially if you're looking at paying for managed WordPress hosting anyway.

And Wix integrates with Zapier, so you'll be able to connect it to the other apps you use most. Learn more about how to automate Wix, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Wix price: Free plan available; paid plans start at $17/month.

Best blog site for using your custom domain for free

Blogger

Blogger pros:

• Lets you use your own domain for free

• That's it

Blogger cons:

• Really, it's not great

Blogger isn't a standout blogging platform in terms of features. Even after an update in 2020, the interface is pretty stripped back, the built-in themes aren't stellar, and you can't customize things like the post structure. The post editor, for example, mimics an even uglier version of Google Docs—which just doesn't make for a great blogging experience. I'm shocked Google hasn't killed it yet.

Really, it's impossible to recommend, except that Blogger has one key feature that keeps it on this list: you can use a domain you already own, for free. With WordPress.com, on the other hand, unless you pay $4/month, you're stuck with a blogname.wordpress.com URL.

Sign in to Blogger with your Google account, and create your first blog by clicking New Blog. Give it a name, and pick a theme. Then, click Settings in the sidebar, and under Publishing, select Custom Domain to add your custom domain name. Unfortunately, you can't buy one through Google anymore, so you'll need to configure things yourself with your domain registrar.

If you have a domain already and want to use it with your blog without any additional costs, or you just need somewhere to park a domain name so that it stays live, then Blogger is the service for you. But if you're looking for a more customizable blog that's under more active development, go with one of the other options.

Blogger price: Free, including using your own custom domain.

Which blogging platform should I use?

WordPress—whether self-hosted or through WordPress.com—is widely used for a reason: whatever you want your blog to be, it can do it. Ghost is more focused than WordPress but more expensive out of the gate; if you're starting a publication or newsletter, or just don't want to use WordPress, it's hard to find a better option. If I was starting a new site today, I'd probably give it a try just to learn it. Wix is one of the best website builders—and it just so happens to be a decent blogging platform too. If you want the convenience of an easy-to-use site builder, it's a great choice—though skip the AI writing features. And while Blogger is ridiculously outdated, it's totally free—and you can use your own domain name.

Of course, there are lots of other blog platforms out there that didn't make the cut. In particular, if you have developers on staff, a CMS like Joomla or Drupal, or even a headless CMS like Contentful, may be the best fit. They just aren't appropriate options for most people looking to start a blog.

Related reading:

• The best AI website builders

• The best journal apps

• Here's what happened when I used AI to write a blog post

This article was originally published in July 2019. The most recent update was in October 2024.

One of the primary goals of your LinkedIn ad strategy is to capture leads through your paid ads. But the actual success of that strategy relies on your ability to track both offline and online conversions. Those are the actions your prospects take after interacting with your LinkedIn ads—like filling out a form, registering for a webinar, or buying something online. 

With LinkedIn Conversions, you can better understand which ads are most successful at driving ROI—so you can adjust your business strategies accordingly. But manually tracking and sending every conversion event to LinkedIn can be time-consuming and prone to error, especially when dealing with multiple platforms. 

That’s where our LinkedIn Conversions integration comes in. With just a few Zaps—what we call our automated workflows—you can send data from your CRM, eCommerce platform, or event software directly to LinkedIn Conversions. That way, you can automatically and accurately track clicks, sign-ups, and purchases in real-time to make sure every dollar counts.  

Table of contents

• Send CRM events as conversions

• Track lead activity from other ads

• Send orders as purchase events

• Turn sign-ups and registrations into conversions

• Create conversion events from webhooks

Send CRM events as conversions

Your LinkedIn ad strategy relies on capturing accurate sales data. To understand which ads are truly driving results, you need to track both the online actions (like form submissions) and offline conversions (such as deals closed after a sales call or in-person meeting). Without this holistic view, you risk missing key insights and leaving potential ROI on the table.

Many of your most valuable conversions are logged in your CRM (like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive). But manually tracking and reporting these events to LinkedIn is both time-consuming and inefficient. 

With these Zaps, you can automatically turn new deals or updated opportunities in your CRM into conversion events in LinkedIn. That way, your ads data is always up to date (and accurate).

Track lead activity from other ads

Many businesses today use a mix of advertising platforms to capture leads from multiple channels. You might be running lead generation ads on LinkedIn while also capturing leads through Typeform surveys or Facebook Lead Ads, creating a comprehensive sales funnel.

Manually tracking and reporting these leads across platforms can be a hassle. But with Zapier, you can automate the process, ensuring all your lead data flows into LinkedIn Conversions effortlessly.

For example, you can send new form submissions from Facebook Lead Ads or Typeform directly to LinkedIn Conversions. This allows you to capture and report leads from different sources seamlessly, helping you optimize your follow-up efforts to close more deals. Here are a few Zaps to get you started:

Send orders as purchase events

When it comes down to it, the best conversions are, of course, your sales. Say you're selling products on Shopify and your team records those transactions in Stripe—those will be the most valuable conversion events you'll want to track and analyze. But you can imagine the absolute chaos if you tried to manually add each and every transaction to LinkedIn Conversions. 

By using these Zaps to automatically log your sales as purchase events, you can make sure they're accounted for in your ad strategy. Not only does this open the door for personalized re-engagement campaigns, but it also improves the accuracy of your attribution data. 

Turn sign-ups and registrations into conversions

Sign-ups and registrations are more than just names on a list—they're the first step toward converting engaged prospects into loyal customers. Whether someone's registered for an event for the first time or just subscribed to your newsletter, these actions signal interest and intent.

By using these Zaps to automatically log these sign-ups and registrations as conversion events in LinkedIn, they'll be fully integrated into your ad strategy. That way, you can easily track the success of your campaigns and optimize your ad targeting based on real engagement.

Create conversion events from webhooks

Zapier lets you connect LinkedIn Conversions to thousands of apps. But what happens if you can't find the tool you're looking for in Zapier's App Directory?

Fortunately, you can use webhooks to capture data from virtually any platform and send it to LinkedIn as a conversion event. This opens up endless possibilities for tracking actions from apps that aren't natively supported by Zapier (or apps that don't support certain triggers or actions). Use these Zaps to get started:

Improve your ROI with LinkedIn Conversions and Zapier

With our LinkedIn Conversions integration, you can automate, measure, and ultimately improve how your ads perform on LinkedIn. From strengthening campaign insights to  optimizing ads across the customer journey and more, you can use automation to power your ad strategy and improve your ROI. This is just the start of what you can do with LinkedIn Conversions and Zapier. What will you automate next?

Stable Diffusion and DALL·E 3 were two of the first big names in AI image generation models. And although the company behind Stable Diffusion has had quite a chaotic year, they're still both incredibly popular models, so it's worth knowing where they stand—and how they compare.

So, let's look at which image generator you should use: Stable Diffusion, DALL·E 3, or something else?

How do Stable Diffusion and DALL·E 3 work?

All the modern AI text-to-image models were trained on millions or billions of text-image pairs. This allows them to comprehend concepts like dogs, deerstalker hats, and dark moody lighting, and it's how they can understand what a prompt like "an impressionist oil painting of a Canadian man riding a moose through a forest of maple trees" is actually asking them.

For image generation, Stable Diffusion and DALL·E 3 both rely on a process called diffusion. The image generator starts with a random field of noise, and then edits it in a series of steps to match its interpretation of the prompt. By starting with a different set of random noise each time, they can create different results from the same prompt. It's kind of like looking up at a cloudy sky, finding a cloud that looks kind of like a dog, and then being able to snap your fingers to keep making it more and more dog-like.

Even though both models have similar technical underpinnings, there are plenty of differences between them. 

Stability AI (the makers of Stable Diffusion) and OpenAI (the makers of DALL·E 3) have different philosophical approaches to how these kinds of AI tools should work. They were also trained on different data sets, with different design and implementation decisions made along the way. So although you can use both to do the same thing, they can give you totally different results.

Here's the prompt I mentioned above from Stable Diffusion:

And here it is from DALL·E 3:

Something else to keep in mind:

• DALL·E 3 is only available through ChatGPT, the Bing Image Creator, Microsoft Paint, and other services using its API.

• Stable Diffusion is actually a number of open source models. Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, is now pushing its own ChatGPT alternative called Stable Assistant. But you can access earlier versions of Stable Diffusion through most AI art generators and lots of other tools that have an integrated image generator. You can also download the latest version of Stable Diffusion, install it on your own computer, and even train it on your own data. (This is how many services like Lensa's AI avatars work.)

I'll dig into what this all means a little later, but for ease of comparison, I'll mostly be comparing the models as they're accessed through their most official web apps: ChatGPT for DALL·E 3 and Stable Assistant for Stable Diffusion.

Stable Diffusion vs. DALL·E 3 at a glance

Stable Diffusion and DALL·E 3 are built using similar technologies, but they differ in a few important ways. Here's a short summary of things, but read on for the details. 

Both make great AI-generated images

Let's get the big thing out of the way: both Stable Diffusion and DALL·E 3 are capable of producing incredible AI-generated images. I've had heaps of fun playing around with both models, and I've been shocked by how they've nailed certain prompts. I've also laughed quite hard at both their mess-ups. Really, neither model is objectively—or even subjectively—better than the other. At least not consistently. 

If I was forced to highlight where the models can differ, I'd say that:

• By default, Stable Diffusion tends toward more photorealistic images, though it can subtly mess up things like faces, while DALL·E 3 makes things that look more abstract or computer-generated.

• DALL·E 3 feels better "aligned," so you may see less stereotypical results, and it's got stronger content filters so you can't make images of real people or illegal activity.

Though, again, the results you get really depend on what you ask for—and how much prompt engineering you're prepared to do.

DALL·E 3 is super easy to use

DALL·E 3 is incredibly simple to use. Open up ChatGPT, and so long as you're a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, you can chat away and make requests. There are even suggestions of different ideas and styles you can try if you need a little inspiration.

If you aren't a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, you can try DALL·E 3 through Bing Chat or Microsoft Image Creator. But I'm focusing on using it through ChatGPT here—it's the most consistent way with the most control.

Stable Diffusion is a lot messier

Out of the box, Stable Diffusion is a lot more confusing since it's a family of open models—not a singular model. The three most relevant to our discussion are:

• Stable Diffusion Ultra or Stable Diffusion 3. SD 3 was released in 2024 with a bit of controversy. There was a newly restrictive license, it was considered worse than SDXL 1.0 (the previous model), and it was even banned on some of the top AI image generators. Stability AI has backtracked on the license terms, and it's available through the Stable Assistant chatbot, where I'm using it for this article.

• Stable Diffusion XL. At one point, this was the best and most popular AI image generation model. It's still very popular on art generation platforms like NightCafe, where you can find lots of variations.   

• Stable Diffusion 1.5. This is an older Stable Diffusion model. Because it's smaller than other image models, it's cheap to fine-tune and is still available on art generation platforms. 

To make things even more confusing, a few of the original Stable Diffusion researchers left Stability AI and founded Black Forest Labs. They recently launched a new family of open models called FLUX that are replacing Stable Diffusion as the go-to open text-to-image model.

All this means that while Stable Diffusion is still popular and widely available, its latest model isn't as successful as its predecessors. I'm using it through the utterly mediocre Stable Assistant chatbot (more on that later), but that's not how most people use Stable Diffusion. 

So, even though you can sign up for Stable Assistant, type in a prompt, and get an image as good as anything produced by DALL·E 3, there's a lot of drama going on behind the scenes, which makes things more complicated.

Stable Diffusion is more powerful

For all its ease of use, DALL·E 3 doesn't give you all that many options. If you don't like the results, you can ask ChatGPT to try again, and it will tweak your prompt and try again. 

Alternatively, you can use the select tool to highlight the areas of the image you want it to change.

And DALL·E 3 will do its best to incorporate your requests.

These editing features are a lot more powerful than they were when DALL·E 3 first launched, but you still can't incorporate your own images, expand a generated image, or make big changes without completely changing the image.

Even the Bing tools that use DALL·E 3 don't give you many more options. The only ones of note are that Image Creator allows you to import your image directly into Microsoft Designer, and Paint allows you to generate images in the app, so you can edit them (or at least paint over the top).

Stable Diffusion (in almost every iteration) gives you more options and control. You can add elements, replace things, expand your canvas, and basically just tweak your image a lot more with various different tools. Even the otherwise dreadful Stable Assistant offers more options than DALL·E 3.

Finally, if you want to build a generative AI that's custom-trained on specific data—such as your own face, logos, or anything else—you can do that far more readily with Stable Diffusion. This allows you to create an image generator that consistently produces a particular kind or style of image. The specifics of how you do this are far beyond the scope of this comparison, but the point is that this is something that Stable Diffusion is designed to do that isn't really possible with DALL·E 3—at least not without diving deep into configuring your own custom GPT, and even then, your options are far more limited.

Pricing makes things more confusing

DALL·E 3's pricing is super simple: it costs $20/month as part of ChatGPT Plus, or it's available for free as part of different Microsoft tools, though some of them will watermark your images. 

Stable Diffusion is available at every price point. You can download it and run it yourself, or you can get free images through Clipdrop and the various art generator platforms. The easiest way to use the latest version of Stable Diffusion is through Stable Assistant, which starts at $9/month after a three-day free trial. Unfortunately, while it's decent as an image generator, it's pretty bad as a chatbot. It doesn't compete with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. 

All this is to say that Stable Diffusion is definitely worth checking out for free, but if you're prepared to pay for a chatbot, DALL·E 3 is the better option as ChatGPT is much better than Stable Assistant. (If you just care about the image generator, you might find some value in Stable Assistant, but I'd suggest checking out Midjourney instead.)

Commercial use is complicated for both

If you're planning to use Stable Diffusion or DALL·E 3 for commercial use, things get a bit complicated.

Commercial use is currently allowed by both models with a couple of caveats. With DALL·E 3, commercial use is allowed but not if you use it through Microsoft. Stable Diffusion's different models have different terms, but the latest license agreement allows unrestricted commercial use for businesses making less than $1 million in revenue. After that, you need a license. Still, even with commercial use allowed by the tools, the implications haven't been fully explored.

Purely from a creative standpoint, Stable Diffusion has a slight edge. Its model has fewer guardrails—and even less if you train one yourself—so you can create more kinds of content. DALL·E 3 won't allow you to create a huge amount of content, including images of public figures.

Stable Diffusion was happy to oblige.

DALL·E 3 vs. Stable Diffusion: Which should you use?

Neither DALL·E 3 nor Stable Diffusion is a clear winner when you compare them head-to-head. DALL·E 3 is easy to use and safe, though it costs $20/month through ChatGPT. If you use ChatGPT lots, it's well worth it, but it's a steep price just for the image generator.

Stable Diffusion, on the other hand, is kind of a mess at the moment. Stable Assistant is bad at being a chatbot, and while the older versions of Stable Diffusion are still available in lots of places, they're being replaced by FLUX. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try out Stable Diffusion in some form, but I'm not sure how much longer it will be considered a major image generator. There's a new CEO, and James Cameron has joined the board of Stability AI, so maybe they can right the ship?

Either way, the decision doesn't really come down to the quality of the generated output but rather what you're looking for. You can give both models a try—or check out Midjourney, FLUX, Ideogram, or any of the other image models out there. They can all create awesome, hilarious, and downright bizarre images from the right prompt. Give a few a try, and see which one you like best.

Related reading:

• Examples of real businesses using DALL·E for visual content

• AI image generation examples for the workplace

• How to use Canva AI tools to enhance your designs

• Midjourney vs. DALL·E: Which image generator is better?

• Midjourney vs. Stable Diffusion: Which should you use?

• What is FLUX AI?

This article was originally published in May 2023. The most recent update was in October 2024.

The creator economy is booming, and there's a huge ecosystem of apps that creators rely on to grow their income and audience, especially if they're a solo team or running their creator business as a side gig. With so many apps to choose from and a limited budget to spend on monthly subscriptions, which should you shortlist? 

I've been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. I run a community on the side of my "real job" and have spent the past four years building a toolstack that helps me automate repetitive tasks, build an audience, and ultimately earn a side income. 

This article shares the tools I've picked up (and stuck with) along the way, as well as insights from loads of other creators who've done the same. 

The 12 best apps for creators

I asked multiple creators to lift the lid and share which apps they're using to run their business. From membership site owners and social media influencers to podcasters and YouTubers, here's the toolstack of the modern day creator.

Best creator platform for graphic design

Canva

Looking for a simple way to create graphics? Whether it's a social media post or YouTube cover photo, Canva is a firm favorite among creators. 

Canva offers: 

• Canva AI, with magic media that lets you turn prompts into images, videos, and graphics

• A Brand Kit to save custom colors and fonts

• A library of 60+ million stock media to enrich content

• Pre-designed templates you can build on (instead of starting new designs from scratch)

• The ability to create and design digital products, such as workbooks or cheat sheets

"I think some of my readers might struggle to visualize my ideas and frameworks if I only used text," says Erin Balsa, creator of Haus of Bold. "Canva makes it simple to modify their templates—so I can make visuals fast. When you have a daily email like I do, you can't spend two hours on each issue."

Podcast host Luke Ferris adds: "I use Canva for anything design-related, whether a YouTube thumbnail, episode artwork, email banner designs, or simply cropping a photo. Canva Pro has a background remover that's super easy to use and has better results than other free background removal tools. Although I was trained in Adobe Photoshop, Canva's ease of use and built-in templates and assets make it faster to create assets. Plus, more and more people are using it, so collaboration is simple." 

If Canva isn't quite right for you, check out these other free apps for graphic design.

Canva pricing:  Free for 1M+ templates and other assets, and 5GB cloud storage; from $15/month for Canva Pro, which offers 1TB of storage, hundreds of millions of assets, powerful AI features, and more.

Best creator platform for project management

Notion

There's no shortage of project management tools to choose from when shortlisting options for your creator business. But your use case as a creator is unique: you're likely managing several channels and projects simultaneously. Your software needs to step up and support multiple projects, while still being easy to navigate.

In this case, Notion comes out on top—three of the creators I spoke to voted it as one of the most important assets in their creator toolstack.

Creators can use Notion to:

• Create a daily/weekly/quarterly plan

• View a content calendar 

• Track brand collaborations and sponsorships 

• Sell Notion templates

• Brainstorm and collect ideas for new content 

"My favorite feature is the access to various templates that it provides," says Victoria Taylor. "The templates are designed intuitively so you can organize your thoughts, workflows, and teams in a way that just makes sense. I'm a very A-type organizer, but I also appreciate a client aesthetic that has personalization. Notion gives me that without the headache of coding or going through hoops." 

Erin Balsa agrees: "I use Notion to store and organize my ideas, examples, and essays, all of which I use when writing my daily email. I'm using Notion because I love the toggle feature, which helps me see the big picture, but click to view more details."

Christina Pashialis, founder of ContentUK, integrates Notion with Zapier to run her online community. She says: "Notion's Web Clipper allows me to quickly add job listings I spot to a Notion database with just one click (super handy when I see jobs whilst doing other tasks!). From there, I've set up a Zapier automation that shares all the details (e.g., job title, company) in our #jobs Slack channel. This saves me lots of manual work and eliminates the need to constantly switch between apps and tasks."

Here's a workflow you can use if you want to mimic Christina's setup.

Or you can connect Notion to thousands of other apps with Zapier. Learn more about how to automate Notion, or get started with one of these templates.

