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Delivering exceptional customer experiences requires knowing your customers well. Customer profiling helps you achieve this. Throughout my career, whether creating marketing strategies or improving ecommerce conversion rates, I’ve learned one key fact: understanding your audience is essential.

To connect with your customers, you need to identify their demographics, understand their motivations, and recognize their pain points. You must see the world from their perspective. Customer profiling provides the tools and insights to do this effectively.

In this article, I’ll explore customer profiling, explain why it’s more important than ever in today’s market, provide a practical 10-step process for creating a customer profile, and look at some customer profiling examples. I’ve also included some free templates (which I’ll go over in detail below) to make it easier.

Table of Contents

• What is a customer profile?
• What is customer profiling?
• How to Create a Customer Profile in 10 Steps
• Why is customer profiling important?
• Customer Profiling Benefits
• Types of Customer Profile Data
• Customer Profiling Strategies
• B2B vs. B2C Customer Profiles
• Customer Profile Templates
• Customer Profiling Examples

From my years in customer experience, I’ve learned that trying to appeal to everyone means you connect with no one. Early in my career at a digital marketing agency, I saw campaigns fail because we targeted too broadly. A customer profile is a strategic tool for your business. It helps you focus on your ideal customer and understand their needs clearly.

For example, a customer profile might include:

• Background. Mid-level manager in a growing tech firm with 50-200 employees, facing increasing pressure to improve team productivity.
• Pain Points. Struggles with manual workflows that consume valuable team time and create bottlenecks in project delivery.
• Preferences. Gravitates toward tools that save time, offer intuitive interfaces, and integrate seamlessly with existing systems.

Why is customer profiling important?

In today’s fast-paced, competitive world, customer profiling is necessary. Whether you’re starting a new business, adjusting your marketing plan, or supporting your sales team, knowing your customers is the basis for success. Without it, you risk wasting effort by trying to solve every problem for every person.

In my career, I’ve noticed that customers likely to buy from me in the future often share traits with past customers. This is a pattern, not a random occurrence. Profiling helps you identify these high-value customers and focus your efforts on them.

According to Forbes, 81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalized experience, and 70% say a personalized experience where an employee knows who they are and their history is important.

The market is crowded, and customers have many choices. Their attention is limited. If you don’t understand your audience, you may create a product or service that doesn’t meet anyone’s needs.

Customer profiles help your product team build useful features, your marketers create effective messages, and your salespeople pursue leads that are more likely to buy.

Customer Profiling Benefits

Customer profiling provides clear advantages for your business. Here are some of the main benefits I’ve personally noticed.

Helps Teams Work More Effectively

A customer profile ensures everyone in your organization understands the customer. Here’s how it supports each team.

• Marketing: Understanding the client is vital to creating engaging advertisements or emails for potential prospects and current clients. Marketers use customer profiles to customize messaging so they can effectively speak to customer needs.
• Sales: Focuses on specific pain points to build trust and close deals faster. Instead of generic pitches, they can speak directly to issues that matter most.
• Support: The customer profile has all the necessary information your customer service team will need to help customers in need. It can act as a record of questions and complaints, and previously tried solutions. This will help save time and keep everyone involved from getting frustrated.

When teams share the same information, they work better together.

Finds Better Customers

Not every lead is a good fit. Customer profiling shows you who benefits from your product, helping you find more like them.

During my time at SmartRecruiters, we shifted focus from pursuing any available lead to targeting prospects who matched our ideal customer profile. Within months, we saw our conversion rates improve.

Reduces Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost is the money you spend on marketing and sales campaigns to attract a single customer. Implementing customer profiling allows you to focus your efforts on people who are more likely to become customers, which brings customer acquisition costs down in the long run.

For example, 71% Gen Z use mobile most often when shopping online. If you’re building a product or service targeting that group of consumers, this is good to know for your customer profiling efforts.

I’ve personally discovered this to be true when running social media ads for my business. A well-defined customer profile means I can target the right people online and lower my ad spend.

Social media is also a major discovery engine, with 1 in 4 consumers reporting they’ve discovered a new product on social media in the past three months.

Improves Customer Service

When your support team has access to detailed profiles, they can anticipate problems and respond to individual needs.

