Looking to submit a guest blog post for HubSpot? The User Blog is an excellent choice if you’re hoping to gain exposure to people who are already using the HubSpot software.   

Please note: This page provides information on submitting a guest blog post for the User Blog. If you're interested in contributing to the HubSpot Marketing blog, HubSpot Sales blog, or HubSpot Service blog, please vistit this page instead. 

  

What Is the User Blog?

The User Blog is a blog managed by HubSpot Academy that drives success, value, and education for HubSpot customers and users.

The purpose of the blog is to inspire users and provide valuable education and resources to help them in their use of HubSpot and their practice of inbound marketing, sales, and service. This mission is directly aligned with HubSpot Academy, and the blog is meant to be an extension of the education and inspiration they provide as a team to HubSpot users. 

 

How Can I Subscribe to the User Blog?

Visit the User Blog homepage and enter your email address in one of the subscription boxes. Alternatively, you can also subscribe to the User Blog here. 

 

What Types of Guest Blog Posts Does the User Blog Feature?

Blog posts from guest contributors fall into one of these categories:

Customer stories: These posts cover a method or tool that you adopted and how it impacted your business. For example, you might discuss an experiment such as an A/B test or a website redesign that your team completed and publish key takeaways that other teams would find useful. 

Examples of customer stories: 

• How We Achieved B2B Campaign Success Using Hubspot, LinkedIn, and Google Analytics Data [Customer Story]
• Using Workflows to Scale a New Partnership Model [Customer Story]

Canonical posts: These posts give readers in-depth tactical takeaways that are supported by relevant and recent examples, original quotes, original graphics, and current data. When readers finish this type of post, they should be able to immediately execute on the given topic and have very few questions left on how to do it.

Examples of canonical posts: 

• 5 Phases for Cleaning Up Your HubSpot CRM Data 
• Storytelling and Sales Hub: How to Close More Deals and Increase Sales

 

What Are the Blogging Guidelines I Must Follow?

For each post on the User Blog, we want to make sure we’re educating and inspiring HubSpot users to get the most out of the HubSpot software and inbound best practices. What’s the main thing you’re trying to teach HubSpot users to do? Every part of your post should be focused on enhancing a reader’s skill set. Aim to provide actionable insights throughout the article rather than summary, strategy, or statistics alone.

Successful guest contributions are comprehensive, data-driven, and interesting posts that teach our readers something new. To hold all blog posts to this standard, your post must follow these guidelines:

• Education for the majority of HubSpot's users: If a topic is irrelevant to more users than it helps, we'll need to rework the topic or find a different approach.
• HubSpot software: The User Blog is specifically for HubSpot users, so all blog posts must incorporate information on the HubSpot software.
• High-quality writing: Submissions must meet HubSpot’s quality standards in order to get published, determined by HubSpot Academy’s editors. We also reserve the right to edit and adapt your content as we see fit.
• Length requirement: Please keep your article in the range of 500 – 1500 words.
• Cited data: Always use proper attribution of data, quotations, and other third-party content referenced in your blog post.
• Links: You can include up to two backlinks to your site content in the body of your post.
• Original images and GIFs: If you’re including any images or GIFs in your blog post, they must be original—in other words, they need to be created by you or a member of your team. All images and GIFs need to be informative, providing further clarity or instruction. Images and GIFs included to simply break up text or to provide comedic relief are not accepted.
• No duplicate content: All blog posts must be original. They cannot exist on other sites or be re-published on another site after publication on the HubSpot User Blog.

There are some things we simply can't accept. We will not feature:

• Anything that's been covered on our blog before. Please do a search of our site before submitting your topic idea.
• Anything that may be construed as a link-building scheme.
• Anything that promotes your company.
• Anything that's offensive or inaccurate.
• Anything that's overly critical of individuals or companies.

How Can I Submit Interest in Writing a Post for the User Blog?

There are three ways to submit interest, depending on what you’re writing about:  

 

1. Are you an existing HubSpot customer?

If you’re a HubSpot customer who has found success using the HubSpot software, you may want to write a customer story for the User Blog. Please email the User Blog team at userblog@hubspot.com to provide some information about the success you’ve seen with HubSpot and some detail about your blog post idea. We’ll be in touch if your topic is approved. 

 

2. Are you a HubSpot Connect partner?  

If you’re a HubSpot Connect partner and looking to redeem a benefit to write for the User Blog, please visit the HubSpot Connect Benefits page and submit your interest via the form at the bottom of that page.  

 

3. Are you a HubSpot Agency partner?  

You must be a Gold, Platinum, or Diamond HubSpot Agency Partner to write a post for the HubSpot User blog. If you're interested in taking advantage of this partner benefit, please submit this form after reading the guidelines above. 

 

What Does the Blogging Process Look Like?

Here’s what you can expect after submitting interest to write a guest post for the User Blog:

• Once you’ve submitted your interest, we’ll review your request and let you know if your topic has been approved.
• If it’s approved, we'll ask you to send us an outline in a Google Doc. We'll review your outline, provide feedback as appropriate, and give you the go ahead to start your draft.
• Write your draft in a Google Doc, and submit it to us. When you submit your draft, one of our editors will review it and leave edit suggestions and feedback.
• After you apply the edits, send it back to us. The editor will clean up the post, format it, and slot it in the editorial calendar to be published on the blog.

Can I Write for the User Blog on a Regular Basis?

At this time, we don’t welcome regular external contributions in an effort to ensure that a wide array of guest writers have the chance to contribute.

What Would an Example Structure for a Blog Post Look Like?

If you’re not quite sure how to structure your post, check out the templates below to get started. Your post doesn't have to adhere to these structures exactly, however. Just be sure that your post is organized, clear, and comprehensive. 

Template for a customer story post:

The title
Your title should cut to the chase: Readers should know exactly what they’re getting when they click on the article. Although basic, follow the formula “How to Do X with Y” for best results.

The introduction
What challenge was your company facing, or what goal was your company trying to reach? If you’re talking about a strategy that your company employed that made a big impact on your business, summarize the challenge or pain point that you initially faced.

The results
Emphasize the outcome of whatever strategy or tool you used. Did it grow your subscriber base? Triple conversion rates? Increase customer retention? Provide data wherever possible. Graphs and images are great ways to display this.

The steps
Take your reader through the steps your business used to achieve those results. List your steps clearly — you can denote them with subheadings that read, “Step 1,” “Step 2,” and so on with a concise description of the step next to the step number (e.g., “Step 1: Create a Landing Page”).

The conclusion
Reiterate your results. Tell users about what your company did with these results and what you’re looking forward to next. How did these results help your team or business grow?

Template for a canonical post:

The title
Same here: Your title should cut to the chase. Be descriptive yet concise. You want to pull the reader in while giving them some insight into what they can expect in your post.

The introduction
Make a compelling case for why the skill or tool you’re talking about in your article is important for growth and inbound success. What’s the challenge people face with this topic, and how can your strategy or solution benefit users and help them achieve great things?

The post’s body
Make sure the body of your post sticks to the overall point you’re communicating. Be concise yet descriptive, and omit any “fluff.” All content must be completely necessary in order to get your point across.

The conclusion
What’s the final thought you want to leave the reader with? Make sure they walk away feeling inspired to use the information in your post to find success with the HubSpot software and inbound strategies.  

We look forward to hearing from you!