And if Notion isn't quite right for you, take a look at Zapier's picks for the best Notion alternatives.

Notion pricing: Free for unlimited blocks for individuals, up to 5MB per file upload, and 10 guest collaborators. Plus plan starts at $8/user/month.

Best creator platform for note-taking

Bear

Tried Notion but found the interface too complex? Rob Lennon agrees: "While the rest of the world goes gaga over over-loaded notes apps like Notion, I want to focus. As an ADHD entrepreneur, I find all those features distracting."

Rob opts for Bear Notes instead—a simple note-taking app with a Slack-style interface that lets you:

• Take notes, whether you're brainstorming new product ideas or jotting down notes while on a sponsorship call

• Find notes by searching for the tag

• Clip web pages to save inspiration 

"Bear Notes (which is free) gives me a beautiful, clean place to write without the distractions of being on the internet," Rob continues. "It looks clean and sharp with the Dark Graphite theme and text size set to 24pt. And I can hide everything so all I can see is the letters on the page and nothing else… and get so much more done."

Here are some other tried-and-tested note-taking apps, if Bear isn't the right fit for you.

Bear pricing: Free for local access to your notes and document scanning; from $2.99/month for export options, themes, search, and more.

Best creator platform for audience growth

Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

Kit originally started as email marketing software built for creators. It's since evolved into a platform that not only lets you build an email list, but also grow your audience and monetize your following. Here are some of the standout features for creators using Kit:

• Landing pages and forms to build your list

• Advanced email analytics to see which emails your audience responds best to

• Visual automations, which you can use to build email sales funnels that divert subscribers toward your paid or premium content

• The Creator Network, which acts as a referral engine to recommend other creators' newsletters (and have them do the same for you) 

• A Tip Jar to collect tips from your audience—perfect if you're offering free content

"With Kit, I can capture new subscribers, set up automations, and even make money via paid recommendations," says Ashley R. Cummings, creator of Content Connect.

Kit is actually what we use to run Peak Freelance's Dear Freelancer newsletter. Each week, our co-founder Brooklin answers a question from a fellow freelancer. We send it through Kit to our subscribers' inboxes and also publish it to our Kit web page for non-subscribers to get a sneak peek before signing up themselves.

"[Kit] is the hub of my creator business because it's a list of all the audience members I can reach out to directly without relying on an algorithm," says YouTuber Charli Marie. "It's also what I use to sell my digital products and gauge interest for new product ideas."

Charli even integrates Kit with Zapier to automate repetitive tasks. She says: "One of my favorite Zaps is a message that pops up for me in Slack whenever someone purchases one of my products through Kit Commerce." 

Here's what that workflow looks like:

You can connect Kit with thousands of other apps using Zapier, too. Here are a few more examples, or you can learn more about how to automate Kit.

Kit pricing: Free for up to 10,000 subscribers, 1 email sequence, and 1 basic automation; from $29/month for 1,000 subscribers, unlimited email sequences and automations, and more advanced features.

Best creator platform for simple email marketing

beehiiv

beehiiv is another email service provider—it's much simpler than ConvertKit, but it's growing in popularity among creators. It's worth considering beehiiv if you want an email platform that:

• Lets you customize emails without coding knowledge

• Helps you refer (and get referred by) other creators

• Can segment your audience for refined targeting

• Is free for up to 2,500 subscribers 

"I think the easy connection to potential sponsors is my favorite thing about beehiiv," says Tamilore Oladipo, creator of Content-as-a-career. "While I'm not making a lot of money from it yet, it's been fulfilling to see even a few dollars from. I've experimented with a lot of email service providers, and I find beehiiv to be the most intuitive, visually appealing and the right fit for what I need at the moment. Also, the prices are pretty stable, which is ideal for my current needs." 

beehiiv also connects with Zapier, so you can automate your email marketing workflows. Learn more about how to automate beehiiv, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

And if you want to see your other options, here are some of the best free email marketing apps and the best email newsletter platforms.

beehiv pricing: Free for up to 2,500 subscribers and a decent number of features; from $39/month for access to the ad network, email automations, AI, and more advanced features.

Best creator platform for chat marketing

Manychat

Building an engaged audience is no small feat, but it's critical if you're to generate money through your creator business. Your audience needs to know, like, and trust you before they'll buy into paid products. 

Manychat is a chat marketing tool that can take care of interactions with your audience on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. It can:

• Respond to every DM or mention 

• Answer FAQs without making followers wait for a response

• Auto-send DMs when someone sends a specific word (e.g., "Book" will send them a link to buy your eBook)

It's the tool voted in by Lizzie Davey, who uses Manychat to encourage Instagram followers to sign up to Friday Freelance Tips, a weekly email newsletter for freelance writers. She says: "I use it to automatically send landing page links to people who comment on my posts. They can then sign up and enter my email nurturing sequence." 

You can connect Manychat to all the other apps you use with Zapier, too. Learn more about how to automate Manychat, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

If Manychat isn't exactly what you need, you can try these other chatbot builders that can help take some of the manual work out of audience engagement. 

Manychat pricing: Free for up to 1,000 contacts, limited segmentation, and limited channels; from $15/month for more channels (including SMS and email) and more advanced features.

Best creator platform for video editing

Descript

There's a lot that goes into producing video content. Recording your footage is one half of the equation—but how do you make a rough-around-the-edges clip into a world-class video that gets your audience's attention? 

For some creators (myself included), the answer is Descript. It offers features that go above and beyond a traditional video editor, including AI tools like:

• Automatic transcription to edit video or audio using text 

• Studio Sound to improve audio quality

• Clip creator to repurpose long-form footage into social media clips

• AI voice cloning to fix audio mistakes in post-production

"As an AI trainer who produces a lot of video courses, Descript has been on my top list of apps for years," says Rob Lennon. "I love to automatically remove filler words (all the 'ums' and 'uhs') and convert my audio to studio sound quality. It makes my Lennon Labs courses feel really professional, and all I did was click two buttons."

"My other favorite feature is Descript's AI assistant preset to 'generate show notes,' which I use for my office hours recordings so that people can easily see what we covered," Rob adds.

Connect Descript to Zapier to automate your transcription and video workflows even more. Learn more about how to automate Descript, or try one of these pre-built workflows.

And if Descript doesn't work for you, try one of these AI video generators or free video editing software.

Descript pricing: Free plan available for 1 transcription hour/month; from $19/month for 10 transcription hours/month, 1080p exports, and limited AI use.

Best creator platform for booking meetings

Acuity Scheduling

Sometimes, the best way to interact with your audience is 1:1. Acuity's scheduling tool lets you take the hassle out of arranging meetings—no more "are you free this Tuesday at 3 p.m. or next Friday at 10?"

Creators can use Acuity Scheduling to:

• Create a custom calendar to show your availability

• Build intake forms to gather information on your contact pre-meeting

• Send automated reminders and prevent no-shows

• Charge customers for calls (great for coaches or consultants!)

Tori Mistick, creator of Wear Wag Repeat, uses Acuity to schedule guests for her podcast, set up coffee chats, and arrange 1:1 strategy sessions with clients. She says: "The petpreneurs I help work all kinds of hours and are based all over the world. This scheduling tool makes it easy to coordinate everyone's schedules. It saves me a ton of time and totally eliminates those painful back-and-forth scheduling emails!"

"I especially love that people can reschedule without having to ask me," Tori adds. "It automates a ton of admin work in my business." 

Connect Acuity with Zapier to automate your scheduling. Try these workflows, or learn more about how to automate Acuity.

There are plenty of other booking apps to choose from if Acuity doesn't vibe with you.

Acuity Scheduling pricing: From $20/month for 1 calendar

Best creator platform for YouTube

TubeBuddy

YouTube has been around for years, but the introduction of short-form video platforms like TikTok begs the question: is YouTube still really worth pursuing? 

Absolutely it is.

If YouTube is part of your creator strategy, TubeBuddy is worth shortlisting in your search for creator tools. It lets you:

• Find keywords your audience is searching for

• Spot emerging trends 

• Determine how easy it'd be to rank for the phrase in YouTube search 

"I use TubeBuddy to research keywords, titles, and tags, while getting insights from my videos compared to competitors using VidiQ," says Moni Vuong, YouTuber at PTE Magic. "These tools make YouTube's algorithms easier for me, and I just love the fact that they can turn those data into actionable steps. And their user-friendly features save me a lot of time, which is a huge help to content creators like me."

TubeBuddy pricing: From $7.50/month for search optimization features and limited access to other engagement tools

Best creator platform for LinkedIn

Kleo

The downfall of X (formerly known as Twitter) has caused some B2B creators to pivot their audiences and lean into LinkedIn. 

Ben Goody, creator and founder of Spicy Margarita, has grown his LinkedIn following to over 43,000+ followers in the past year. He's also accumulated over 8,000 newsletter subscribers and runs a podcast. Kleo makes it possible.

Kleo is a browser extension that lets LinkedIn creators:

• Find your top-performing LinkedIn posts

• Sift through old content with keyword, format, and popularity filters

• View top-performing posts on LinkedIn, so you can analyze and replicate them 

• Schedule posts in advance and see what they'll look like when they go live 

Ben says: "I love how easy it makes it to view what your final LinkedIn post will look like before publishing. It also makes finding other creators' top-performing content easy, which is an amazing place to get inspiration for my own content with proven ideas."

Kleo pricing: Free

Best creator platform for building a community

Circle 

Circle is an all-in-one creator platform to run an online membership or virtual community.

It's what we use at Peak Freelance, the freelance writing community that I co-founded. We migrated from Podia to Circle to combine community features like chat and events with online courses, without needing multiple subscriptions to cover the gaps that Podia had. 

Circle's best features and use cases include: 

• Built-in chat, discussion, and DM tools

• Customizable member profiles 

• Gamification like leaderboards to recognize and reward VIP members

• Paywalls to gate access to your paid community and online courses

• Events to bypass the need for extra video tools like Zoom or Google Meet 

Matt Carnevale of Exit Five also voted it as an important tool for creators to consider: "We chose Circle because it has a deep feature set that allows us to scale our community beyond just a discussion forum. There's a discussion forum aspect, we have over 200+ videos and templates in there, and we do two events per month such as website and ad teardowns where marketers can get free advice on their marketing strategy."

Matt adds: "My favorite feature is the ability to do sophisticated searches inside the community. We have thousands of posts in the community all time, so it's super valuable for members to be able to search for something like 'SEO' and view the most popular content and questions about SEO all time."

You can do even more with Circle when you integrate it with Zapier, so you can connect it to all the other apps you use. Here are a few workflows to get you started.

Circle pricing: From $49/month for up to 100 members and 4% transaction fees

Best creator platform for automation

Zapier 

This is the Zapier blog, yes, but as a Zapier user, I can vouch for it. The automation platform helps you build systems to automate the repetitive tasks involved in running an online business, leaving you with more time to do what you do best: create.

"My top app is definitely Zapier—it's the glue that holds together my Google Forms, WordPress, Slack, and Kit, plus a bunch of other things I'm probably forgetting," says Brendan Hufford, founder of Growing Up.

Jimmy Daly, owner of Help a B2B Writer, uses the Paths feature to configure multi-step automations: "As an example, I often create paths to help me catch errors, or to funnel people to different experiences based on attributes from another source (like Airtable)."

And it's more than simple automations: 

• Zapier Interfaces lets you create custom forms, client portals, and internal tools in minutes—and then integrate them with all the other apps you use for your business. 

• Zapier Tables lets you store, organize, and take action on your important data, to keep your business processes running seamlessly.

• Zapier Chatbots lets you build an AI-powered chatbot based on your live and static knowledge sources. You can even view analytics and conversation history to make your customer interactions more seamless.

Here are a few templates to get you started.

Zapier pricing: Free plan available for basic workflow automation; from $29.99/month for advanced workflows; Tables, Interfaces, and Chatbots are add-ons (each with a free plan available).

Being a creator is no small feat

Running a creator business means keeping up with new features on every platform and differentiating yourself from thousands of other creators—all while building and interacting with your audience. You're not alone if you're on the edge of burnout, but these tools should help spread the load.

Whether it's a project management tool to manage incoming sponsorships or a way to automate repetitive tasks, you'll soon start to see the value of building out a creator toolstack that you can lean on. 

Related reading:

• 7 surprising productivity tips from a solopreneur

• Using big business lessons as a solopreneur

• The best self-employed accounting software

• The best apps for freelancers

• 6 obstacles every early-stage business owner should expect

Upskilling in AI is just about the most productive thing you could do with your free time right now. 

With every day that passes, AI technology is making strides, and the demand for AI-related skills increases along with it. In fact, 68% of executives in a global study by Deloitte reported a moderate-to-extreme AI skills gap to keep up with their needs. To help close the knowledge gap, big tech companies have been publishing high-quality AI learning content.

Whether you're looking to upskill in a particular AI-related area or you just want a better understanding of where we are now and where we're heading, investing time to learn this stuff will unequivocally pay off. 

The problem: there's a lot of AI learning content out there, and some of it is not so great, while others cost thousands of dollars to complete. So I spent time sifting through swaths of online AI courses available right now to pull out the best, most actionable (and affordable!) ones on offer.

The courses on this list are meant for beginners who want to introduce AI into their work, so check your impostor syndrome at the door, and start learning.

The best AI courses for beginners at a glance

Why learn about AI?

Instead of spending your time asking Google "will AI take my job?" you're better off learning how to use AI to your advantage. Because if you don't, the answer will likely be a hard yes.

Regardless of how you feel about AI, it's a tool that every knowledge worker can use to do their job better. That's true for writers, coders, project managers, HR professionals, marketers, salespeople—and everyone in between.

The good news: you don't have to be tech-advanced to be able to learn how to use AI. AI is having its moment because of how powerful new models are, but part of the reason AI has been so headline-y is that it's so accessible. If you have access to the internet, you can use AI.

So learn how to embrace AI at work—these eight classes can help.

1. AI for Everyone (DeepLearning.AI)

DeepLearning.AI is an ed tech company that's solely dedicated to educating the world on AI. The company is headed up by Dr. Andrew Ng, who's pretty much the global leading voice in artificial intelligence. Any courses you enroll for with him, you know you're in good hands.

As you can imagine, there's a whole load of different AI courses available through the DeepLearning.AI website—that's literally their business model. I was surprised to see how affordable the courses are too. The vast majority of their short courses are hosted natively on the DeepLearning website and are free to enroll once you register. Some courses (like the AI for Everyone course, for example) are hosted on Coursera, and range from around $39 to $79 if you want to take the final assessment to earn a certificate of completion.

Andrew Ng also happens to be the co-founder of Coursera, so you can access a lot of his other course content through a Coursera subscription (which is free for the first seven days). His course AI for Everyone is by far the most popular online AI course I've come across. Nearly 1.5 million people have taken the course so far, and it's had well over 40,000 positive reviews. 

The course itself covers a whole lot of introductory ground across its four modules, including how to build AI into your business and how AI is impacting society.

While the course information says you should be able to complete the course in under 6 hours, there's a lot of content to get through. Modules include 8-10 videos, and there's a quiz at the end of each block, so it could easily take a lot longer to complete. If you're looking for something shorter, keep scrolling.

Price: Free to take the course as read-only; $49 to take the final assessment and earn a certificate of completion

2. Applying Generative AI as a Business Professional (LinkedIn)

If there's one platform that knows the value of upskilling, it's LinkedIn. So it's not surprising that if you run a search on LinkedIn Learning, you'll see there's a whole bunch of educational AI video content available on the platform.

I've watched a lot of the free AI video content and found most of it really useful for providing top-level context to using AI at work. It's all general enough that you can apply it to most industries. Helpfully, LinkedIn has organized a lot of the content into cohesive learning paths. 

If you're very new to AI, there's a Career Essentials in Generative AI path that focuses on what generative AI is and how you can use it in the workplace. But Applying Generative AI as a Business Professional is the one I found to be the most practical. There's content in there that will show you how to generate the best prompts, use generative AI to write content, perform solid research, and create AI-generated images on Midjourney. Everything that will help you leverage generative AI in your job, basically.

Making your way through this content path will take around 15 hours. There are seven chapters to the course, which includes a total of six hours of video content and quizzes to complete as you move through each chapter. And if you take the exam at the end, you'll get a Professional Certificate from Microsoft that you can display on your LinkedIn profile too.

A subscription to LinkedIn Learning is free for the first month, so you could do one of these courses (or both, depending on how much free time you have) within the free month trial.

Price: Free for 1 month; $39.99/month (or $24.99/month, paid annually) after that

3. Introduction to Generative AI Learning Path (Google)

To no one's surprise, Google is also offering a whole load of different AI-related online courses and educational content. Of all Google's AI material I've found, the Introduction to Generative AI Learning Path seems to be the best value in terms of the amount of course material involved. 

This is an introductory course that will give you a good overview of generative AI, large language models, and using AI responsibly. The learning path is made up of five courses, offered through Google Cloud's Skills Boost program. 

Google recommends you dedicate one day per course, as you make your way through various videos, reading material, and quizzes. Some blocks involve more material than others, and completing a course will earn you 300 credits. 

You can consume all the content for free, but to take a "Lab" (to test your knowledge and earn a completion badge that will go on your Google profile), you need to subscribe or have earned enough credits. Google Cloud's Skills Boost subscription is free for the first month, then $29/month thereafter. 

Price: Free; to get a completion badge, $29/month after 1 free month (or $299 for an annual Google Cloud Skills Boost subscription)

4. AI for Business Specialization (University of Pennsylvania)

The University of Pennsylvania offers an AI For Business Specialization course through Coursera that covers a broad spectrum of interest areas within it. The course is made up of four modules: 

• AI Fundamentals for Non-Data Scientists

• AI Applications in Marketing and Finance

• AI Applications in People Management

• AI Strategy and Governance

The course is suitable for beginners, but the content is aimed at business leaders and managers. It focuses on providing a holistic overview of these different areas of AI and how they relate to each other. The content also gives guidance on how you can best implement AI across different areas of your organization and use it to your advantage. 

This course is taught by professors at the Wharton School, one of the top-ranking business schools in the world. Completing the entire course should take around one month, assuming you're able to dedicate 10 hours per week to the content. You're also expected to take part in peer-reviewed assessments for each module, and if you complete them, you'll come away with a certificate that's shareable on your LinkedIn profile.

Coursera has a free seven-day trial, in which time you could complete one of the modules (around 10 hours) to be sure it was worth your time. After the free trial, a Coursera subscription is $59/month. 

Price:  7-day free trial; $59/month after that or $399 for the year

5. AI Foundations for Everyone Specialization (IBM)

IBM offers a few different beginner-level AI courses through online learning platforms. One great example is its AI for Everyone: Master the Basics course on EdX, which offers a pretty comprehensive overview of AI in just eight hours of content. 

But my pick here is IBM's AI Foundations for Everyone Specialization course on Coursera. It's also a beginner's course, but the modules are a bit more practical and specialized, meaning you'll come out with slightly more actionable knowledge. 

It's delivered in four blocks. The first is an introduction to AI and its uses in the workplace. The next two blocks focus on generative AI, introducing applications, use cases, and how prompts work. The final block is a bit more practical, where you'll get an introduction to IBM's generative AI product, IBM Watson, then learn how to use Watson to create a chatbot code-free. It's a bit of a sales tool, but it'll also give you insights into how big tech companies are developing these tools and how you would potentially bring them into your organization.