As Rami El-Abidin, a former HubSpot Support Team member and current blog writer says, “We always kept detailed notes on each customer, including the issues they had in the past and their needs/goals. Armed with this information, I was much better equipped to meet customers where they were and guide them to success.”

This level of service builds loyalty and trust.

Drives Loyalty Through Personalization

Offering proactive and personalized experiences is a big part of building trust and fostering customer loyalty. According to a Zendesk benchmark report, 62% of consumers agree that personalized recommendations are better than general ones, and 6 in 10 consumers notice and appreciate receiving personalized recommendations.

When customers feel understood, they’re more likely to stay loyal.

Lowers Customer Churn

Customer churn refers to losing customers. We can all agree we want to keep that number as low as possible! A Databox study found that over 67% of surveyed SaaS companies stated that they’ve dealt with a high churn rate.

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By creating strong customer profiles from the start, you can attract and serve customers who actually want to use your product or service — reducing customer churn in both the short and long term.

Types of Customer Profile Data

It’s clear that customer profiling is valuable and effective, but how do you start? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with data, but don’t worry –– I’ve got you covered. A strong customer profile relies on four main types of data.

Demographic

Demographic data are the concrete characteristics of a customer and can be used to understand consumer behavior.

We did a ton of research on our core demographic at Trendy Butler, a subscription-based clothing brand, where we used AI to tailor personalized items for customers. Back then, customers could interact with an AI agent that would capture their details and establish data points for the recommendation engine to work.

Demographics include the following traits (and more):

• Age
• Gender
• Sex
• Ethnicity
• Job title
• Income level
• Education
• Family status

If you’re in the B2B space, consider attributes such as company size, industry, and other organizational characteristics.

Rami El-Abidin shared a good example of what this looks like in practice: “My music backline rental business is technically B2B, and my customer demographics are segmented by events such as weddings/bar mitzvahs/graduations, music festivals, and touring artists who can’t travel or fly with all their gear. Each type of customer has different needs, and understanding customer segments helps me anticipate and meet them.”

Psychographic

Demographics alone aren’t enough to understand how, when, and why people make purchasing decisions, and that’s where psychographics come in.

These factors relate to the attitudes and psychological makeup of a customer and may include:

• Lifestyle
• Goals
• Pains
• Habits
• Values
• Interests

Psychographics help you understand the buying journey and even the customer journey after they’ve already purchased from you.

Pro tip: Tools like HubSpot’s free email tracking software make it easy to measure these improvements by showing you exactly how and when prospects engage with your segmented campaigns.

Behavioral

While psychographics relate to psychological attributes, behavioral segments look at how that’s manifested in action.

You may consider segmenting by:

• Engagement
• Readiness to buy
• Purchasing history
• Product usage
• Satisfaction
• Loyalty or account age
• Attention required

Segments based on behavioral traits are among the most valuable in customer support. They can help service teams find insights about customer interaction and how these trends manifest into recurring revenue and satisfaction rates.

And once those things are measured, they can be improved. In other words, keeping a close eye on both sales and customer service data is necessary to get concrete details about your consumer base’s behavior.

Pro tip: An all-in-one platform that blends sales tools with customer service and marketing features makes this process a lot easier — you get easy access to analytics data across multiple departments, along with the tools necessary to act on that data.

Geographic

Geographical factors are relevant when location affects how customers interact with a brand or receive their products.

Here are popular ways to segment based on geography:

• City
• Area
• Region
• Country

Gaining insights based on geography can help your organization think through logistics, support implementation, and marketing.

The relevance of geographic data depends on the type of business you run. In my current position running a customer loyalty program at Skybound with physical rewards and prizes, geographic data is very relevant because I can only serve these prizes to customers domestically, as opposed to globally (due to certain restrictions and legal regulations).

However, if you run a software business or sell products online, geographic data has a different level of relevance. Regardless, knowing where your customers are is helpful in understanding more about them and their needs.

Once you have this data, you can focus on how to create a customer profile based on specific types or customer segments.

Customer Profiling Strategies

Remember when I said earlier that truly understanding your customers is non-negotiable? You need a crystal-clear, data-backed customer profile to guide your marketing, sales, and product development efforts. With the right strategies and a bit of elbow grease, you can unlock a treasure trove of insights about your audience.