Similar to UPenn's course above, you can complete this course for free if you complete it within Coursera's seven-day free trial. 

Price: 7-day free trial; $59/month after that

6. Elements of AI (University of Helsinki)

The University of Helsinki launched its introductory Elements of AI course way back in 2018 (but don't worry—the content is up to date now). Since then, more than a million people have taken the course, and it's available in 26 languages. 

Elements of AI is one of the many courses hosted through the University's own MOOC (massive open online course) in partnership with MinnaLearn. The course is made up of six core blocks, including chapters on AI problem solving, machine learning, neural networks, and the societal implications of the technology. (If implications and ethics is a side of AI you're interested in, the University also runs an Ethics of AI course that's worth checking out.)

This is a great course that comes with practical exercises scattered through each block to allow you to apply some of the information you're consuming. There's no certification of completion, but the course is completely free, and you can complete it at your own pace. 

But there's one thing I need to flag: if you're a visual learner, you might find this course a bit challenging. The downside of making the course accessible in so many languages is that there's no video accompaniment. The whole course is text-based. 

Price: Free

7. Increase productivity using AI (Zapier)

Increase productivity using AI by Zapier introduces you to powerful generative AI tools and showcases ways to use them in your work. In under 30 minutes, you'll learn how to craft powerful prompts, how to pair automation with AI, and even how to build your own AI chatbot (even if you've never touched an app builder in your life).

If you're more hands-on—looking to get a quick crash course in the basics and then dive right into using AI—this is a great course to start with. Once you're done, you can stick around on Zapier to experiment with AI tools and connect them to all the other apps you use at work.

Price: Free

8. AI for Marketing Course (HubSpot)

You don't have to be a paying user to take HubSpot's AI for Marketing Course. In fact, you don't have to be a HubSpot user at all. In this introductory course, they cover all the AI marketing essentials without even giving you a flash of the HubSpot dashboard.

Instead, they bring in a range of marketing experts—both from HubSpot and external to the company—to give a clear overview and offer insights into how they're currently using AI in their own campaigns. 

It's a six-lesson video course that covers a lot of ground, from practical tips on how to use and optimize AI prompts to generate the content you want, to using your data to make AI-driven marketing decisions. The scope of the content makes it broad enough that it's valuable for marketing beginners all the way through to business owners and leaders. 

What really stood out for me in this course was the informal but informative delivery of the content and how relatable the discussions were. A lot of the AI video courses out there can get a bit stiff and scripted (you might even say robotic), so bringing in a range of speakers made this course more engaging for me. 

Price: Free

Learn about AI—and then put it to work

Regardless of which course you go for, any time you spend educating yourself on AI is going to be a smart investment. If you have a particular area of interest in relation to AI that's not covered in this list, it's worth running a search to see if there's learning content already available on that topic. 

And for every hour you spend learning about AI, spend an hour tinkering with it too. ChatGPT and Zapier Chatbots are two easy places to get started.

Related reading:

• What is AI?

• Machine learning vs. AI: What's the difference?

• Embracing AI at work: 4 ways to make AI less scary for your team

• What is multimodal AI? Large multimodal models, explained

This article was originally published in October 2023. The most recent update was in October 2024.

I've been in the social media game for years now, and despite the vile cesspool of nonsense on social, there are plenty of decent people looking for what we marketers are offering. But you need to know what you're offering.

The first step for using social media for your business is developing a successful social media marketing strategy. You'll need this strategy before you develop a social media marketing plan (which contains the tactics needed to achieve the goals of the strategy).

To make the process easier, I developed this downloadable social media strategy template. Read on for details on how to fill it out.

Table of contents:

• What is a social media strategy?

• Social media strategy template

• How to develop your social media marketing strategy

• 6 social media campaign examples

• Benefits of a social media strategy

• Tips for developing your social media marketing strategy

• Automate your social media strategy

What is a social media strategy? 

A social media marketing strategy is a game plan for using social media platforms to promote your offerings and stand out in an oversaturated digital market. It's not just a five-minute whiteboard drawing; it's a comprehensive document detailing how you'll use social media to achieve your business objectives.

Here are three questions to ask yourself when you're getting started, which you'll want to comprehensively answer in your strategy:

• What are your goals? Your social endeavors should tie back to your business objectives. Be it driving sales, boosting engagement, or elevating brand visibility—know what you want to get out of it.

• Who's your audience? Understand who you're talking to. Tailor your content to resonate with the people you want to reach, ensuring your messages aren't just broadcasted but effectively land.

• What's the competition up to? Take a look at your rivals. Learn from their hits and misses, then carve your unique path. Inspiration is good; plagiarism isn't.

Remember, the purpose of this strategy is to guide your online endeavors so that every post, every comment, and every share has a purpose behind it.

Social media strategy template

I love a good marketing template. And by using a template for your social strategy, you can set a comprehensive roadmap up front to hit all the major campaign checkpoints: define goals and KPIs, understand your target audience, assess competitors, select the right social media channels, and determine publishing cadences. 

And if your goals and KPIs change when you start a new campaign or marketing plan—no worries. You can reuse this template to outline your new strategy any time you need.

How to develop your social media marketing strategy

I've run quite a few social media campaigns for my personal brand as well as different businesses I've worked for. Each one had different goals, which is to be expected. But regardless of your end goal, you can use the same big ideas to formulate your social media marketing strategy.

1. Set clear goals

I can't tell you how many social media managers I've seen just throw as many things at the wall as possible and hope something sticks: giveaways that get short-term engagement, services that guarantee followers and likes, or jumping on whatever the most recent bandwagon is. What these lack is a clearly defined goal. 

To outline how social media marketing will help your brand, write SMART goals, or goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. Some example SMART goals you might have for your social media strategy could be: 

• Within six months, achieve a 20% growth in social media engagement through targeted advertising and influencer partnerships to enhance brand awareness.

• Within three months, increase website traffic by 15% and online sales by 10% by implementing effective call-to-action (CTA) strategies and conversion tracking on Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter).

• Within 12 months, identify and hire at least 50 brand advocates who consistently share our content and refer new customers through the implementation of a brand advocacy program.

When you have an overarching goal, the rest of the strategy planning is simple. It also makes it easy to adjust your social media strategy as you go without losing sight of those long-term goals. Each time you make a social media decision, ask yourself: does this align with the goal? Yes? Keep it. If not, get rid of it.

2. Conduct social SEO research

Social SEO involves using classic SEO techniques to make your social media content more discoverable both within the social platform of your choice and through external search engines like Google. 

Think of it like this: functionally, all social platforms have a search engine. Even if you primarily rely on algorithms to disseminate your new content via suggested posts, someone has to tell the algorithm what your content is about in order to get those sweet, sweet views. 

Here's a breakdown of key components for effective social SEO:

• Hashtag research: Hashtags are crucial for categorizing content and making it discoverable to relevant users. To do this, you'll want to explore popular and relevant hashtags related to your industry and get a sense of how the most popular content creators in your field are tagging their posts. Then use those tags. Most social platforms also have hashtag suggestion and research features that can give you a good starting point.

• Keyword research: Regular old keyword research is essential for social SEO as well. Identifying high-impact keywords that are relevant to your industry or niche will help you create content that shows up in Google. Tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner, Semrush, and Ahrefs will be critical here. 

• Trends research: Trends is a fuzzy word, but it really is important to keep your ear to the ground and understand how your audience is posting and consuming content. Pivoting your social strategy to include real-time trends can allow you to create timely and relevant content that quickly engages your audience. Social scheduling platforms like X Pro and tools like Google Trends and TrendSpottr can help identify trending topics and hashtags in real time—but there's really no substitute for just being on the social platform you want to utilize yourself. Most social platforms have their own trending pages you can explore for free.

Any way you slice it, social SEO research will help you position your brand to better capture the attention of your target audience. No one will engage with your content if they can't find it.

3. Research your competitors

As much as we all want to feel like unique, creative geniuses, everything is inspired by something. But don't just copy what your competitors are doing—ask yourself why they're doing it that way and what the thought process is behind it. 

Here are some questions you can consider when filling out the social media strategy template:

• Who are your competitors trying to target?

• Why is their strategy working?

• What social media platforms are they using and why?

• What social media platforms aren't they using and why?

• How often do they post content to each platform?

• Are they replying to comments?

• What is the ratio of posts trying to sell something compared to fun, interesting, or educational content?

Look for gaps and opportunities that your competitors—whether they're crushing it on social or not—aren't taking advantage of. What are they missing that you think your target customers would enjoy?

Let's say you're a vegan restaurant and other vegan joints only post images of their food. They may have plenty of followers, likes, and sales, but you know you can do more. You can post behind-the-scenes videos, recipe tutorials, and images of your clientele with rich anecdotes as captions, Humans of New York style, to show your audience you're more than a menu.

Or maybe it's even simpler. Let's say a competitor isn't getting a ton of engagement on their posts, and you notice they never end their captions with a discussion question. Try including this simple call to action in your own captions to encourage more comments and drive up your engagement.

4. Research your audience

Outlining a social media strategy without doing audience research first is like going out of your way to get your friend an iced brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso when they hate oat milk, brown sugar, and turns out they drink tea. But unlike your pal, your audience won't just smile and say thanks—they'll keep scrolling.

You need to know what type of content your audience likes, so you don't leave them scrolling for something better. Take these steps to get to know your audience:

• Engage in social listening: Use social media management tools that offer social listening to monitor what people are saying about your brand, industry, or competitors. Create a list of relevant keywords (your brand name, industry-related terms, competitors, trending topics) to help narrow your search.

• Send surveys and gather feedback: Use survey software to send out market research surveys. Offering incentives like discounts, freebies, or contest entries in exchange for taking your survey can help get responses.

• Analyze engagement metrics: Look at posts from your account and your competitors' accounts that get the most engagement. What topics resonate the most? Do they prefer short, funny videos? Or educational deep dives?

• Segment your audience: Not all of your followers are the same, so you'll want to divide them into groups based on their behaviors or preferences, like followers who engage more with your trending content rather than business updates. This can help you more precisely target your audience rather than trying to appease everyone with broad messaging.

5. Choose the right social media channels

Just as there's a "right" audience for your content, there's a right channel (well, channels) for it as well. We don't have to spell out what each platform does, but knowing some ins and outs of them will be key when using social media for your business.

Make sure the social platforms you choose are right for your brand. Consider some of the following questions:

• Does the platform host your target audience?

• Is it working for your competition?

• If it's not working for the competition, is it because your target audience isn't there or because competitors are doing something wrong?

• Does it fit well with the content you plan on making?

• Is it worth your time and effort to create content for it?

Once you've chosen the social media platforms you plan to use, check out these channel-specific guides for more detailed strategy tips:

• 4 tips to develop a Twitter marketing strategy

• How to do more with user-generated content on Instagram

• YouTube marketing: Tips, tricks, and strategies

• 7 TikTok marketing ideas from small business owners

6. Determine your KPIs

So, what exactly does social media "success" look like? Bringing in more business, sure, but that's a little vague. You want to see that your social media strategy is hitting smaller goals along the way. To gauge how your strategy is paying off, define some quantifiable key performance indicators, or KPIs. 

Here are some examples.

With easy-to-use reporting tools, you can track your progression toward KPIs. 

You need to please the social media algorithms in order to get your content promoted organically, and the algorithms care about engagement. Social media engagement, like shares, comments, and likes directly impact every other KPI due to how the algorithms work, so engagement should be your main focus.

7. Consider influencer marketing and collaboration possibilities

Influencer partnerships aren't just for skincare gurus and athleisure aficionados. By strategically partnering with influencers who resonate with your target market, you can drive engagement, build trust, and boost sales in ways traditional marketing often can't. 

Working with an influencer is also less complicated than you might expect. Depending on the field, typically you can find someone who has a wide reach in your target market, ask if they would be willing to promote your product or service (usually for a fee or at least a free product or subscription), and then negotiate the finer points of content creation from there.

Some things to consider if you're going to pursue influencer partnerships:

• Choose carefully: Choose influencers who align with your brand's values and target audience. Look for relevance (do they fit your niche?), reach (how big is their audience?), engagement (how active and responsive is their follower base?), and authenticity (is their content genuine and not overly promotional?).

• Use tools to find the right partner: Tools like BuzzSumo and Traackr can help you identify the right influencers to work with. You can evaluate audience, niche, reach, engagement rates, and audience demographics—all before reaching out to negotiate with the influencer. 

• Consider content type: There are various types of content influencers can create to promote your brand, including: 

  • Sponsored posts and product reviews

  • Giveaways and contests

  • Social media takeovers and guest content

  • Long-term brand ambassador post series

  • Affiliate link promotion

Influencer partnerships can help your team get word of your product out to a much larger pool of people than you could have reached on your own. Plus, because people trust influencers to provide recommendations, the ROI is often higher than other paid channels.

8. Conduct a social media audit

As marketers, analytics are our bread and butter (if you're wondering why you're salivating right about now). A social media audit highlights the data behind your efforts. 

It's probably a good idea to audit your accounts before embarking on a campaign to get a sense of where you're starting off. But most importantly, perform an audit after each campaign to ensure your strategy is paying off. 

Other than your KPIs, here are some things to track when you audit yourself:

• What types of content you're posting and on which platforms

• How much engagement each post received

• How many followers you have (or gained/lost)

• Any positive or negative comments

• Whether you're reaching your target audience or not

• Whether your profiles are optimized and consistent across channels

For some of these, a human's perspective makes sense. For the more granular work, a social media management tool can help make the auditing process a whole lot easier.

9. Perfect your publishing cadence

If you send me an email at 5 p.m. on a Friday, you can expect a response Monday morning at the earliest. And if you spam me with 11 messages that definitely could've been consolidated into one, there's a chance they're all going in the trash.

The same goes for your social media strategy. When and how often you post can make a big difference in how your content performs.

Here's how to figure out a publishing cadence that works best for your brand:

• Analyze peak times: Use analytics tools within social platforms or external tools like HubSpot or Later to find the days and times your audience is most active. Remember, time zones and holidays can affect engagement.

• Prioritize quality over quantity: It's better to post high-quality content a couple of times per week than bad content every five minutes.

• Test and learn: Conduct A/B tests by posting at various times and days of the week, and monitor engagement to see which posting times perform the best.

• Plan ahead with a content calendar: Use a social media scheduling tool to plan your content in advance. Look for a tool that lets you schedule posts and view and adjust how your feed will look.

• Stay on top of trends: You have to be able to adjust to changes like trending topics or news that's relevant to your brand. Hold space in your content calendar to create trending content.

10. Plan to repurpose successful content

Repurposing your best-performing content isn't just an option—it's a strategic necessity. Content recycling allows you to provide value to new visitors (they're not digging into your 2019 archives, after all) while making the most of your more current materials. This way, you can keep your audience engaged without constantly having to create entirely new content.

Keep the following in mind when deciding what content to reduce, reuse, or recycle. 

• Choose wisely: Only repurpose the best of the best. Assess metrics like engagement rates, shares, comments, and conversions when you choose what content to give a second chance, and choose the most successful to get another shot at engaging your audience. 

• Change channels: Put a different hat on your content, and send it out on stage again. Blog posts can become LinkedIn posts, infographics can be broken down into a series of X posts, and any of those could be talked about in depth on a podcast. If you haven't shared a piece across every channel in every format, it still has life in it. 

• Plan to repurpose: When you build out your content strategy for the month, quarter, or year, make sure to leave space for repurposing content on the calendar. It's just as important as new content and can be even more valuable. 

By repurposing top-performing content, you not only increase the efficiency of your content strategy but also ensure that your social media feeds are constantly filled with valuable material you already know your audience wants to see. It's a win-win.

6 social media campaign examples

Here are some examples of how real-life social campaigns knocked it out of the park. Each one has a clear strategy behind it (which I've teased out based on the campaign itself).

1. Olivia Rodrigo #ShotoniPhone15Pro campaign

Apple wanted to flaunt the iPhone's camera capabilities and knew it had to resonate with the younger demographic obsessed with photography and music. Enter Olivia Rodrigo—a contemporary musical sensation. Through their collaboration, Apple seamlessly blended tech and pop culture, using platforms like YouTube, where both visuals and melodies reign supreme. This helped showcase Apple's camera and Olivia's music while also boosting brand recognition among younger demographics.

Audience: Tech-savvy and pop culture-conscious Gen Z users 

Goal: Increase awareness of the iPhone 15 and its advanced camera capabilities

Tactics: Celebrity partnerships; high-quality videography and photography

2. Northumberland Zoo

Northumberland Zoo took the internet by storm by doing one simple thing: letting Gen Z write the marketing script for their older coworkers. The video features the zookeepers standing in front of enclosures assigning the animals various degrees of Gen Z slang, including "Brat" the bat, an owl with "main character energy," and an actual goat deemed… "G.O.A.T." 

The video has gained 1.3 million likes, and has been shared 271.5K times at the time of this writing. So, I'd say it resonates?

Audience: Gen Z and millennial TikTok aficionados

Goal: Build brand loyalty and resonate with the TikTok community

Tactics: Appealing to untapped audiences; tapping into trending sounds

3. Zapier

Zapier knows its audience loves being in the loop. By hinting about a soon-to-be-launched product, they weren't just teasing—they were turning product announcements into social media events. By nudging followers to make a guess, Zapier reminded everyone they're not just a tool, they're the ultimate tech community.

Audience: Tech and Zapier enthusiasts

Goal: Generate buzz for an upcoming product and reinforce brand community

Tactics: Interactive teasers; encouraging audience predictions

4. Secret Deodorant

Secret Deodorant used viral social media influencer and Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher's platform to capture audience eyes. In the TikTok, Ilona asks, "Who's the sweatiest person on the rugby team?" while all her teammates name her as the guilty party, one after the other—until finally one hands her Secret's Outlast spray-on deodorant. 

The influencer partnership was timely, taking advantage of the recent Olympic games and Maher's time in the internet spotlight. If you want to be an all-star athlete like Maher, the video implies, you will sweat a lot. And for that, you might want a good deodorant. 

Audience: Fans of the Olympics and women's sports 

Goal: Enhance customer connection to the brand

Tactics: Influencer partnership; content around trending current events

5. Barbie

Ok, the movie was great, but I'd argue the social media strategy was even better. Warner Bros. got social media right, partnering up with big names like Burger King and Crocs, and diving deep into TikTok trends. And the cherry on top? A whopping 25% spike in U.S. Barbie toy sales post-movie release. Coincidence? I think not.

Audience: Kids, teens, and those with nostalgic connection to Barbie

Goal: Promote the Barbie movie and its doll catalog

Tactics: Brand collabs; capitalizing on viral TikTok trends

6. Starbucks

Starbucks knows a thing or two about creating a buzz. Their September ThursYays BOGO on fall drinks was all over social media. And if the long lines post-noon on Thursdays are any indication, their cups—and registers—were overflowing.

Audience: Fall flavor fans and deal hunters

Goal: Drive up sales and increase word-of-mouth promotion of fall flavor release

Tactics: Limited-time deals; heavy promotion of seasonal specials

Benefits of a social media strategy

Having a strategy for your social media isn't about cramping creativity but rather channeling it effectively. Setting a clear direction ensures your online efforts lead to tangible business benefits:

• Increase sales: When done right, your social media content should funnel people to your website or store (or sell your products directly via the platform's own store, if it has one). Then, you can use more middle- and bottom-funnel content to turn those visitors into paying customers.

• Boost engagement: Strategic content isn't just seen; it's interacted with. And that doesn't just mean more likes. We're talking real engagement, like shares, comments, and conversations. That's what really builds brand awareness and fosters trust within your audience.

• Track preferences: Predetermined metrics like reach, engagement, conversion rates, and ROI provide insights into what types of content are and aren't effective, so you can take that content and scale it beyond social media.

• Build communities: Your brand isn't just about selling; it's about connecting. A well-honed strategy helps cultivate spaces where enthusiasts can rally around what you offer and get the word out to others.

• Gather feedback: Your digital communities also become treasure troves of insights. They're your direct line to what customers adore, desire, or would change.

• Support cross-functional efforts: A cohesive social media strategy amplifies other departments' efforts, whether announcing a product launch, amplifying a PR campaign, or driving attendance to a corporate event.

Tips for developing your social media marketing strategy

Creating and executing a successful social media marketing strategy is something of an art form. It's not just about what you post but how and when you do it. Here are some of our tips for crushing a social media calendar:

• Consider content type: Every type of content has pros and cons, and you'll want to pick the right one for your team and audience. Videos, for example, typically generate higher engagement rates, but they also require more resources to produce. Pick the right type of content for your campaign, not necessarily the one everyone else is doing. 

• Be realistic: Speaking of resources, if you only have one social media specialist, don't expect them to whip up a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign alone. Be realistic about your resources and what you can accomplish. 

• Post regularly: Consistency is key, and nowhere is that truer than on social. Posting on a regular schedule helps keep your audience engaged, ensures consistent visibility, and feeds the algorithm gods. Use social media scheduling tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to make this task easier. 

• Plan to evolve: Social media is constantly changing, so be prepared to pivot on a dime if a trend pops up or a platform changes an algorithm. There's no set-it-and-forget-it in social media management. 

Automate your social media strategy

Using a solid social template to set clear goals, zero in on your audience, and pick the best platforms will make execution infinitely easier. 

As you execute your strategy, it never hurts to use social media automation as much as possible for promotion, so you can focus on content research and creation. Here are some tips for getting started with social media automation:

• Make social media monitoring easier with automation

• Workflows to better manage your brand's social media

• How to automate Twitter

• Automatically post to Instagram for Business with these workflows

• How to automate your business Facebook Page for easier marketing

This article was originally published in November 2020 by Tierney Mosier and has also had contributions from Michael Kern and Abigail Sims. The most recent update was in October 2024.

If variety is the spice of life, a single-font Notion workspace is like eating plain toast every day. It can be fun to mix things up and add a little stylistic flair to your Notion pages, whether you're designing public websites, managing that next creative project, or just taking notes.

If you're not already taking advantage of the app's different font style options, I'll show you how to change the font in Notion—and spice up your digital workspace in the process.

Table of contents

• What font does Notion use?

• How to change the font in Notion

• Can you use a custom Notion font?

• How to change font size in Notion

What font does Notion use?

Notion uses a sans-serif font (similar to Arial) by default. Here's a sample page using the Notion default font.

The built-in font options also include a serif font (similar to Times New Roman).

This font is a popular choice for publishing, although it's good to keep in mind that serif fonts are less accessible because they're harder to read for some people.

The last font option is a monospace font (similar to Courier New). This font can be a great choice for drafting and giving a retro or technical feel.

How to change the font in Notion

It just takes a few clicks to choose between the font options on any Notion page.

1. Click the three dots in the upper-right corner. 

2. The page settings menu should appear. Select the font you want to use.

   

3. All the text on your page will change to match whichever font setting you choose.

You can also customize specific paragraphs, words, and phrases with bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough. To do this, select the text you want to customize, and a menu bar will appear. You can even click the color dropdown to change the text color.

Can you use a custom Notion font?

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to use a custom font in Notion. If you want a portion of your text to stand out, you can use sites like Fancy Text Generator or Fancy Text Guru. Just type the text into one of these sites, copy the text style you like, and paste it into your Notion page.

Or, you could use built-in Notion blocks to add variety. I recommend experimenting with code, quote, and callout boxes. Just type a forward slash (/) on a new line to search for and select the block type you're looking for. You can even customize these blocks by clicking the dots to the left. Quote blocks have two font sizes (default and large), and callout blocks can change both icon and background color.

Here's what each block looks like in a Notion page:

How to change font size in Notion

Unlike in Word or Google Docs, there's no Notion font size picker that lets you specify a font point size. But there are two ways to customize the font size in your Notion pages. 

1. First, the same menu that lets you choose a built-in font style also lets you toggle Small text. This setting makes all the text on that page a few points smaller. Click the three dots in the upper-right corner, and you'll see the option.

   

2. You can also use section headings to add some text-size variety to your pages. Heading styles make it easier to organize a page's structure—but you can also use them for aesthetic purposes. To add a heading to a new line, type /heading to bring up the block menu. Then, choose the heading size you want.

   

   To turn a line of normal text into a heading, click the dots to the left of the text, and select Turn into to choose a heading style.

   

Do more with your Notion workspace

If you spend so much time in Notion that you have feelings about the font, you should probably be automating your Notion workflows. For example, you might want to connect your Notion database to your calendar or other task app. Or you might want to save articles and web pages to your Notion reading list to come back to later.

Learn how to automate Notion with Zapier—connecting it to thousands of other apps—or get started with one of these popular workflows.

Related reading:

• What is Notion? [A detailed guide for beginners]

• Notion tips and tricks for a powerful workspace

• How to use Notion to organize your life

• How to use Notion for project management (with template)

• Use this Notion second brain template to get organized

Ever had to extract data from a 50-page PDF? Or go through dozens of customer emails to find specific billing details? You probably know how frustrating it can be to sift through an endless paper trail manually, hunting for that proverbial needle in the haystack. 

Fortunately, extraction tools like Airparser can lift the burden. Airparser is an AI-powered app that lets you extract any kind of data (like signatures, contact information, billing details, and more) from documents and emails. You just tell Airparser the information you need, and it'll take that data and convert it into the format you'd like. 

And when you connect Airparser to Zapier, you can automatically send that data to spreadsheets and other business-critical apps in your tech stack. With just a few Zaps—what we call our automated workflows—you can update spreadsheets, send notifications for new information, and more. 

Table of contents

• Track and analyze data in a spreadsheet

• Extract data from files and documents

• Send and receive notifications

• Import emails into Airparser

• Pull customer information from forms

Track key information in a spreadsheet

When you're analyzing the data that's buried in your documents and emails, you'll want to present it in a way that's easily digestible in a spreadsheet or database. Doing so allows you to easily view information (like invoices or registrations) at a glance. 

Instead of adding that information manually, you can use Zapier to automatically create new rows in Google Sheets or Airtable whenever Airparser parses a file. That way, you and your team can dive straight into analyzing those insights—and make informed decisions moving forward. 

Extract data from files and documents 

Ever handle important documents like contracts or consent forms? Whether you're onboarding new employees or managing agreements, you probably use file storage apps like Dropbox or Google Drive to organize them. But when you need to extract specific data—like names, dates, or signatures—from these documents, manually sifting through each one can be tedious with important details easy to miss.

Instead of manually reviewing and organizing this information, you can use these Zaps to automatically send your stored documents to Airparser. This allows you to extract key details from your files without the hassle, so you and your team can quickly access the precise information you need, all without lifting a finger.

Send and receive notifications

If you're handling a large volume of documents and emails daily, it’s easy for important updates to slip through the cracks. That's why it’s worth notifying the right team members as soon as a parsed document is ready for review.

Instead of manually sending out messages throughout the day, you can use automation to keep things on track. These Zaps send instant notifications to Slack or Gmail whenever a document is parsed, making sure that every file is routed to the right person at the right time—so your team can take action immediately without delays.

Import emails into Airparser

There's definitely a limit to the amount of data you can process from customer emails on a daily basis—especially if you have strapped resources or you're part of a smaller team. 

But extracting signatures, contact information, dates, or key details from messy emails is super important for staying organized, maintaining accurate records, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks when managing customer relationships. 

Stay on top of your emails with these Zaps. Anytime you receive a new email with an attachment or get an email matching a specific search, Zapier will add them straight to Airparser for processing. 

Process lead information from forms 

Forms tools like Jotform or Gravity Forms are easy, flexible ways to gather information from potential customers. Maybe someone is interested in learning more about your services or perhaps an existing customer is reporting an issue with a service you provide. 

Staying on top of those requests can mean the difference between a missed sale and a new customer. Don't waste time checking your form submissions and then extracting data like email addresses and phone numbers. Use these Zaps to automatically do the heavy lifting for you, so you can focus on what matters—following up with your prospects. 

Connect your data to your favorite apps

Your data should help you run your business, not distract you from it. But that data needs to be actionable. By connecting Airparser to the rest of your tech stack, you can streamline the way you analyze your data across spreadsheets, email, and more. 

And this is just the start of what you can do with Airparser and Zapier. Check out our App Directory to see what else you can do. 

Switching to renewable energy can moderate some of the worst effects of climate change. But with so much misinformation and "greenwashing" out there, it's hard enough trying to reduce waste as a consumer.

That's why egg is on a mission to make it easier for people to switch to renewable energy. They offer clean energy solutions like solar panels, electric vehicle (EV) chargers, and battery storage for homes and businesses across the United Kingdom.

Though the renewable energy market is growing, it's still confusing for the average consumer to navigate. So egg's sales teams rely on deep prospect and competitor research to offer the right solutions and ultimately, close that sale. 

"They're looking at energy usage, finding [the home or business] on Google Maps, maybe reading some of the news to build that context," says Usman Mahomed, Head of Product at egg. 

But the team was spending hours researching each prospect—and that really hurt their sales efficiency. If they were going to advance the shift to cleaner energy, they'd need to maximize their time.

How egg cracked the sales efficiency conundrum

Like many companies, egg is navigating two competing viewpoints on AI use.

"The non-technical population in our company is like, 'Let it loose on everything,'" says Usman. "In the technical population of our company, we're a lot more apprehensive about letting an LLM [large language model] speak to customers."

Usman was already using Zapier for automated workflows but hadn't delved further. One day, he stumbled upon a video of Zapier Central doing the exact task his sales teams were spending hours on.

"I looked at that video and I said, 'Hmm, I think Central can do that in like a minute.'"

Usman saw a golden opportunity to solve his team's sales challenges, bridge his company's AI divide, and help people switch to renewable energy. 

Jump ahead:

• Pull up-to-date research on prospects and competitors

• Plug the gaps in existing customer data

• Scale outreach and prospect insights

Pull up-to-date research on prospects and competitors

Usman dove right into Central and started tinkering. He soon discovered all the ingredients he needed to create a personal sales research assistant.

"The best thing about [Zapier Central] is it's in essence an [AI] agent, not a fixed LLM," Usman says. "Because [Central] can do those Google searches, we're actually able to find live information we can rely on, which is just incredible." 

Usman rolled out his Central assistant to egg's entire business-to-business (B2B) sales team, and when the technical sales team heard about it, they too wanted in.  

"Everyone's using it," he says. "It's taking them less than five minutes [to do] what used to take them three hours." 

That original Central assistant started hatching other ideas around the company. 

Egg's Head of Technical Sales approached Usman with his own request: a Central assistant that could find EV chargers in the market that met a set number of requirements. 

Usman quickly spun up another assistant: When the Head of Technical Sales provides the use case or product requirements, Central returns a formatted table with a list of chargers, relevant information, and product links. 

"And then I went crazy with [Central]," Usman laughs. 

Plug the gaps in existing customer data 

Customer data is the backbone of any sales or marketing strategy, but egg was missing critical industry information necessary to maintain a steady flow of new leads. 

"We were literally paying someone on contract to look up this information for all of our customers," says Usman. 

Since Central can also complete tasks in the background, he easily whipped up another assistant to fill in the data holes. 

Here's how he set it up: 

• Create a customer list as a data source: Central can use live data sources like Google Sheets to complete tasks. Instead of creating the spreadsheet from scratch, Usman used HubSpot's built-in Google Sheet integration to automatically populate his data source. 

• Add the data source to Central: Once Usman added his customer list, Zapier syncs it regularly, so his Central assistant is working with the latest info.

• Tell the Central assistant what to do: Usman created a behavior, instructing the assistant to find customers with missing industry details, search for the info, then update the Google Sheet with the new details. 

Now, Central does the work in just five minutes—and egg no longer needs to pay a contractor. 

Scale outreach and prospect insights

With Central providing the additional prospect insights, egg had all the ingredients necessary to send personalized outreach emails to new leads. 

But internally, the diverging perspectives on AI came to roost. 

"Our non-technical population want to just throw it to ChatGPT, off it goes. We're not so keen," says Usman. 

Instead of trusting AI entirely with email writing, the team combined Zaps with Zapier Tables to automate the process and minimize risk with a human review step. 

Here are a few of the workflows they created:

• Build a list of outreach-ready leads: "When we upload a lead, it pulls in all that context from Central and populates a Zapier table," Usman says.  

• Draft outreach emails with just a button click: Referencing the record data in that same table, this Zap uses ChatGPT to write an email. Then, it creates a draft email in Microsoft Outlook. That way, the team can review the drafted email and make any changes before sending.

• Analyze replies to email outreach: "When the email comes back, ChatGPT does a sentiment analysis," says Usman. "If it's a negative [sentiment], it populates a Zapier table and creates a a Slack notification. If it's positive, it goes into HubSpot." 

With this approach, egg can scale outreach to more people, finesse their sales and marketing, and ultimately help more people switch to cleaner energy sources. 

Sparking a sustainable future with AI

Democratizing clean energy is an ambitious undertaking—but by rolling out smarter sales processes with Zapier and AI, egg can charge ahead to bring clean energy to homes and businesses across the U.K. 

As AI tools get more popular, the politics, infighting, and investment opportunities are shaking things up. Case in point: FLUX is a family of open text-to-image models from the researchers behind Stable Diffusion. Why are the researchers behind Stable Diffusion not releasing a new version of Stable Diffusion? We'll get to that. But for now, suffice it to say that FLUX looks set to steal Stable Diffusion's crown as the best open text-to-image model available. Here's what you need to know. 

Table of contents:

• What is FLUX.1?

• What happened to Stable Diffusion?

• How does FLUX work?

• How to use FLUX

What is FLUX.1?

FLUX (or FLUX.1) is a suite of text-to-image models from Black Forest Labs, a new company set up by some of the AI researchers behind innovations and models like VQGAN, Stable Diffusion, Latent Diffusion, and Adversarial Diffusion Distillation. The first FLUX models were only released in August 2024, but you can see why they've created such a big splash so quickly—they're seriously impressive.

At present, there are four FLUX models—and I swear that these are the official stylizations of the names:

• FLUX1.1 [pro]

• FLUX.1 [pro]

• FLUX.1 [dev]

• FLUX.1 [schnell]

FLUX1.1 [pro] and FLUX.1 [pro] (why the moving point mark?) are only available as an API. They're designed as a dedicated option for enterprises and other big AI developers. While they're the best models in terms of prompt adherence and quality, they aren't the most interesting. 

FLUX.1 [dev] and FLUX.1 [schnell] are both open models. FLUX.1 [dev] is available as an API and through Hugging Face for non-commercial purposes. FLUX.1 [schnell] is released under an Apache 2.0 license—you can download it from Hugging Face and use it to do basically anything you like. It's free for commercial, non-commercial, and any other kind of use you can think of.

The two (and presumably more to follow) open models in the FLUX family are what make it stand out. Most other major text-to-image models—like DALL·E 3, Midjourney, Ideogram, and Google Imagen—are all proprietary. The only way to use them is through official APIs. While there may be some limited options to fine-tune or customize their outputs, you can't change things too much. 

With open models like FLUX.1 [dev] and FLUX.1 [schnell], however, anyone with the technical skills to follow an online tutorial can fine-tune a new model using a technique called low rank adaption (LoRA). There are already FLUX fine-tunes for black light images, 1970s food, XKCD-style comics, and lots more. 

It's this openness that made Stable Diffusion so popular, and it looks set to be the same with FLUX. 

What happened to Stable Diffusion?

Stability AI, the company behind commercializing Stable Diffusion, has had a really bad year. In brief:

• During the summer of 2023, a string of reports detailed "chaos" and a talent exodus inside Stable Diffusion. A lot of the issues were tied to then-CEO, Emad Mostaque, who, in a very unflattering Forbes profile was accused of having "a history of exaggeration."

• A cash investment from Intel in November wasn't enough to save things, and by the middle of March 2024, three key researchers had left to start Black Forest Labs.

• Mostaque resigned a few days later, and since then, Stability AI has continued to flounder. 

• After releasing Stable Diffusion 3 with a newly restrictive license, the models were banned on some of the leading AI image generation platforms. These changes were rolled back, but it didn't help the reputational damage. 

• There's now a new CEO, some more investment, and a board with Sean Parker and James Cameron.

• Oh, and the company is still being sued by artists and stock photo library, Getty. 

All this is to say, while Stable Diffusion is still widely used, several key researchers are now working on FLUX. Plus, Stability AI, the company that was supporting the development, is in a bit of a mess. Maybe it will get through this rough patch and come out the other side, but for now, it looks like FLUX will become the go-to open text-to-image generator.

How does FLUX work?

While the FLUX models apparently rely on state-of-the-art research like flow matching, rotary positional embeddings, and parallel attention layers, at the core, they're still diffusion models like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL·E 3—though FLUX stacks up really well against them in head-to-head testing. As I write this, the three FLUX.1 models are in the top five on Artificial Analysis.

Diffusion models start with a random field of noise and then edit it in a series of steps to attempt to fit the prompt. The metaphor I keep coming back to is looking up at a cloudy sky, finding a cloud that looks a bit like a dog, and then having the power to snap your fingers to keep gradually shifting the clouds to become increasingly dog-like.

Of course, this belies the huge complexity and massive amount of research that it has taken to get to this point, as well as the amount of training and development it has taken for FLUX to be able to accurately render complex scenes, text, and even hands.

How to use FLUX.1

The simplest way to use FLUX is through an online art generator. I've been using NightCafe for all the images in this article, but Tensor.Art and Civitai also have FLUX as well as fine-tuned versions available. (Though be warned: these platforms aren't always safe for work.) Just sign up for a free trial, select FLUX as the model, enter a prompt, and see where you get to. 

If you're more technically minded, you can download FLUX.1 [dev] and FLUX.1 [schnell] from Hugging Face and get them running locally on your machine using something like ComfyUI. This allows you to use features like in-painting. Alternatively, you can also use FLUX through its API.

FLUX has only been available for a couple of months, but it's already been embraced by the open AI community. If this is your first time hearing about it, you can expect to see a lot more of it in the coming months.

Related reading:

• Midjourney vs. Stable Diffusion: Which should you use?

• How to write effective AI art prompts

• What is open source AI?

If you've ever gone into a grocery store without your reusable bag because you're "just getting one thing," you've probably learned the hard way that consolidation solves many of life's problems. Entering a formula in Excel without a function is kind of like carrying your groceries without a bag: you can do it, but it's much easier when you package all those tiny little elements into one convenient vessel.