Here are some proven strategies to help you create a customer profile that’s both accurate and actionable.

1. Psychographic Segmentation

This is where we go beyond the basics. Sure, demographics are important, but they only tell part of the story. Psychographics delve into the “why” behind your customers’ actions. Look at their values, interests, and motivations beyond surface-level traits.

During my time at Yahoo working on programmatic ad campaigns, I found that digging into customer psychographics led to more effective messaging and higher engagement. When you know what drives your audience, your product resonates on a deeper level.

Pro tip: Don’t just focus on who you’re targeting; understand why they engage.

2. Consumer Typology

In this approach, we split up consumers into different segments based on their motivations, mindsets, and how to engage them. It’s true what they say –– not all customers are cut from the same cloth.

Here are the four main types of consumers.

• Loyal customers: Long-term supporters who advocate for your brand.
• Discount seekers: Price-sensitive shoppers who are always looking for deals.
• Impulsive buyers: Quick decision-makers who act on emotion.
• Need-based purchasers: People who need to solve specific problems.

Pro tip: Identify your most valuable segments and tailor your engagement strategies accordingly. For example, pamper your loyal customers with exclusive perks and personalized recommendations while enticing discount seekers with targeted promotions and limited-time offers.

3. Consumer Characteristics

This method investigates what factors influence purchasing decisions. Modern consumers are defined by many common qualities. Here are three that stand out to me.

• Convenience seekers who want quick, efficient solutions.
• Personalization enthusiasts who value customized experiences.
• Community-driven consumers who value belonging and peer reviews.

Pro tip: Use behavioral analytics and A/B testing to validate and refine your consumer characteristics. They evolve with market trends and user expectations.

Based on my experience developing profiles for various businesses, here’s a clear, practical guide for how to create a customer profile of your own.

Step 1: Start with customer profile templates.

Downloading and using pre-made templates can shorten the customer profiling process. We’ll discuss what you’ll find in these templates later in the post. But if you can’t wait, download them now and follow along as we cover the rest of the steps.

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Step 2: Choose your profiling tools.

Once you start creating customer profiles, you’ll need several types of software.

Remember, you must collect data from your current customer base to create effective and accurate profiles.

• CRM: Stores customer data.
• Customer Feedback Software: Collects customer opinions through surveys and forms.
• Analytics: Monitors engagement and performance metrics across channels.

Additionally, tools like AI chatbots can enhance this process by engaging customers directly, gathering real-time feedback, and even automating data collection for your profiles. Curious about which ones to use? Check out this guide to the best AI chatbot picks and streamline your profiling efforts.

Pro tip: I recommend starting with tools you already have before investing in new ones. Often, your existing tech stack contains untapped potential for customer insights.

Step 3: Dig into demographics.

Start with external demographics to understand who your ideal customers are. Then, dig deeper into their needs and how your product or service solves them.

Here are key external attributes to consider:

• Age. What age range does your audience fall into?
• Gender. Does your product or service appear to a specific gender?
• Location. Where do they live –– urban, rural, or specific regions?
• Income level. What’s their income range? This can affect buying behavior.
• Education level. Are they high school grads, college-educated, or beyond?
• Occupation. What industries or job roles do they work in?

Demographics help you create a clear, focused picture of who you’re serving – setting you up for more personalized, effective marketing.

Step 4: Collect customer feedback.

Customer feedback is one of the best ways to better understand your customers. There are a few ways you can effectively gather this feedback.

• Surveys. Quick and easy. SurveyMonkey’s data shows that 85% of happy customers share feedback.
• Interviews. Personal talks reveal deeper details.
• Focus groups. Group discussions can uncover shared perspectives.
• Social listening. Monitor social media for unsolicited feedback.
• Online reviews. Analyze what customers say publicly about your brand.

The most valuable insights come from asking simple questions like, “What made you choose our product?” or “What almost stopped you from buying?”

Step 5: Map the customer journey.

As you begin examining your customer profile data, you should contextualize it using your customer journey map.

When creating HubSpot’s customer journey map, we asked users how they felt about specific points in the customer experience. Then, we charted these stories on the map to see how customer perceptions changed.

This gave us a good idea of what our customers liked and didn’t like about our products. By understanding their needs, challenges, and goals, you’ll develop a stronger sense of what your customers want from your business.

Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s free customer journey map template to get started.

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Step 6: Focus on the problem you solve.

It’s easy to get lost with such a wealth of data. If you find yourself overwhelmed, return the focus to the problem your business is trying to solve.

• What is the specific challenge your business addresses?
• Who experiences this problem most acutely?
• How were current customers handling the issue before finding your solution?

I remember going through this exercise at a subscription-based business I previously worked with. They discovered that while they marketed their product as a “comprehensive solution,” customers actually valued one specific feature that saved them hours of manual work each week. This insight transformed how we positioned the business.

Step 7: Examine contextual details.

Once you’ve defined the external factors that describe your customer profile, it’s time to dig deeper into contextual details. For example, if I’m running a SaaS company, I’d want to ask about:

• Team size and structure.
• Day-to-day challenges.
• Technology and tools currently used.
• Short-term and long-term goals.

Understanding these contextual elements helps you position your offering within the customer’s existing ecosystem.

Step 8: Understand your industry position.

One important detail you should consider is where your brand falls compared to others in the industry. This gives you a good idea of the type of customer you want to attract and retain. It helps to learn the following.

• How do customers view your brand compared to competitors?
• What unique value do you provide that others don’t?
• Which competitors do they consider before choosing you?

This competitive context helps you emphasize true differentiators rather than features everyone offers.

Step 9: Build personas.

Effective personas go beyond demographics to tell a story about the customer’s life, challenges, and goals. I’ve found that giving personas names and backstories helps teams remember that they’re serving real people, not just data points. Learn to create detailed descriptions of ideal customers with HubSpot’s guide and free template.

Here are some key things to uncover about the people in your customer profile:

• Title(s)
• Age range
• Education level
• Income level
• How will they use your product/service?
• What marketing channels can you use to reach them?
• What are the key responsibilities of their role?
• What role do they play in decision-making?

Pro tip: If you need a tool to help you build, visualize, and share your personas, try HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool.

Step 10: Analyze and iterate.

Customer profiles aren’t static documents. Review and update them regularly based on new data, market changes, and evolving customer needs.

The definition of your customer profile will act as a guide when informing what products or features to build, what channels to use in a marketing campaign, and much more.

Pro tip: I recommend quarterly reviews of your profiles, with a more comprehensive update annually. This ensures your understanding stays current without becoming overwhelming.

B2B vs. B2C Customer Profiles

Both B2B and B2C companies benefit from customer profiles, but their approaches differ greatly.

B2C: B2C marketers often manage datasets of millions of individual consumers, requiring them to focus on broad demographic trends like age, location, and lifestyle. This is due to the vast and diverse customer base they serve.

B2B: In contrast, B2B businesses must consider both firmographic and individual data. Studies show that 82% of these marketers agree that buyers expect personalized experiences, making firmographic data –– like company size, industry, and tech stack –– very important for tailoring outreach.

This multi-layered approach ensures that B2B teams create comprehensive customer profiles for users and decision-makers within their targeted organizations.

Customer Profile Templates

As I mentioned before, HubSpot offers free customer profile templates that you can use to build your own customer profiles. I’ll go into more detail below on what you’ll find in the download (in case you aren’t convinced already).

Download your free templates now.

Inside this customer profile kit, you’ll find:

• A short customer profile template. This one-page template helps you lay out all the basic information about your customer. It gives you space to list your customer’s demographics, pain points, retention tactics, and preferred products and services.
• A long customer profile template. This two-page template gives you more space to define your customer profile. It’s ideal for B2B account profiles. You can list external attributes, like customer’s industry and internal attributes.
• A colorful customer profile template. This template is ideal for B2C industries where customers interact face-to-face with your staff members. You have space to list user behaviors, frustrating interactions, and customer communication notes.
• A corporate customer profile template. This template allows you to list a professional overview of your ideal customer, and challenges, benefits, and restraints. We recommend this template for more corporate environments due to its color palette.
• A simple customer profile template. This template lets you list your ideal customer’s background, decision-making process, product preferences, wants, goals, and behaviors in easy-to-scan boxes.
• A modern customer profile template. In this template, you have space to list your target customer‘s company goals, team challenges, and retention tips. We recommend this template for B2B companies because you’ll be profiling an entire organization.
• A buyer’s journey customer profile template. This template is unique because it gives you space to outline your ideal customer’s discovery story — that is, how they found you and what their research process was like. You can also list their goals and pain points.
• A segmented customer profile template. If you’d like to create different segments as you profile your customers, this is the template for you. It lets you list critical information such as goals, benefits, and product constraints in a chart.