Let's say you want to add cells A1 through A3 together—instead of the manual formula entry of =(A1+A2+A3), you can use the =SUM function, so the formula instead looks like: =SUM(A1:A3). The whole point of Excel functions is to streamline the computation process and cut down on human error. And since there aren't many types of calculations you can make in Excel without them, entering formulas without functions isn't very common. 

Granted, there are a few niches in which it can be useful to know how to enter a formula without a function in Excel, which I'll go into below. If you're in one of those niches, buckle up, because things are about to get Excel-lent.

Table of contents:

• Excel formulas vs. functions

• Example of entering a formula without a function

• When to enter formulas without functions

• Entering a formula without a function (+two Excel tricks)

• Automation and Excel: A winning formula

• Excel formula entry FAQ

What's the difference between a formula and a function in Excel?

Excel formulas are mathematical sequences a user enters to calculate something within the spreadsheet. It's like using a calculator but with the capabilities of your full keyboard. Meanwhile, Excel functions are preset terms you can use within a formula that consolidate one or more actions into one tidy command, like SUM, AVERAGE, or VLOOKUP. Basically, they're math shortcuts.

Before I elaborate further, here are the elements that go into Excel calculations:

• Operators: Symbols used to solve equations like addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/), and colons (:)

  • Example: In the formula =(5 * A1) + SUM(A6:A10), (*) multiplies 5 by A1, and (+) adds that amount to the value of SUM(A6:A10).

• Constants: Numbers or text values that don't change in a formula

  • Example: In the formula =(5 * A1) + SUM(A6:A10), 5 doesn't change as a result of the calculation.

• Cell references: The field where a column letter and row number intersect in a spreadsheet

  • Example: In the formula =(5 * A1) + SUM(A6:A10), A1 refers to the cell contents that get multiplied by 5.

• Cell ranges: A group of selected cells in a consecutive sequence

  • Example: In the formula =(5 * A1) + SUM(A6:A10), A6:A10 selects cells A6 through A10 only.

• Functions: Preset shortcuts for applying a calculation

  • Example: In the formula =(5 * A1) + SUM(A6:A10), SUM adds the values in cells A6 through A10 together.

Example of entering a formula without a function

Think of this concept like baking a cake. You can bake that cake one of two ways: from scratch or with a pre-made cake mix. In this analogy, a function would be the pre-made cake mix you use to speed up the baking process. Manually creating a formula without including functions would be like baking that cake from scratch.

The only difference: in Excel, you get the same results.

To illustrate what I mean in Excel terms, let's consider three approaches to doing the same calculation. Below, I'll find the average of values in cells A1 through A6 of a spreadsheet without a function, with only a function, and with both a function and manual calculation.

Formula without a function: =(A1+A2+A3+A4+A5+A6) / 6

Formula with a function and manual calculation: =SUM(A1:A6) / 6

Formula with only a function: =AVERAGE(A1:A6)

As you can see, all three mixes lead to the same cake. In the first example, the user types out all the individual cell references and operators to combine cells A1 through A6, then divides the sum by 6. In the second example, they use the SUM function to automatically combine the values of those cells before dividing by 6. In the third, they use the =AVERAGE function to cut out the extra division step.

Typing up a formula without a function is usually more tedious and gives you more opportunities to mess up your math with a typo. Using functions like =SUM or =AVERAGE solves those problems. But it's not a zero=SUM game. If you embed functions into formulas, you combine the flexibility of a formula with the efficiency and accuracy of a function.

When to enter formulas without functions

While functions are generally much more efficient than manually typed formulas, there are some situations in which building out those formulas can be useful. Namely, when the calculations you need to make are very complex or don't fit neatly into one function box.

To illustrate, imagine you're a financial analyst, and you want to calculate a customized risk metric that doesn't have a built-in Excel function. You need to consider factors like market volatility, correlation, coefficients, asset allocation weights, and asset standard deviations. In this scenario, it may be easiest to manually create formulas, so you can have more control over the calculations. Here's what that might look like:

Entering a formula without a function (including Excel tricks)

To enter a formula without a function in Excel, follow these steps:

1. Click on the cell where you want to enter your formula.

2. Input an equal sign (=) to begin your Excel formula.

3. Input your formula. For example, if you wanted to multiply the value in cell B1 by 5, your formula would look like this: =B1*5.

4. Hit Enter to calculate your formula and display the results. 

Need to type up a formula that's too complicated for a function? Want to replicate the concept of a function to help you stay organized without actually using one? Here are two Excel tricks for function-free formula entry.

Enter formulas using cell references

Here's how to calculate formulas using cell references. 

Suppose you're a sales manager analyzing your team's performance. You can create a custom sales performance metric based on salesperson target achievement and experience level, each with different weightings. Follow the steps below to create a customized formula using cell references and operators.

1. First, you want to calculate the target achievement. Label cell A1 Target Achievement and cells A2 through A4 with your salespeople. Input the target performance percentages in the cell of your choice. In this example, I've added the percentages in cells B2 through B4. 

   

2. Input each employee's experience level in cells D1 through D4, and years of experience in E2 through E4.

   

3. Set weightings for target and experience in F1 through F3. Input target values in G2 through G3. This formula calculates sales performance by multiplying each salesperson's target achievement by the weighting for target achievement (G2) and then adding it to the product of their experience level and the weighting for experience (G3). 

   

4. Select an empty cell and input an equal sign (=) to start the operation. Select your cell references and input multiplication and addition operators to get the total performance value. 

   

5. Hit Enter for your total sales performance value.

   

In this particular instance, there's no real shortcut a function could offer you to streamline this formula. Since there are so many cells with different operators involved, the only real option is doing your spreadsheet calculations the old-fashioned way: with manual formula entry.

Write formulas in Excel using predefined names

If you want to input formulas without functions but still crave the packaged flavor of a function, there's an easy cheat code you can use: Define Name.

Using the Define Name feature is like giving nicknames to math expressions. You can assign a name to a single cell or series of cells to represent a formula you can reference later by searching the term. This can be useful for labeling and organizing data in a spreadsheet, so you can easily track what the value of a cell corresponds to or represents.

Step 1: Click on your cell of choice. To name it, either click on Define Name in the formulas tab box or type your term in the Name box.

For this example, I named three cells Profits, Costs, and Earnings to help organize a basic net revenue calculation. Using the Define Name feature, I named A2 Profits and B2 Costs. Then, I input values for profits and earnings.

Step 2: Use your newly defined cell names in a formula.

For my example, I input an equal sign into cell C2 and then entered Profits-Costs. If I were to select A2 and B2 or type A2-B2 in the formula bar, it would automatically display as Profits-Costs.

Step 3: Execute the formula.

In my example, when I hit Enter, I get the outcome of costs subtracted from profits, giving me an earnings figure of $4,100. 

Another way you could do this would be to enter Profit-Costs or =A2-B2 into its own cell, and then use Define Name to name that calculation Earnings. Then, any time you enter =Earnings into a cell, you automatically populate it with the result of whatever the value is of B2 subtracted from A2.

Could you do all this without Define Name? Absolutely. This feature doesn't do anything a function can't do, but it does replicate the concept of a function, which can help you stay organized when entering complex formulas.

Automation and Excel: A winning formula

You can spend even less time in your spreadsheets by automating Excel with Zapier, so Excel can talk to all the other apps you use at work. For example, you can automatically log form and survey submissions, send notifications for important updates, and update data across multiple spreadsheets. Learn more about how to automate Excel, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.

Excel formula entry FAQ

How do you enter a formula without entering a function? 

To enter a formula without using a function:

1. Type = into a cell.

2. Enter the first cell (or number) you want to include in the calculation.

3. Enter the operator of your choice (without a space in between), and then press Enter. 

If you want to include other cells and operators, include those without adding spaces in between. To separate cells and operators, use parentheses to isolate them. For example, (A1-A2)+(B1-B2) would add the difference between A1 and A2 to the difference between B1 and B2.

How do you use the formula builder in Excel?

The formula builder, also known as the function arguments box, is a tool for building complex formulas. Begin by clicking the toolbox icon in the upper-right corner and clicking on the formula builder. Scroll through the list of predefined function names, and select one based on your calculation needs. Highlight or transfer the cell values into the formula builder, and press Enter to calculate your results. 

How do you turn off functions in Excel?

To turn off functions in Excel, click the Microsoft home button, click Excel options, and select Formulas. Click the Formula checkbox to turn off functions. While most users won't need (or want) to do this, it could be useful if you're trying to type custom elements into cells that commonly trigger formulas.

How do you enter a formula that references a cell without using a function?

You can include cell references in Excel formulas without using a function. For example, if you want to multiply a number in cell B1 by 5, you could enter the formula: =B1*5. B1 is the cell reference.

How do you enter a division formula without using a function?

Actually, there's no divide function in Excel. Instead, you can simply enter / in a formula to divide two values. Here's an example: =A1/B1

Related reading:

• Use spreadsheet-style formula functions in Zaps

• How to use Google Sheets: A complete guide

• Google Sheets vs. Excel: Which is right for you?

• How to make an Excel waterfall chart

• How to calculate time differences in Excel

This article was originally published in November 2023. The most recent update, with contributions from Dylan Reber, was in October 2024. 

Earlier this year, I ordered a special gift for my dad's birthday—a custom-designed T-shirt based on a sibling in-joke. Only after clicking send did I realize I'd made a huge mistake, and I immediately called the customer service line. 

I expected a long wait and a free headache for my trouble, but to my surprise, the rep was immediately on my side. She carefully listened to my concerns, didn't laugh (at least not audibly), and helped me find out where my package had landed. I felt like she was listening and maybe even cared—and that's the power of a well-crafted customer service script.

I've been on both sides of this kind of conversation: as a service worker and an embarrassed customer. Here, I'll cover the anatomy of a great customer service script and give you a few examples.

Table of contents:

• What is a customer service script?

• What to include in a customer service script

• Customer service script templates

• Using automation to build connection in customer service

What is a customer service script? 

A customer service script is the protocol a call center agent follows during phone and chat interactions. It outlines the dialogue and actions a customer service agent needs to take during a call or chat, making it easier to handle each interaction quickly and efficiently while leaving room for the agent's personal je ne sais quoi. 

These scripts are intended to serve as a framework for interactions, not a hard-and-fast set of rules that must be followed at the expense of natural conversation. That said, it is still a script—think of it like a local production of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Missing Amazon Packages," where the seasoned actors are invited to ad lib a few asides. 

What to include in a customer service script

A good customer service script will include at least some of the following elements—I've used a few of these myself before, so I can vouch for them.

• Warm greeting: Start with a friendly, professional greeting. Introduce yourself by name and state the name of the company.

  • Example: "Good morning. Thank you for calling Best Butlers, Inc. My name is Matilda; how can I help you today?" 

• Customer identification: Next, verify the customer's identity and access their account or details.

  • Example: "Mr. Patel, to assist you better, may I please have your full name and account number?"

• Active listening: Prompt the customer to fully explain their issue or why they've called.

  • Example: "Could you please describe in detail the issue you're facing or the reason for your call today? I want to make sure I fully understand so I can assist you better."

• Empathy statements: Take a moment during the call to express understanding for the customer's feelings and empathize with the problem they're experiencing. No one wants to feel like a number. 

  • Example: "Oof, that's frustrating—I see what you mean. I'm going to try to get this sorted as quickly as possible with you."

• Solution offering: After you've expressed empathy, follow with an immediate and practical solution. The customer is there to have their problems resolved, after all. 

  • Example: "It sounds like you're having a caching error. I'll reset your account settings, which should resolve the issue. This should only take about two minutes, and I'll stay on the line with you until it's resolved."

• Polite closing: End the conversation positively, ensuring the customer feels appreciated. 

  • Example: "Thank you for contacting Best Butlers, Inc, Mr. Patel. Have a great day!"

Customer service script templates

While a simple customer service script can go a long way, there's something to be said for specialized scripts that can guide you through difficult interactions. (Ask me how I know.) 

So, here are 21 examples you can use or adjust for some of the more complicated or difficult service moments—based on some of the most common types of service inquiries. I built these with the help of AI—and my five years of experience in customer service.

1. General greetings

A general greeting script is the most familiar and probably the first thing you think of when you hear "customer service script." You may even imagine this in Flo from Progressive's voice. 

• "Good [time of day], and thanks for calling [Company Name] customer support. This is [Agent Name]; how can I help you today?" 

In practice, this might look like: 

• "Good morning, and thanks for calling Best Butlers customer support. This is Reginald; how can I help you today?"

2. New customers

A new customer script is similar to a general greeting but specifically for first-time callers or people new to your community. Your customer service management platform will often have a feature that tells you when it's someone's first time calling or chatting.

A new customer script may look like this: 

• "Thank you for calling [Company Name]! My name is [Name], and I'm excited to assist you today. I see this is your first time reaching out to us. Welcome to our community; we're happy to have you! What can I do for you today?"

Which, in our hypothetical scenario, would look like this: 

• "Thank you for calling the Death Star Hotline! My name is Stormtrooper TK-801, and I'm excited to assist you today. I see this is your first time reaching out to us. Welcome to our community; we're happy to have you! What can I do for you today?"

3. Returning customers

Similar to the new customer greeting, a returning customer greeting can help folks who may frequent your support line feel at home. 

The script might look something like this: 

• "Hi, [Customer Name]! Thanks for being a [X] customer—what can I help you with today?"

4. Late or missed deliveries

When a customer calls to find out the status of a missed delivery, tensions can run high. The caller may already be upset, so it's important to diffuse the situation quickly and provide actionable next steps. 

The script might look something like this: 

• "I'm sorry to hear that—I know it's inconvenient. Let me check the status of your order right away. Could you provide me with your order number?"

• The customer explains the issue, and the agent responds again. 

• "Thanks for your patience, [Customer Name]. It appears that your delivery was delayed due to [reason, if available]. I know this is frustrating. Here are the steps we're taking to resolve this situation:

  • 1. [Explain the immediate actions being taken.]

  • 2. [Provide a new estimated delivery time.]

  • 3. [Mention any compensation or discount, if applicable.]"

Example: 

• "Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that, Mr. Saruman. I'm sure this is inconvenient. Let me check the status of your order right away. Could you provide me with your order number?"

• The customer explains the issue, and the agent responds again. 

• "Thank you for your patience, Mr. Saruman. It appears that your ring delivery was delayed. I know this is frustrating. Here are the steps we're taking to resolve this situation:

  • 1. An army of Uruk-hai has been dispatched.

  • 2. They're taking the hobbits to Isengard.

  • 3. We can provide a 50% discount on your next purchase of enchanted jewelry."

5. Incorrect orders

If a customer got the wrong order, they may be more confused than upset—but it's still important to resolve the issue quickly. 

Use a script similar to this one: 

• "Oh no! I apologize for the mix-up, [Customer Name]. That must have been an unwelcome surprise. Let's get this sorted out for you right away. Could you please share your order number and [if relevant] a brief description of what you received versus what you were expecting?"

If you're in a position to go the extra mile, you can also offer a discount:

• "As an apology for the inconvenience, we'd like to offer you [mention any discount, refund, or store credit]."

Example:

• "Oh no, I apologize for the mix-up, Ms. Doe. That must have been an unwelcome surprise. Let's get this sorted out for you right away. Could you please share your order number?"

6. Billing and payments

Concerns about billing are one of the most common issues that wind up in call centers—and scripts for handling billing issues and processing payments are some of the most crucial. 

The script might look something like this: 

• "I see what you're describing, [Name]. The amount charged for [specific service/item] was incorrect. Let me just hop in and correct this for you and issue a refund of [amount]. You should see this adjustment reflected on your next billing statement."

Example: 

• "I see what you're describing, Mr. Smith. The amount charged for your recent purchase of a flatscreen TV was incorrect. Let me just hop in and correct this for you and issue a refund of $125. You should see this adjustment reflected on your next billing statement."

7. General troubleshooting

If the customer is having a general account issue, much of your responsibility as a call center agent may be to simply help troubleshoot basic website or app issues.

You might use a script like one of these, depending on what the customer shares about their issue: 

• "Let's start by making sure you're entering the most up-to-date username and password. Are you seeing any specific error messages?"

• "Let's try a few basic troubleshooting steps. First, clear your browser's cache and cookies, and let me know if that makes a difference."

• "Are you getting any specific error messages on that screen?" 

8. Damaged or missing products

Similarly, customers may be upset when they call regarding damaged, missing, or incomplete orders. 

A script for how to handle this type of interaction might look like: 

• "Thanks for your patience, [Customer Name]. I see that your order was [explain findings]. Here's what we're going to do about that:

  • [If the product is damaged:] We'll send you a replacement at no additional cost to you.

  • [If the product is missing:] We'll arrange for the missing item to be shipped immediately.

  • [If the order is incomplete:] We'll ship the remaining items as soon as possible."

Example: 

• "Thanks for your patience, Mr. Wayne. I see that your order of 25 Kevlar base-jumping suits appears to have been lost in transit. Here's what we're going to do about that: 

  • We'll arrange for a replacement order of 25 Kevlar base-jumping suits to be shipped immediately."

9. Technical issues

Sometimes issues become more technical and require more advanced problem-solving tactics. While you may be able to escalate these issues to a specialist, sometimes you are the specialist. 

In that case, you might start with a script like this to diagnose the issue. Of course, you'll want to adjust it to fit your specific product or service. 

• "To help me understand what's happening, could you let me know the following:

  • What device and operating system are you using?

  • What version of our software/app are you running?

  • Have there been any recent changes to your system or network?"

• "Let's go through a few super basic diagnostic steps to isolate the issue. Nothing scary, I promise:

  • Restart your device, then try accessing the feature again.

  • Check for any available updates for our software/app and install them.

  • Ensure your internet connection is stable. Try connecting to a different network if possible.

  • Disable firewall or antivirus software temporarily to see if it might be interfering."

10. Account management

Account management issues also have their own scripts—they can cover account updates, activation and deactivation, and security issues. 

The script might look similar to one of these: 

• "Got it! Could you just let me know the information you'd like updated? If you provide the details, I can take care of that for you."

• "I can assist with activating your account. Are you able to access your email to verify the activation link?"

• "I have deactivated your account as requested. If you'd ever like to reactivate it, please don't reach back out to us. I can reactivate it anytime."

• "Please check your email for the password reset link, and let me know once you've successfully changed your password."

11. Angry customers

We've all been there: you pick up a call, and the customer is just straight-up angry—not at you, but it sure seems like it. A calm, cool, and collected script is a great way to make those interactions easier. 

A good script for a moment like this might look like:

• "That's unfortunate, for sure. I'm sorry about that experience, and I'll make sure we get this resolved as quickly as possible."

• "Thank you for your patience. Here's what I can do to help resolve this issue: [Explain the steps you will take to resolve the issue]. Does that work for you?"

12. Sensitive issues

When a customer has a question or issue relating to sensitive information or issues, always remember to ask for their account information first and confirm confidentiality. 

For example:

• "Just for security purposes, can you confirm your full name and the email address associated with your account?"

• "Before we proceed, I need to let you know that all the information shared during this call will be handled with the utmost confidentiality and only used to resolve your concern."

13. Holds and transfers

You know that awkward moment when you can't solve a customer's problem and you have to transfer them? 

Here's what you say: 

• "Thank you for explaining that, [Customer Name]. I think you'll need to speak to our expert to get the right assistance. Let me just connect you with our specialist in [area of concern] to make sure you get the assistance you need. Can I place you on a brief hold while I transfer your call?"

Example:

• "Thank you for explaining that, Dr. Xavier. I think you'll need to speak to our expert to get the right assistance. Let me just connect you with our specialist in adamantium processing to make sure you get the assistance you need. Can I place you on a brief hold while I transfer your call?"

14. Escalating issues

Sometimes you really can't handle an issue yourself—whether that's because it's more technical than your expertise or because the customer simply needs to speak with a manager—and it's time to bring in the big guns. 

When you need to escalate an issue to your manager, use a script like this: 

• "It looks like you'll need to speak to my manager to get this resolved. I'd like to go ahead and transfer you over to them. Does that work for you?"

15. Apologizing to customers

When dealing with a stressful situation or customer, sometimes an apology can help a customer understand that you're on their side. You don't want to overdo it, but a simple apology at the right moment can help maintain customer trust and satisfaction. 

A good apology might look something like this: 

• "I'm really sorry for the trouble you've been through. I totally get how frustrating this must be, and I'm very sorry that this has happened. We'll get this resolved together."

16. Call follow-ups

If you're calling a customer to follow up on a previous issue, you might have a service interaction that goes the opposite way—this time, you're asking the customer questions.

That script might look something like this: 

• "Hi, this is [Your Name] from [Company Name]. I'm calling to follow up on a recent interaction you had with our support team to make sure everything is going well. Is this a good time to chat?"

• "For verification purposes, could you please confirm your full name and the email address associated with your account?"

• "Thanks so much. I'm just following up regarding the issue you reported on [date of the original interaction] about [brief description of the issue]."

Example: 

• "Hi, this is Tony Stark from the Avengers. I'm calling to follow up on a recent interaction you had with our support team to make sure everything is going well. Is this a good time to chat?"

• "For verification purposes, could you please confirm your full name and the email address associated with your account?"

• "Thanks so much. I'm just following up regarding the issue you reported on July 4, 2012, about an alien invasion in New York."

17. Unresolved issues

It's every customer support agent's least favorite moment: when you can't actually solve the customer's problem. When you have an unresolved issue, you'll need to set a time to follow up with the customer once you have a potential solution. 

Communicate this to the customer by using a script like this: 

• "So it looks like we'll need some time to investigate this issue. Can I arrange to follow up with you once we have more information? I expect we should have an update within [specific timeframe]."

18. Successful resolution

In happier moments, like when you can resolve the customer's issue, make sure you confirm it with the customer so everyone is on the same page. 

You can use a script like this: 

• "Could you please check and confirm that the issue has been fully resolved on your end? Is there anything else related to this issue that you need help with?"

• "I'm glad we could resolve this for you. If there's anything else that you need help with, please don't hesitate to reach out."

19. Frustrated customers

After a long call, especially if you can't resolve the issue, it can be hard to feel positive about the situation. But it's still important to end calls on a positive note for the customer's sake. 

To do so, use a script like this one: 

• "Again, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for giving us the chance to make it right. Have a good day, and we'll be in touch soon."

20. Product recommendations (upselling and cross-selling)

It can be tricky to pick the right moment to upsell or cross-sell without coming off as a total sleazebag (technical term), but it can be done. Plus, you can help customers get the services that actually meet their needs if what they currently have isn't working. 

Use a script like this to pull it off: 

• "It looks like you're still using [product/service]. We also offer [related product/service] that works really well with what you have. For example, [explain the benefits]. Would you like to learn more?"

In practice, that might look like: 

• "It looks like you're still using our basic Jedi package. We also offer the Sith package, which works really well for discerning Force users like yourself. For example, it includes exclusive access to Force lightning tutorials. Would you like to learn more?"

21. Feedback requests

By the end of your call with a customer, you're tired, they're tired. Everyone is ready to go home and crack open a cold one (diet Coke, obviously). Hopefully, you've reached a resolution, but maybe not. Either way, it's important to find out how you did so that you can know how to improve future calls. 

You can use a script like this to encourage feedback at the end of a call. 

• "We're always looking for ways to improve our services, so we're interested to hear your feedback. Would you mind taking a few moments to share about your experience with us today?"

Use automation to build connection in customer service

You may have noticed that many of these scripts are similar or can be combined with others—and you should do just that. Repurpose, slice and dice, and edit as needed. And of course, always remember to add your own voice so you don't sound like you're reading a script—all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely checking their shipping status. 

If the customer service script examples above still don't cover your needs, there's more where those came from. You can use Zapier Chatbots to build a chatbot that will create personalized customer service scripts at scale for any problem in any industry—including meme T-shirts that got "misplaced" during shipping. You can also build your own customer service chatbot as a first line of defense before someone needs a human.

Learn more about how to create a custom AI chatbot with Zapier Chatbots.

Related reading:

• The best VoIP providers to move your business phone to the cloud

• How you can get better customer service by being nice

• AI in customer service: 11 ways to automate support

• How to automate your customer support

Anyone who does accounting is a brave and admirable soul, and I'm glad that there are excellent tools out there to make your job easier. FreshBooks and Xero are two of those tools: they combine several solutions to organize and manage a company's financial assets. I created accounts with both platforms and spent a bunch of time testing all their features to better understand each one's strengths and weaknesses—and how they stack up. Read on for my breakdown of FreshBooks vs. Xero to discover which is the best fit for your business.

Table of contents:

• FreshBooks vs. Xero at a glance

• FreshBooks is more intuitive (especially for small business owners)

• Xero has more accounting features

• Xero has a few helpful AI features

• Both apps connect to Zapier

• Which should you choose?

• FreshBooks vs. Xero FAQ

FreshBooks vs. Xero at a glance

FreshBooks and Xero are both powerful accounting tools that can help businesses keep their financial information and assets organized and accessible. But the two apps are geared toward different audiences, which explains their functional differences.

• FreshBooks is mostly built for freelancers and other self-employed people. It combines accounting and project management features, such as unlimited invoicing and time tracking, that would make a freelancer's job easier. 

• Xero, on the other hand, is accounting software through and through, and is built for more established businesses with large accounting teams and inventory to manage.

There's a reason FreshBooks made it on Zapier's list of the best self-employed accounting software, while Xero made it on the list of the best accounting software for bigger businesses.

FreshBooks is more intuitive (especially for small business owners)

FreshBooks brings some serious pizzazz and excitement to accounting, while Xero takes a more polished, business-like approach. Let me break it down for you.

Ease of use

When it comes to usability and design, FreshBooks does something I thought impossible: it makes accounting feel fun. Not only was the setup process easy and straightforward, just asking for a few basic details about my company, but the interface and beginner prompts also felt approachable and simple.

It creates this feel through bright colors, creative design, a straightforward layout, clear navigation, fun fonts, and a super casual tone. I never thought I'd hear the phrase "invoicing like a boss," yet here we are.

Xero's interface feels a bit more clean-cut and professional, which is more what I'd expect from accounting software. No colorful scribbles or fun fonts—straight to business. While I did appreciate the dashboard's clear and customizable widget feature, the interface felt a bit intimidating initially. There weren't tips guiding me through the process of adding clients and invoices or creating reports.

That said, Xero makes up for its user-friendliness shortcomings through tutorial videos and a demo company feature. In FreshBooks, no data appears until you add it yourself. In Xero, you can view the platform as a demo company with pre-recorded data, which makes it far easier to see how the platform will look and operate when you input your own business's data.

One final thing that just gives FreshBooks the upper hand: I felt like there were too many ways to access the same feature on Xero. For example, I found three sections I could use to create an invoice: the Business dropdown on the top navigation bar, the plus icon on the same bar, or the Invoices owed to you widget. While some people may appreciate the ability to access frequently used features in many ways, from where I sit, it makes the interface unnecessarily cluttered and complex.

Invoicing 

FreshBooks may not be as comprehensive an accounting platform as Xero, but it's hard to deny that its invoicing features are top-tier. Even with FreshBooks Lite, I was able to create and send unlimited customized invoices for up to five clients, whereas Xero restricted me to 20 total invoices per month. ​​With FreshBooks Plus, this limit increased to 50 clients, and with Premium, there's no client limit at all.

Time tracking and client management

Apart from FreshBooks' user-friendliness for those who aren't accounting experts, it also appeals to freelancers through its time tracking and client management tools. All plans offer unlimited time tracking and allow you to bill clients for the time you track.

Mobile-friendliness 

Another area where FreshBooks shines is its mobile experience. Compared to Xero's app, it's more user-friendly and offers a wider selection of features, including entering bills, live time tracking, and billing clients for time worked. In short, it's a freelancer's best friend.

Xero's app includes the basics, like sending invoices and assigning expenses, but its capabilities are a bit limited. Plus, Xero doesn't seem to care to consolidate its mobile experience into one app—there are different Xero apps for managing expenses, projects, and more. In fact, when signing up for an account, I had to download an entirely separate app just for two-factor authentication—a very unpopular requirement made clear by the app's below-1.5-star rating.

Xero has more (and better) accounting features for established businesses

FreshBooks is best equipped to serve small business owners without much accounting experience. The larger your business is, the better equipped Xero becomes to meet your needs. Here's why.

Reports

When comparing the reports generated by FreshBooks vs. Xero, I found Xero's to consistently provide more detail and offer more flexibility with data presentation than FreshBooks'.

For example, Xero allows you to view accounting reports and specific budgets for any time period. You can even monitor your company's performance by customizing and measuring specific KPIs.

Due to its limited accounting features compared to Xero, FreshBooks doesn't offer as many report options, and within its reports, customization is pretty sparse.

Bank reconciliation

In addition to its more robust reports, Xero proves itself to be the better fit for established and growing organizations with its bank reconciliation feature. While FreshBooks requires you to upgrade to its Plus plan to access this feature, even the most basic Xero plan offers bank reconciliation, including its new AI-powered predictions feature (which we'll explore in a moment).

Inventory management

When it comes to inventory management, Xero is also the name to beat for larger companies with lots of products and customers. FreshBooks offers some helpful (but basic) features, like automatically reducing your stock based on invoicing, but Xero goes a step further with advanced features, like identifying which of your items are the most profitable via comprehensive inventory reports.

FreshBooks' reports may be more aesthetically pleasing and easier to navigate, but Xero's include the level of detail needed to stay organized as your company grows.

Ultimately, Xero is an accounting powerhouse. With its most basic plan options, it comes equipped with bank reconciliation, unlimited user access (for entire accounting teams to access company financials), and comprehensive accounts payable management. These features are either not as robust with FreshBooks or are only accessible by upgrading to a more expensive plan. 

Xero has a few helpful AI features

When it comes to AI, Xero has a few tricks up its sleeve that FreshBooks currently lacks. The bank reconciliation predictions help make those tedious end-of-month tasks a little easier by using past transaction data to suggest matches for your bank statements. This saves you from repetitive clicks by automatically identifying business names and common expenses.

Xero also offers Analytics Plus, available on the Established plan, to analyze your cash flow. This feature uses AI to predict future recurring transactions up to 90 days in advance based on patterns from the last three months. It's perfect for businesses that regularly deal with recurring transactions or need a clearer, more reliable view of their future cash flow—whether that's for managing payroll, budgeting for upcoming projects, or predicting how many office plants you'll probably buy over the next quarter.

Xero is also gearing up to launch Just Ask Xero (JAX), a generative AI assistant designed to help businesses complete accounting tasks like creating invoices or paying bills. While details on pricing and a hard launch date are still under wraps, JAX promises to reduce admin time by giving users a more intuitive, hands-free way to manage their finances.

Even though FreshBooks doesn't yet offer similar AI-driven tools, both platforms can connect to Zapier AI. This means you can build customized AI workflows to automate tasks, whether you're team Xero or team FreshBooks.

Both apps connect to Zapier

Xero has about 10 times as many native integrations as FreshBooks (1,000, compared to 100), but whether you opt for Xero or FreshBooks, both integrate with Zapier, allowing you to connect them with thousands of other apps, set up automations, and ditch the tedious bookkeeping. Learn more about how to automate Xero, or dive into these ready-to-use workflows for both apps.

FreshBooks vs. Xero: Which should you choose?

Xero is an accounting powerhouse that can handle anything from freelancers to big-shot enterprises. With features like invoicing, payroll, and inventory management, it's got all the bells and whistles. Meanwhile, FreshBooks is perfect for freelancers and small businesses that want simplicity without sacrificing functionality. It excels at invoicing, expense tracking, and time management.

So basically, if you need a robust suite that can do it all, go for Xero. But if you want something straightforward and user-friendly that gets the job done without fuss, FreshBooks is your go-to.

FreshBooks vs. Xero FAQ

Still haven't made up your mind? Let me shed some light on the most FA'd of all Qs.

What are the main differences between FreshBooks and Xero?

FreshBooks primarily caters to freelancers and small businesses by providing straightforward tools for invoicing and expense tracking, while Xero offers a more comprehensive accounting solution suitable for bigger businesses with extensive financial needs.

Is FreshBooks more expensive than QuickBooks?

Short answer: no. FreshBooks is generally a more budget-friendly QuickBooks alternative. FreshBooks' pricing begins at a more affordable $19 per month, whereas QuickBooks starts at $35 per month. And if you want all those fancy advanced features, QuickBooks can skyrocket to a whopping $200 per month. Meanwhile, the cost of FreshBooks' top tier is a reasonable $55 monthly.

Do I need a bookkeeper if I use Xero? 

Xero does make accounting a breeze, but whether or not you can risk business without a bookkeeper depends on a few factors: the size and complexity of your business, your own accounting skills, and how much time you have to spare for bookkeeping tasks.

If you're running a small business with simple finances, you might be able to handle it all on your own with Xero. But if you have intricate transactions or can't tell a balance sheet from a grocery list, it's probably time to call in the bookkeeping cavalry. 

Is Xero or FreshBooks better for handling payroll?

Xero comes with built-in payroll capabilities, allowing users to handle payroll tasks directly without needing to rely on a third-party solution. FreshBooks doesn't offer built-in payroll features and requires integration with Gusto for payroll services, which may involve additional costs.

Related reading:

• Save time and reduce errors with accounting automation

• How to automate bookkeeping

• The best self-employed accounting software

• The best invoicing software

• The best accounting software for small businesses

This article was originally published in October 2022. The most recent update, with contributions from Allisa Boulette, was in October 2024.

For the longest time, I relied on a photo to take my documents from paper to the digital world. But now that I've discovered the power of OCR scanning software, I have no intention of going back to the Paper Ages.

I most often use scanning apps for business-related documents and forms of ID, but as you'll see below, you can use these apps for almost any kind of document: books, receipts, certificates, or even a page of your own handwriting.

I've been updating this article for a few years, and after testing dozens of mobile scanning and OCR tools again this year, I've handpicked nine that will change the way you manage your documents.

The best mobile scanning and OCR software

• Adobe Scan for the best free OCR software

• Apple Notes for iPhone users

• CamScanner for feature variety

• Microsoft Lens for text-to-speech (and Microsoft users)

• iScanner for OCR plus unique features

• Tiny Scanner for accuracy

• Pen to Print for handwriting OCR

• Genius Scan for quick auto-scanning

• Google Lens for all the Google bells and whistles

What makes the best OCR cell phone app?

If you don't own a scanner, you can still digitize documents quickly with a mobile scanning app—all of the apps on this list will do the trick. But if you need to turn your pages into a file you can edit, you'll want optical character recognition (OCR) as part of your mobile scan app. That's what will turn your mobile scans into editable digital documents.

With that in mind, the best OCR software with mobile scanning should excel in a few key areas. Not every app on this list meets all of these criteria, but if you're going to scan with your phone, these are the features you'll want to look for—and it's what I was looking for as I tested.

• Auto-scanning. Every app on this list includes some kind of scanning feature, but I paid attention to which apps made the process as painless as possible. This included testing how well each app focused on the document, how accurately the sensor detected borders, and how long it took to capture a scan.

• Accuracy. An OCR app needs to be accurate—no one wants to spend ages editing gibberish text, so I paid attention to how accurately each app produced digitized text from my scans.

• File management. A phone scan app doesn't need to have lots of bells and whistles, but I did take into account how effective each app was at organizing, saving, sharing, printing, and exporting digitized files.

• Customization. Scanning and digitizing a document may just be the beginning for you. If your goal is to add more text, a signature, or watermarks, or to password-protect your documents, having customization options is also important.

• Scanning modes. You're likely going to be scanning a variety of documents—from IDs and passports to books and receipts. Having different scanning mode options can help with this kind of variety.

• Bonus: AI features. Some apps are starting to incorporate capabilities like text translation, math problem-solving, or even counting to spice up the user experience.

One other thing: I didn't want bloated apps—if you just want to scan, you don't need a CRM to do it. Having said that, it's worth taking a look through your existing tech stack to see if any of your current apps already have this technology (many do).

I looked through the top-rated apps to come up with a giant list of tools to consider. After narrowing it down based on the criteria above, I did in-depth testing on all the top contenders.

How I tested the mobile OCR apps

To test the performance of each app, I used three very different documents:

1. A certificate with various fonts

2. A busy receipt with varying degrees of visible text

3. A wordy cooking book with thick paragraphs

Note that I didn't pick documents that would be easy. With any scanning app, you'll get the best results when working with flat, single-sided, standard size pages of crisp black text in a single typeface (sans serif, ideally) arranged in paragraphs on white paper. Fading, folding, tearing, book bindings, variations in ink saturation, and other factors can trip up OCR. Life, however, rarely gives us pristine documents.

With one exception, the apps on this list all work on iOS or Android, but I tested each app on an iPhone. I used each app in the same natural light conditions against the same background, a black placemat. When available, I used any auto-scanning features in the app that were relevant to that particular text. For example, CamScanner has a special mode for scanning book pages, so I used that on the textbook, while other apps don't come with these settings and force you to do cold-turkey scans. 

I went into this experiment thinking I might see subtle differences in terms of how well each app processed color or how many errors I could count among the OCR texts. And I assumed I'd end up with at least a dozen apps that I could easily recommend. That wasn't the case. When the wheat separated from the chaff, there wasn't a lot of wheat left.

While narrowing down the list, some apps didn't meet basic requirements, and others performed poorly. One app failed to scan and properly crop the standard receipt (the easy test, which most other apps passed with flying colors). Another was able to scan perfectly only to produce indiscernible, gibberish text.

In the end, only a handful of apps successfully emerged as respectable, dependable options. Here are the nine best mobile apps for scanning and OCR.

The best mobile scanning apps at a glance

Best free OCR software

Adobe Scan

Adobe Scan pros:

• Up to 25 pages for free

• It automatically detects phone numbers and URLs

Adobe Scan cons:

• Some accuracy hiccups

Adobe Scan offers several modes for scanning, including books, documents, business cards, ID cards, and even whiteboards. I started by scanning the receipt and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the app not only can detect phone numbers and URLs but also makes the number or URL clickable. This should be useful, especially if you're on the go and don't have time to jot down a number or website—you can just take a pic and easily access that information later.

As far as digitizing, it had some hiccups with accuracy, but not too shabby overall. The prices on the receipt—which other apps had pulled just fine—were incorrect here. On the other hand, the certificate fared a lot better, with Adobe catching most of the text except for the "Certificate" title at the top. What's interesting is that the book wound up being the most accurate: there were a handful of errors with some of the words, but for the most part, the text was correct enough to decipher.