Do you need help with how to create a customer profile? Below, we list alternative customer profile examples with methods that you can use to list your ideal consumer’s attributes.

Customer Profiling Examples

If you need help figuring out where to start, look at these top customer profile examples for a granular and overarching overview of your customers.

1. Scorecard

Customer profiles can vary with your company’s needs and preferences. Some companies format customer profiles as a scoring system to determine whether a prospect fits the business.

The above example uses the BANT framework. The BANT framework helps salespeople assess prospects and gives them a score for each criterion ranging from zero to two.

If the total score meets a preset benchmark, that’s a green light for sales to reach out.

2. Segmentation

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A segmented customer profile recognizes not every prospect is the same. What one customer needs from your business may differ from the next, and your customer profile definition is mutable. Each customer type is broken down by demographics, core values, and preferred communication channels in a segmented customer profile.

It includes a summary describing how the marketing team should advertise to these individuals.

With this information readily available, your marketing team can work alongside customer service to create effective campaigns that resonate with each segment of your customer base.

Free resource: Download our customer segmentation templates to help you create detailed customer profiles based on characteristics, including demographics, psychographics, geographics, and more

3. Basic Information

Download this Template

A basic information customer profile is just that — basic. This customer profile, available in our free customer profile templates, cuts right to the point.

It lists the fundamental information you need about each customer type, including background data, demographics, and pain points. I’ve found that the basic customer profile format is the easiest to get up and running, and you can always expand to a more involved customer profile type as you grow.

4. Buyer Persona

To construct a buyer persona customer profile, you must survey your current clients to understand their overall buying personality.

It’s important to note that the buyer persona usually comes after you know your customer profile.

Nonetheless, many buyer persona builders can get you thinking critically about your ideal customer by asking valuable, qualitative questions.

Buyer personas can greatly enhance marketing efforts. In fact, according to Marketing Insider Group, 24% of companies generated more leads using buyer personas and 56% of companies generated higher quality leads when using them.

Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool as a starting point for mapping and profiling your customers.

5. Demographics, Psychographics, and Behaviors

A customer profile can be as detailed as you need it to be. Many marketers find that the more they know about their audience, the better their chance of engaging with a prospect and making a sale.

Gathering demographics, psychographics, and behaviors in one document gives you an overview of your most profitable customers. Write your answers in bullet points or paragraph format to better understand your customers’ purchasing behaviors.

Pro tip: Don’t let your profiles stagnate. Integrate them into your CRM to trigger personalized campaigns and track behavior changes. By prioritizing behavioral data and using predictive analytics, you can anticipate needs and refine profiles into actionable user stories.

Unlock Better Service With Customer Profiling

I’ve always believed in putting the customer first, and my experience in service has reinforced a fundamental truth: you have to know your customer.

That’s where customer profiling comes in. It’s something I’m passionate about because it allows you to:

• Zero in on your ideal customer.
• Keep churn at a minimum.
• Create customer experiences that WOW.

In my view, the more you know about your customers, the more detailed your customer profile, and the more value you can extract from it. This translates to more effective marketing campaigns, increased sales conversions, and a superior customer experience.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in January 2018 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.

Customers have countless interactions with your brand, which collectively form their opinion about your business. But what exactly are these touchpoints?

A customer touchpoint is any avenue through which prospects and customers interact with your business. Providing value on every touchpoint helps turn prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.

In this post, I‘ll explain what customer journey touchpoints are and the role they play on marketing and customer service teams. Then, I’ll wrap up with a list of touchpoint examples and proven techniques to use in your business.

Table of Contents

• What are customer touchpoints?
• Customer Touchpoint Examples
• Customer Touchpoint Examples Before a Purchase
• Customer Touchpoint Examples During a Purchase
• Customer Touchpoints Example After a Purchase
• Customer Touchpoint Examples in Customer Service
• How to Use Customer Touchpoints in Your Business

Customer touchpoints are typically recorded on a customer journey map and there are templates to help (thanks, HubSpot!).