Overall, Adobe Scan is a solid option for anyone looking for a free OCR app. It comes with basic file management and editing capabilities, which makes it edge out Microsoft Lens for a free option. And for those looking for a few more features, like the ability to export to Word, compress and combine PDFs, protect PDFs with a password, or digitize up to 100 pages, there's a premium plan available.

Adobe Scan price: Free; $9.99/month or $69.99/year for premium features.

Best OCR scanner app for iPhone users

Apple Notes

Apple Notes pros:

• Very accurate

• Comes free and installed with your iPhone

Apple Notes cons:

• Scanning and digitizing a large section of text is difficult

Apple Notes is intended to be a note-taking app, but Apple has added OCR features that are good enough to get it a place on this list.

To scan and digitize text, click on the camera icon, and you'll see four options, including Scan Documents and Scan Text. The first option just scans the document and places it in a note, while the Scan Text option allows you to select a section of text and insert the text directly into a note.

I found the OCR to be accurate, but I'd argue it's best used for digitizing smaller chunks of text. For example, when I tried to scan any of the documents, it had some trouble finding and fitting all the text on the page within the scanning borders, so I had to approach scanning each document one section at a time. But I really appreciate how accurate the digitized text was. Editing was very minimal—only a few punctuation marks here and there.

Since this app is completely free to use for iPhone users and incredibly convenient for people who use the Notes app religiously (like me), I think it's a good one to consider if you ever need some quick OCR.

Apple Notes price: Free

Best OCR scanner app for a variety of features

CamScanner

CamScanner pros:

• You can edit the text directly within documents

• Multiple formatting options for digitized documents

• Various export options, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or image

• Additional AI-based features, like solving math and translating text

CamScanner cons:

• OCR may miss spaces or punctuation

As I went through the testing process, CamScanner was the first breath of fresh air. I didn't once have to adjust the borders on any of my documents, and the level of detail was on another level. It recognized almost all the text on the certificate, including that tricky "Certificate" title that had been tripping up all the other apps. It also broke up each portion of text as separate lines, which was a nice touch.

Another pleasant surprise was how CamScanner performed with the book. When I exported a page as a Word document, it looked like an actual picture instead of just a digitized scan. The text was organized almost exactly as it was in the book, including the positioning of the paragraphs—and it was all completely highlightable. 

When customizing documents, you can add a signature, but unlike on other apps, you're only able to either import the signature or have the app scan it from elsewhere. (Most other apps allowed me to simply draw my signature on the phone screen.) You can add watermarks and set a passcode to protect documents, though, and the naming suggestions when saving and managing files was a nice touch. Another helpful feature is the ability to edit digitized text—but the words I changed became bolded and distorted, and some of the original text got a little cut off. 

Beyond this, CamScanner still has a ton of other customization and scanning features, including ID photo making, erasing text, scanning PowerPoint presentations and whiteboards, and even rearranging PDF pages. My two favorites were its ability to solve math problems and translate written text—both of these AI features worked great for me, even with my messy handwriting.

While the price for CamScanner may seem a bit steep, I think it's well worth it for how feature-rich it is. Not only is the OCR accurate, detailed, and optimized for the user's benefit, but with the premium subscription, you can search text within your documents, create collages, scan unlimited documents, and get 10+ GB of cloud space.

CamScanner price: $9.99/month, $69.99/year, $299 lifetime

Best OCR app for text-to-speech (and Microsoft users)

Microsoft Lens

Microsoft Lens pros:

• Straightforward to use

• Completely free

Microsoft Lens cons:

• There's no way to create folders for file management

• You can't edit digitized text within the app

Microsoft Lens is straightforward—that's what drew me in. If you give the other apps on this list a shot, you'll notice that a lot of them require you to sign up or give you a tour before you can even scan your first document. While there's nothing inherently wrong with that approach, Microsoft Lens skips all of the fuss and lets you get right to scanning.

The app used to be pretty bare-bones, only allowing you to scan, do basic editing, and export your scans. Now, there's an Actions mode: it lets you take a picture of a document, like a page or receipt, and it will generate the text for you to copy. It worked perfectly well with the book, but it refused to work on the certificate, and the receipt text came out somewhat inaccurate.

The coolest feature, though, is the new Immersive Reader mode. You can snap a photo of any text, and it'll transform it into a clean, eBook-style screen for easy reading. Plus, you can press play to have the app read it aloud to you.

Once I finished editing my documents, the app took me straight to the export options, which included either saving the document to the iPhone Photos app or other compatible apps. That said, Microsoft users will enjoy the ability to save documents and import them into other Microsoft apps, including OneDrive, OneNote, Word, and PowerPoint.

In terms of OCR, the receipt and certificate were mostly accurate, with a line or two missing. And while the book was a bit of a Final Boss for most apps, Microsoft Lens was able to step up to the challenge. It still had a few issues with accuracy—a few missing words and letters—but it was still mostly readable.

Price: Free

Best OCR app for extra features

iScanner

iScanner pros:

• Intuitive interface with helpful tutorials

• An abundance of extra features, such as the ability to do math or measure distances

iScanner cons:

• Its most useful features, including OCR, are only available for paid users

• Formatting can be a little awkward for digitized text

iScanner had my favorite interface out of all of the OCR apps. It offers a lot of features, which could have been overwhelming, but it does a great job of organizing everything. Whether you're looking to scan an ID card, sign a document, or recognize text, the app makes the features readily apparent by splitting actions into the following categories: Scan, Edit, and Share. And if you're feeling lost or curious, just click on the circular icons at the top of the screen, and you'll find video tutorials for most of the features.

As far as my standard testing documents, iScanner performed pretty well. With the certificate, it missed the title at the top by a letter (not unusual), but it was mostly accurate. The book and receipt were fairly accurate (the book a little more so), but the way the app formats the recognized text was a little wonky for these two. 

But similar to CamScanner, what makes this app stand out is that it can complete other AI actions with the information it detects. For example, I handwrote a fun quadratic equation—3x2+5x−8=0—and the app solved it in seconds. If you really want to see what the app is capable of, throw some more advanced algebra at it, and you should get similar results. It can also count. I scribbled nine dots on a piece of paper. After analyzing and identifying the shape of each dot, the app was able to count all nine.

Another small detail I enjoyed was the ability to blur out text on a document. Most OCR apps offer this to some extent, but iScanner sets itself apart by making the blur match the color of the background of the document, so it almost looks like you've taken out the text altogether. The AI polish feature also does a great job of cleaning up scans and making them look more readable and vibrant. Overall, iScanner is definitely one of the strongest choices on this list.

iScanner price: $9.99/month or $19.99/year

Best mobile scanning app for accuracy

Tiny Scanner

TinyScanner pros:

• Great OCR accuracy

• You can add watermarks to scans

• Share scans directly to Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Evernote, and Dropbox

TinyScanner cons:

• You can only access OCR with a paid plan

I can confidently say that Tiny Scanner was the most accurate of any on the list. CamScanner was a close second, but it struggled a bit with misspellings and omitted words, while Tiny Scanner was correct to the T.

To access Tiny Scanner's OCR features, you'll need to subscribe to a paid plan, but there is some flexibility when it comes to simply scanning. For example, when I revisited the app after my free trial expired and tried to scan, I was hit first with the prompt to upgrade to premium. But when I clicked out of the prompt, another pop-up showed up asking me to simply watch an ad for one-time access to the feature I wanted. The videos can be as short as five seconds, and the longest one I had to watch was 20 seconds.

If you use OCR often and you're looking for an app that's going to provide consistent accuracy, the $4.99/month price tag is worth it.

Tiny Scanner price: Free plan available; premium plans are $4.99/month or $49.99/year

Best handwriting OCR app

Pen to Print

Pen to Print pros:

• Ability to scan and digitize handwritten text

• Accurate even with slightly messy handwriting

Pen to Print cons:

• No folder creation

Even in the age of all-things-digital, handwriting will never fully go out of style. For those of us who enjoy the feel of putting pen to paper but also occasionally need to put those writings onto a screen, Pen to Print is a great solution for OCR handwriting recognition.

I had to go off-book to test this one, so I created a basic travel list. I began with my normal handwriting: the app had some difficulty detecting my list at first, but almost all of the items came out correct once it was digitized. In the second round, I decided to instead write a sentence in cursive. And the result was even more impressive: it got everything right.

You can save your digitized texts to the app, but if you want to export to other platforms—or copy, paste, and edit the text—you'll need to subscribe to the premium plan. The payment options are more than reasonable, though, starting at $2.99/month.

Pen to Print price: For OCR features: $2.99/month, $9.99/yr, or $29.99 one-time

Best OCR app for quick auto-scanning

Genius Scan

Genius Scan pros:

• Quick and accurate auto-scans

• Consistent accuracy

• Clean-up features

• Text search

Genius Scan cons:

• No signing features within the app

I was most impressed with how Genius Scan managed to be the only app to auto-scan full pages of the book, unlike most apps on this list that would only grab sections of text or require me to manually adjust the borders. Auto-scanning the receipt and the certificate was also a breeze. I'd accidentally gotten a drop of water on the certificate, but the app automatically removed the blemish, along with the wrinkles in the paper.

The OCR accuracy across all three documents was decent, and it's nice that you can type not-so-easy-to-read text into the app's search bar and find not only the doc you're looking for but also the exact place the text is in the doc. It also comes with another unique feature: curvature protection, which helps straighten out any lines or borders after scanning your document. 

One slight downside is the lack of an in-app signing feature. You have to export to Genius Sign if you need to add a signature, which feels a bit clunky, especially when other apps make this process easier. But if you don't plan on using this app for a ton of signing, this isn't too much of a hassle. Plus, for $4.99/month or $39.99/year, I think it's a decent deal, considering you get unlimited scans and above-average digitizing accuracy.

Genius Scan price: For OCR features: $4.99/month or $39.99/year

Best OCR app for Google bells and whistles

Google Lens

Google Lens pros:

• Built-in web search access using a scanned photo or digitized text

• Built-in access to Google Translate

Google Lens cons:

• No way to store digitized files or text

Google Lens becomes a mobile scanning and OCR app when you use it with other apps, like Google Photos. Choose a photo from your Google Photos library, and click the lens icon at the bottom of the screen. You'll see some white dots flash across the screen as Google Lens analyzes the image, and within a few seconds, it will highlight all your text. Or you could scan something with Google Lens and then copy it to Google Docs—Google's video of this process is pretty snazzy. (Side note: you can also turn images into text with Google Drive and Google Docs.)

From there, there are a wealth of options available, thanks to Google being Google. For example, when I clicked translate, the app immediately identified that my text was English and prompted me to open Google Translate. And with the text-to-speech feature, I had a paragraph from my book read aloud to me with surprisingly strong accuracy. I even took that travel list with the messy handwriting that I used to test Pen to Print, and Google Lens had no issues identifying the words. 

But Google Lens's abilities go even further: it offers "visual matches," which means that it can analyze an image or document and find similar results across the web (like Google image search). When I tested it with the certificate and travel list, results upon results of certificates and travel lists popped up. On that same note, when I clicked on the shopping tab, I was able to see results for certificates on sale, along with pricing. Thanks, Google!

While Google Lens doesn't technically have a scanning component (i.e., it doesn't store your scans), you'll find that it's not actually necessary if your goal is to extract text. You can simply take a picture of your document, let Google Lens do its thing, copy the text, and paste it elsewhere. It may not work for storing digitized versions of documents, especially for professional purposes, but it's a very convenient option to have on hand.

Google Lens price: Free

How do I scan with my phone?

All the apps here will scan text and—either natively or by copying it elsewhere—let you edit that text however you want. It's honestly kind of incredible. Even more impressive is that your phone has some of these features built in.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, just take a picture or screenshot with some text, and you'll see a little button pop up that lets you highlight, copy, and paste it. I used this feature regularly, and I've found it to be extremely accurate and adept at capturing even the vaguest text. You may have to do some maneuvering with the formatting—there will be some awkward line breaks if you're copying paragraphs, for example—but it's ridiculously convenient.

Related reading:

• The best business card scanners

• The best apps for digitally signing files

• The best document management software

This article was originally published in September 2018 by Jill Duffy. The most recent update was in October 2024.

As a marketer at a fast-paced agency, I would be terrible at my job if I didn't take good notes. You know—project deadline reminders, priority lists, links to resources, research notes—all the things that, if unkempt, could turn into a pile of colorful sticky notes and paper mountains on my desk.

There are a lot of note-taking apps out there that solve this problem, but two of the most powerful are Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. Evernote went to pot for a few years, losing its edge, but it's made a comeback. OneNote, however, has consistently held its ground, especially for those already embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem.

I downloaded both apps and spent several days using each one to better understand their nuanced features. Read on for an in-depth look at Evernote vs. OneNote, and decide which app is right for you.

Table of contents:

• Evernote vs. OneNote at a glance

• What's not different between Evernote and OneNote

• OneNote is more flexible; Evernote is more structured

• OneNote's free plan is much better than Evernote's

• Both offer impressive note-taking features

• OneNote's AI lets you do more

• Both tools connect to Zapier

Evernote vs. OneNote at a glance

In short:

• OneNote is better for those who love Microsoft Office's software layout and who don't want to shell out cash for a note-taking app. 

• Evernote is better for those who have the budget and want a subscription to a powerful, aesthetically pleasing, and user-friendly note-taking app.

But don't stress about your decision. Both apps offer similar features and serve the purpose you need them to: organized note-taking.

What's not different between Evernote and OneNote

Overall, Evernote and OneNote are far more similar than they are different. Both apps:

• Include several note formats—text, images, audio, drawings, files, and more

• Have a file storage hierarchy, allowing you to store documents in folders

  • Evernote: Notebook stacks > notebooks > notes

  • OneNote: Notebooks > sections > pages

• Allow you to add tags to notes and use those tags to locate them

• Enable collaboration with other teammates

• Allow you to seamlessly sync your data across multiple devices

• Allow you to clip content from the web

• Integrate well with other apps, including Zapier

• Require a paid upgrade to add more storage

  • Evernote: 10 GB of storage per month with Personal; 20 GB with Professional

  • OneNote: 1 TB of storage total with a Microsoft 365 subscription

Evernote is more structured, where OneNote offers more flexibility

When I first opened OneNote, I was met with crickets. No tutorial, no helpful pop-up tips—nothing. Thankfully, I've had experience using Microsoft Office products (far too many college essays written in Microsoft Word), so I didn't have much trouble navigating the interface. If you also have experience using Microsoft Office, there's a good chance you'll find your way around without too much difficulty.

That's an indication of the flexibility of the app, and it's even more prominent when you start actually taking notes. The note-taking interface itself is—to put it simply—loosey-goosey. Unlike nearly any other word-processing or note-taking app you've used (whether that be Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Evernote, or Apple Notes), wherever you click on the interface, your cursor creates a text box for your note (shown below).

It feels like you're writing on a blank piece of paper, wherever you want, and it allows you to move your text boxes wherever you want them on the page. Not gonna lie—this isn't my vibe. But I can see where it'd be helpful for some folks, so I'd say this one comes down to personal preference.

Another example: OneNote's tagging feature also isn't clearly marked—I spent several minutes just trying to locate tags and finally found them by clicking a tiny arrow on the app's home tab (shown below).

Granted, OneNote's folder structure is very clear and organized, with pages grouped into sections and sections grouped into notebooks. Colorful tabs mark sections, which is reminiscent of a physical notebook—pretty cute, if you ask me. But overall, it's a lot freer than Evernote.

On the other hand, when I opened Evernote for the first time, I was greeted by a very friendly tutorial bot that walked me through everything the app had to offer—creating tags and tasks, using templates, sharing notes with teammates, and an option to import content from alternative note-taking apps. After a couple of minutes, I could navigate the interface with no problems.

Evernote's user experience makes note-taking and organization feel natural and comfortable. The app's menu navigation is very user-friendly, and its widget structure makes it easy to see and navigate to anything you may need.

I felt like I was at a Michelin-starred restaurant with all the personalized touches. For example, the home page suggested notebooks to me based on my activity (similar to Google Drive's "Priority" list). And I always knew exactly what to expect.

I was most impressed with the interface for setting task due dates. It provides easy preset options, a full calendar view, and options to add a specific time and time zone (shown below)—total customization, all within a user-friendly pop-up interface.

Both apps offer full access for free, but Evernote comes with a catch

Evernote recently overhauled its pricing structure, and it's significantly shifted what you can do on its free plan. Besides its AI features, all the bells and whistles that used to be locked behind a paywall are now accessible to everyone. Sounds like a great deal, right? Well, there's a bit more to the story.

The free plan caps you at 50 notes, a pittance compared to the 150,000 notes you can store with a paid plan. You'll also face a maximum note size of 25MB and a total of 60 MB in monthly uploads. Users who regularly store documents with high-resolution images or multimedia will probably quickly hit that ceiling. And if you rely on syncing your notes across multiple devices—think laptop, tablet, and phone—I've got some bad news. Evernote restricts syncing across devices to paid users only. So, if you plan to access your notes from anywhere other than your main device, you might find yourself scrambling to upgrade sooner rather than later.

So what about OneNote? Unlike many other Microsoft Office apps, you can download and use OneNote without paying for a Microsoft 365 subscription—it's free for anyone to download and use.

OneNote offers flexibility that Evernote's free plan doesn't. You can create as many notes as you like, with no limitations on size or monthly uploads, and sync them across multiple devices. While Evernote's free plan can start feeling restrictive pretty quickly, OneNote remains wide open for your organizational needs.

You only need a Microsoft account to get started, and you'll immediately get 5GB of cloud storage via OneDrive. And if that's not enough space for you, there's always the option to bump it up to 1TB with a Microsoft 365 subscription—but 5 GB total is already pretty generous compared to Evernote's free version's 60 MB per month.

Both offer impressive features, but Evernote has an edge

The web clipper

Both Evernote and OneNote offer a web clipper—a browser extension that captures webpage contents at the click of a button. This makes grabbing page contents with unique formats (such as recipes or poems) a breeze.

While both tools are powerful, I found Evernote's web clipper to be most accurate and helpful. When I clipped an entire article on how to write a blog post, OneNote captured what seemed like a screenshot of the webpage. As a result, I was unable to interact with the text at all—the clipped webpage was just an image.

Evernote, on the other hand, made it possible to interact with the text—highlighting it, copying it, and navigating to all links that were on the page. I was especially impressed to see that Evernote kept the page's formatting incredibly accurate—spacing, headers, and all (as seen below).

Search features

I had read online that both Evernote and OneNote offer great optical character recognition (OCR)—essentially, the ability to see and capture text in images or other static documents, like PDFs. I gave the tool a try on both apps, and found Evernote's OCR to be superior.

As you can see in the screenshot below, Evernote was able to identify the word "matcha," despite it being written in a cursive font that mimics handwriting.

Evernote has also rolled out its new AI Search feature this year, which lets you type in questions and get answers straight from your notes. (More on that below.)

In contrast, OneNote was unable to identify the word "matcha" in the same image (shown below). I tried to search for "scratch," another word in the image that uses a simpler font, and OneNote was still unable to find the word in the image.

That said, OneNote was able to identify text from the same web clip used earlier (shown below).

Overall, Evernote's ability to detect image text written in a unique font gave it the win.

Evernote's AI tools are useful but limited, while OneNote's let you dig deeper

Every productivity app is jumping on the AI bandwagon, and Evernote and OneNote are no exceptions. If you're deciding between them, their AI features might tip the scales, depending on what you need.

Evernote has introduced two AI tools to its Professional plan: AI Edit and AI-Powered Search. AI Edit, tucked into the editing bar, offers a simple dropdown with options that help you polish your content without feeling overwhelmed by too many choices. These tools aim to enhance your note-taking experience by offering features like summarization, typo fixing, translation, introduction/conclusion generation, and a yet-to-be-released tone adjustment.

Was I blown away by AI Edit? Not exactly. The tool is fairly basic compared to some standalone AI editors out there, but it gets the job done. I can see its appeal for those who want a quick AI assist without needing to switch to a different app.

Evernote also enhances search with AI, pulling results from your notes, PDFs, images, and even handwritten content to surface relevant information. And since Evernote also supports tasks and events, you can ask questions about those, too, and get a summarized view of everything together. You'll have a list of sources for the answer so you can jump straight to the original data and check that the AI isn't making things up.

Meanwhile, over at OneNote, AI takes the form of Microsoft Copilot, available to users with a Copilot Pro license ($20/month) or a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license ($30/month). I haven't had the chance to test this directly because I don't have the required license, and—just a heads-up—it's currently only available on Windows. But based on the experience of other Zapier app testers, Copilot in OneNote offers a more proactive AI assistant by providing a chat sidebar for asking questions and generating content. It can help you brainstorm ideas, draft project plans, create to-do lists, summarize or rephrase text, and organize information without ever leaving your notes.

Both tools connect to Zapier

If you want to get the most from your note-taking tool, it needs to talk to the rest of your tech stack. And with Zapier, you can connect OneNote or Evernote with thousands of other apps, so you can automatically create notes based on activity in other apps—or the other way around.

Learn more about how to automate OneNote and how to automate Evernote, or get started with one of these pre-built workflows.

Evernote or OneNote: Which one is better?

Both Evernote and Microsoft OneNote will help you get and stay organized—that much is guaranteed. But each app has a unique audience for whom it's more clearly designed.

If you have a budget for a note-taking app—even just $14.99 per month—Evernote is a solid choice. Not only is its interface more sleek and intuitive than OneNote (think Apple vs. Android and Zoom vs. Microsoft Teams), but its features also proved more powerful and helpful than OneNote's.

Of course, some users love the interface of Microsoft Office apps, in which case, OneNote may be more aesthetically and practically attractive. The fact that OneNote offers all of its advanced features for free may also shift the tide in its favor.

Another factor that should go into your decision is which app your organization or team already uses. Will you make all text messages in the group chat green by choosing the other option? Consider how your choice will impact your teammates' workflow and—for everyone's sake—keep the group's app preference in mind when making your decision.

Evernote vs. OneNote FAQ

Still struggling to decide? First, take a deep breath: we're just taking notes here, and either one will do the trick. Learn more from these common questions.

Is Evernote better than Microsoft OneNote?

Your choice boils down to what you personally like and how much you're willing to spend. If you feel strongly about your note-taking app boasting the elegance and charm of a celebrity at the Met Gala, Evernote may be the superior choice. But if you're a Microsoft Office fan and you like the idea of getting advanced features without shelling out extra cash, OneNote might be more your jam.

Should I switch from Evernote to OneNote?

If you want to save money, making the switch to OneNote might be the move. But if you value Evernote's power features, you may miss those.

How do I link Evernote to OneNote?

You can use the OneNote importer tool to migrate your Evernote files into OneNote. But if you want to truly link the two, you can use a Zap to automatically send information between the two apps.

Related reading:

• The best note-taking apps for Windows

• Google Keep vs. Evernote: Which note-taking app should you choose?

• Notion vs. Evernote: Which should you use?

• Notion vs. OneNote: Which should you use?

This article was originally published in October 2018 by Jill Duffy and has also had contributions from Cecilia Gillen and Allisa Boulette. The most recent update was in October 2024.

In college, I wrote for the school newspaper, and my beat was reporting on the Student Government Association (SGA). I often used the minutes from SGA meetings to help me write my article, but I quickly realized that's about all they were being used for—SGA members never read them and usually forgot what they'd discussed in their meetings the next day. And I can't blame them—minutes were kept in a scattered Word Doc and could put a civics professor to sleep.

While minutes are meant to contain the most important records of meetings (that frankly no one would remember otherwise), they can easily become unuseful or outright painful to revisit unless you have a solid framework to work from. That's where a meeting minutes template comes in handy—to ensure you track the most actionable and helpful notes that boards and other teams need to get their work done. 

Check out these seven meeting minutes templates and examples for different types of meetings.

Table of contents:

• 7 meeting minutes templates and examples

• What are meeting minutes?

• What do meeting minutes include?

• Why use meeting minutes?

• Meeting minutes tips

• Automate meeting minutes

• Meeting minutes FAQ

7 meeting minutes templates and examples

Let's jump right into what you're here for: seven meeting minutes template examples for nearly every (high-level) meeting format you can think of. Download and customize them to fit your needs.

1. Standard meeting minutes template

Best for: staff meetings, team updates

This template covers the nuts and bolts for most meetings. It works well for recurring team meetings or if you just need a basic structure with an agenda, decisions, and action items to get you going. Key components in this template include: 

• Meeting title

• Date

• Time

• Location

• Attendees

• Absentees

• Agenda

• Decisions

• Action items

• Next meeting date and time

Wondering where each item in this laundry list of components should go? Take a peek at the meeting minutes example above for inspiration.

2. Detailed meeting minutes template

Best for: project-related meetings, small-to-medium-sized team meetings

A more detailed meeting minutes template can help keep projects on track and hold members of a small team accountable for commitments. In addition to the basic meeting components, a detailed meeting minutes template should also include:

• Progress tracking

• Project goals and milestones

• Roadblocks

3. Formal meeting minutes template

Best for: executive meetings, board meetings

Have you ever been in a meeting and thought, "Am I underdressed?" That's the kind of meeting this template is for. These meetings have a more structured order of events, like recapping old and new business or voting on new initiatives. A formal meeting minutes template should include space for:

• Old business—follow-ups on previous action items

• New business—agenda items or new action items

• Discussions

• Voting records

4. Informal meeting minutes template

Best for: team huddles, brainstorms

Need to collaborate or strategize in a more casual, creative environment but don't want to forget all the brilliant ideas you spitball? This type of meeting doesn't necessarily have to be informal, but it can lead to creativity and innovation by allowing teammates to work through half-baked ideas.

A more informal meeting minutes template is perfect for this use case. It's less structured—because how are you going to put your out-of-the-box ideas into a box?—but it still keeps your notes organized with spaces for:

• Icebreakers

• Creative corner—jot down ideas from brainstorms 

• Parking lot ideas—ideas that aren't relevant to the current discussion but could be considered in the future 

• Discussions

• Shoutouts

5. Annual meeting minutes template

Best for: annual general meetings

You won't use this template often, but it does help keep a consistent, historical record of your organization's trajectory. To capture key highlights and outcomes of a company's yearly gatherings, use an annual meeting minutes template to keep notes on things like:

• State of the organization

• Financial review

• Strategic initiatives

• Recognition and awards

• Announcements

• Employee questions

6. Client meeting minutes template

Best for: client meetings

Whether you're in consulting, project management, or any other client-facing role, this template ensures both parties are aligned, expectations are well documented, and progress is effectively tracked. Here's what should be included in a client meeting minutes template:

• Agreements

• Action items for both sides

• Report findings

• Client feedback

7. Training meeting minutes template

Best for: training sessions

A training meeting minutes template is an invaluable tool for training sessions, workshops, and learning events. It guarantees that key insights and training content are documented for trainees to refer back to and helps the ongoing improvement of training programs. This type of template should have room for:

• Training objectives

• Resource links and materials

• Key takeaways

• Participant feedback

• Who to reach out to with additional questions

What are meeting minutes?

Templates won't do you much good if you don't know what to put in them. Meeting minutes document the topics discussed and decisions made in a meeting. They're a bit more formal than personal meeting notes you jot down in a notebook. In theory, you'd review the previous meeting's minutes before the next meeting to refresh your memory on key points, and you'd keep organized records of all past meeting minutes for future reference. 

But let's pump the breaks for a second. You shouldn't document the meeting literally minute by minute. Meeting minutes should paint the big picture with three goals in mind:

• Outline high-level themes

• Document decisions

• Track progress on projects and goals

What do meeting minutes include?

Meeting minutes may vary based on the type of meeting they record, but they generally include these key components:

• Date

• Time

• Location (online/in person)

• Attendees and absentees

• Agenda

• Decisions

• Action points

Let's say you're in a project planning meeting to discuss developing a new page layout on your website. The meeting minutes should document why the website is being updated, what the team hopes to accomplish, who's responsible for each part, and when it should be completed.

Later, if Dave from development (who conveniently missed the meeting) has a question about his action items, he can refer back to the meeting minutes.

Why use meeting minutes?

Here are some situations where meeting minutes have quite literally saved the outcome of projects I've worked on: 

• When there's a disagreement about decisions made in a meeting 

• When someone is absent from a meeting and needs to catch up on what was discussed

• When team members need to be held accountable for their commitments 

• When a meeting is being audited or reviewed

• When a meeting is used to train new employees

But you don't need to start from scratch every time—meeting minutes templates save time while ensuring you get all the benefits.

Meeting minutes tips

Using the right template is only the first step in taking effective meeting minutes. Consider these tips when learning how to take meeting minutes (or don't—your supervisors may want you to take the meeting notes forever if you do too good a job):

• Avoid transcribing every word. Instead, aim to summarize discussions into key points and action items.

• Stay objective. Present discussions and decisions impartially. You may agree with Barbara's eye rolls that this new project is totally useless, but don't let that personal opinion show in your notes.

• Consider sharing your screen. For ultimate alignment, you could share your screen while you take notes during the meeting. This way, attendees can verify your notes in real time or chime in with any suggested additions. 

• Use bullet points for easy scannability. Some light formatting will go a long way toward making your minutes more digestible. Instead of typing walls of text, break your notes up with bulleted and numbered lists. (Look at me, practicing what I preach.)

• Review the agenda ahead of time and use it to structure your notes. It's much easier to take minutes when you know what's coming. If there's an agenda for the meeting, you can use it to make a brief outline. 

• Ask for clarification if you don't understand something. Your meeting minutes won't be useful to anyone if they aren't accurate. Be sure you have a good understanding of what you're writing down (and ask questions if you don't).

Automate meeting minutes

If you want to go a step further, you can use software to do the heavy lifting for you:

• Transcription services record meetings and transcribe the audio into text to supplement your meeting minutes. You could include timestamps from the transcription next to key points of your notes for extra context.

• AI meeting assistants take things a step further, leveraging AI to condense the transcription, pull out key takeaways, and produce action items. This method lets you stay present during the meeting while still ensuring accurate and efficient meeting minutes. Many video conferencing platforms now include built-in AI tools too.

You can also automate other routine meeting tasks with Zapier. Learn more about how to automate meeting management, so you can focus on what matters.

Meeting minutes FAQs

How do I write the minutes of a meeting?

While there aren't any set rules to writing meeting minutes, it's best to include key info like the date, time, location, meeting attendees, and action points. You can use one of our templates to simplify things.

Is there a meeting minutes template in Word?

Quite a few meeting minutes templates are available for Word. If you don't use Word, try out one of the templates above. (We're partial to them.)

What is the best format for meeting minutes?

The best format for meeting minutes depends on the kind of meeting it is (sorry). An onboarding meeting might have notes on training objectives, while an annual recap will cover the year's highlights and other big-picture items. 

Related reading:

• 4 things you shouldn't use meetings for

• Zoom tips and tricks for better video meetings

• How to make your meetings better with asynchronous techniques

• How to write a memo (and all the templates and examples you could need)

This article was originally published in October 2023 by Cecilia Gillen. The most recent update, with contributions from Dylan Reber, was in October 2024.

So you've set up your Shopify storefront, taken professional photos of all your products, listed your inventory, written copy, and created a promotional blog. All that's left is for people to actually pay for your wares. Now what?

If you're selling tins of candied nuts to my 73-year-old dad, you can take credit card information over the phone. But since this isn't 1987, you'll need a payment gateway to get people's digital cash into your digital hand.

Shopify has a built-in payment gateway, but if you want to use Stripe instead, here's how to set up a Shopify Stripe integration—and what to do if the Stripe integration isn't available in your location.

Shopify Stripe integration at a glance:

• Shopify has a native payment processor called Shopify Payments, which is powered by Stripe.

• Shopify Payments isn't available in every country, but you can still integrate third-party payment processors like Stripe into your Shopify store.

• Shopify doesn't enable Stripe integration for all locations, but you can always use Zapier to connect them.

Table of contents:

• Why integrate Shopify and Stripe?

• How to add Stripe to Shopify: 5 steps

• How to DIY a Shopify Stripe integration with Zapier

• Shopify Stripe integration FAQ

Why integrate Shopify and Stripe?

Technically, many Shopify users get Stripe payment processing through Shopify's native payment gateway, Shopify Payments, which is powered by Stripe. This gives users the ability to accept credit card payments through their Shopify store without having to pay extra third-party transaction fees, and customers don't have to jump over to a second website to complete their payment since the processing happens right on the Shopify site.

With all that fee-free convenience, most users will want to stick with Shopify Payments—but here's why that may not be the case for you:

• Shopify Payments isn't available in your country.

• You already accept payments via Stripe and want to maintain continuity.

• You're having trouble setting up Shopify Payments or accepting payments through that gateway.

• You automate Stripe and want to continue using your automated workflow.

For pricing, Stripe charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per online card transaction (depending on location), which is the same as Shopify's Basic plan. But keep in mind that Shopify charges an additional 2% processing fee (Basic plan) for all transactions made using third-party payment processors, including Stripe, so you're paying extra to go with Stripe.

How to add Stripe to Shopify: 5 steps

Here's how to add Stripe to Shopify in just a few quick steps.

Step 1: Access your Shopify account settings

I'll assume you're reading this because you already have Shopify and Stripe accounts. (If not, we'll call that Step 0—go ahead and create those first.)

Once you're sure Stripe is available to integrate with Shopify in your country, kick things off by logging in to your Shopify account, and head to the Settings menu.

Note that to get through the rest of the steps, you'll need admin privileges and an active account with a paid plan.

Step 2: Access the Payments module

Once you're in the settings, click the Payments tab on the left menu bar.

If this option is grayed out, it's likely because you don't have administrative access, you're using a free trial, or your account isn't current on payments for a premium tier. Check with the account holder to remedy these issues. When in doubt, you can contact Shopify customer support to troubleshoot.

Step 3: Change your payment provider

You should now be in the Payments module. In the Additional payment methods box, you should see a button to Add payment method. You guessed it—click that. (Again, if this button doesn't appear, contact an account administrator or Shopify customer support.)

This should bring up a field where you can search for your preferred provider by name—in this case, Stripe. 

If Stripe is available where you live, you should be able to pick it. But if Shopify Payments is available, Stripe may not show up or may appear as "Unavailable in your country" since Shopify seemingly prefers users deploy their native payment processor.

Step 4: Connect to Stripe

Selecting Stripe should trigger a login prompt. Enter your login credentials, hit Activate, and badda bing: Shopify Stripe integration.

If Stripe gives you a "No results found" notice like the one below, it likely means you either live where Shopify Payments is available or somewhere Stripe is not.

Step 5: Test your integration

At this point, you should be ready to start taking Stripe payments on your Shopify site, but if any step in this process hasn't worked, try looking for answers in the Shopify help center.

If the integration is successful, you should run a test purchase to make sure everything's shipshape. 

You can place a test order using your own credit card and immediately cancel the purchase, but you may be charged nonrefundable processing fees. 

Alternatively, navigate to Manage > Manage payment methods and activate Stripe's test mode. Now, you can simulate a purchase with a Stripe test card. Here's an example of what you'd input when asked for payment info:

• Name on card: Enter anything.

• Credit card number: Enter enough digits to fill out the card, like 4242 4242 4242 4242.

• CCV: Enter any three-digit number (e.g., 123).

• Expiration date: Enter any future date (e.g., 10/29).

You won't be charged anything for using this method. Just remember to deactivate test mode when you're finished. 

How to DIY a Shopify Stripe integration with Zapier

So that's how to integrate Stripe with Shopify. It's so easy you probably got all these steps from a Google AI overview, but if you've reached this point in the article, here's a bonus tip.

Integrating Shopify and Stripe natively is an easy way to make Stripe your Shopify payment gateway. But if you want to integrate them in a more customizable way—or connect both apps to thousands of other apps—you can use Zapier's Shopify Stripe integration. 

With Zapier, you can create Shopify customers for new Stripe subscriptions, update existing Shopify customers from new Stripe payments, and create Shopify orders from new Stripe payments. And that's just the tip of the automationberg. Here are a few more examples to get your wheels turning.

Shopify Stripe integration FAQ

Does Shopify use Stripe?

Shopify uses Stripe to power its Shopify Payments offering, which is its native payment processor. Those who want to use Stripe to accept payments instead can add a third-party Stripe integration (a process outlined in this very article), but this will come with additional per-transaction Shopify fees. 

Does Stripe integrate with Shopify?

Stripe connects to Shopify as a third-party integration in some locations. You can set this up by logging into your Shopify Admin panel, going to the settings, and changing your payment provider to Stripe. This may not be available, depending on your location.

How much does Stripe cost vs. Shopify?

Stripe and Shopify charge the same amount per transaction: 2.9%, plus $0.30. Shopify requires you to pay monthly subscription fees, but it does reduce per-transaction fees for plans above the Basic tier. And again, if you use Stripe with Shopify, you'll have an extra 2% added on. 

Why is Stripe not an option in Shopify?

Shopify's built-in payment gateway, Shopify Payments, is powered by Stripe. If you live in a region where Shopify Payments is available, you won't have the option to use Stripe (since Shopify Payments already uses Stripe).

Related reading:

• How to sell on Shopify: A 5-step guide

• Shopify marketing: Ideas to boost your eCommerce sales

• Stripe vs. PayPal: Which payment processor is best?

• The best invoicing software

• The best Shopify apps

This article was originally published in December 2023 by Bryce Emley. The most recent update, with contributions from Dylan Reber, was in October 2024.

When I got engaged, the instant barrage of super specific questions from loved ones about all things wedding threw me for a loop. What I thought would be a leisurely stroll through Pinterest boards quickly transformed into a strategic mission of organizing, prioritizing, and decision-making.

Planning a wedding is like the boss level of project management. And like a wedding, adding a PM tool to your team is like slipping on that perfect pair of dancing shoes—it might take a while to break them in, but once you do, everything moves so much smoother.

Having managed multiple projects in an agency setting, I can attest to the indispensability of PM tools. And after personally testing each app firsthand to evaluate its features and usability, I can honestly say you can't go wrong with either ClickUp or monday.com, especially when it comes to project management. But here, I'll walk you through the differences, so you can pick the one that's best for your team.

Table of contents

• ClickUp vs. monday.com at a glance

• monday has a better user experience for large teams

• Both are packed with automations

• ClickUp has more collaboration features

• monday.com is more stable

• ClickUp delivers more bang for your buck

• Both platforms embrace AI

• Which should you choose?

• ClickUp vs. monday FAQ