The maps are put together in chronological order to demonstrate a typical customer’s experience with a business. This helps marketing and customer service teams identify touchpoints that cause friction so they can remove them and enhance the customer journey.

Here’s an example of what a customer touchpoint looks like on HubSpot’s customer journey map:

While this is only a small section of a much larger document, it gives you a good idea of how useful touchpoints are to marketing and customer service teams.

In the original document, the green dots represent customer interactions that are positive, and the red ones represent points of friction. Yellow dots are moments when customers have to make decisions, which leads to either a green or red dot.

With this layout, I can see an overall view of different touchpoints occurring within various stages of the customer journey. This makes it easier to spot areas of your business that you can improve to increase customer delight.

Next, let’s dive a little deeper into those many touchpoints and see what we find.

I‘ve segmented this list to cover touchpoints that occur before, during, and after a purchase. Additionally, I’ve added a section that’s specific to customer service teams.

Customer Touchpoint Examples Before a Purchase

The customer experience begins at the first touchpoint with your brand. What are those most common initial touchpoints? Let’s look.

1. Social Media

Social media fits into every section of this list, but its cost-effectiveness makes it most valuable for reaching your target audience and acquiring customers. You can use social media to promote products, build relationships with clients, and enhance your brand’s overall reputation.

A good example? Me!

Most of the clients I‘ve gotten in my marketing career were solely because I posted and interacted on LinkedIn. Without social media, odds are that I wouldn’t be writing for HubSpot today.

You can get the best out of any social media platform by sticking to the unspoken rule: become and remain a consistent publisher on your preferred platform.

Here‘s a real-life example of how a prospect reached out to me after seeing value on their first and second touchpoints (I’ve marked them up in the email so you can see what I mean.)

Optimizing this touchpoint: Understand that customers may lurk for months or years before they interact with your brand for the first time. Create content for this customer touchpoint with a long-term vision.

2. Online Advertisements

Have you ever noticed banner ads displayed at the top or sidebar of a webpage? Those are touchpoints that take prospects back to your website. For some brands, like Poliform below, it’s an effective way to drive website traffic. Online advertising can be a very effective touchpoint when leveraged correctly.

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Optimizing this touchpoint: I recommend creating landing pages for these ads to get the most out of your marketing budget and banner ads. This lets you re-target prospects, as opposed to sending those prospects to your landing pages.

3. Digital Marketing Content

Digital marketing content includes the materials your company publishes online to promote its brand. These materials could be:

1. Educational videos.
2. Infographics.
3. Engaging blog posts.
4. Social media posts.

Beyond analyzing the impact of your marketing content, it‘s vital to ensure the content you put out ‌are on-brand and helpful to customers. Speak to customer pain points while creating content marketing that’s convincing and engaging.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Your digital marketing content sets customer expectations. A potential customer like me will assume that the quality of your marketing reflects the quality of your product.

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4. Company Events

If you’re on a marketing or sales team, then you may have attended a conference this year where you stood in a booth to promote your company. These events are an excellent way to introduce your brand to customers who may not be aware of it.

One example is INBOUND, where companies from around the world meet to discuss marketing, sales, customer service, and other business topics. It’s a great chance for business leaders to connect with new partners and discover strategies that can help their organizations grow. A core benefit of company events is that most attendees will be qualified leads for your business.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Approach events with a well thought-out plan for following up with leads who fit your ideal customer profile. Go in prepared and make a great first impression, then follow up.

5. Word of Mouth

When I’m making a purchase, I always opt for word-of-mouth referrals from people in my life or online. Why? A brand may lie in its advertising, but customers will always tell you what they really think of a product.

Like me, many customers say that their friends and family are their most trusted sources of referrals. Word-of-mouth referrals are even contagious: customers who were referred to your business make up to 57% more referrals than non-referred customers.

This makes it imperative to positively engage your existing customers at every touchpoint. It’s not enough to just have a great product; if other touchpoints are negative, customers will still hesitate to refer your business. For example, do customers have a position touchpoint when they put in an inquiry with your customer support team?

Optimizing this touchpoint: A good product alone isn’t enough to earn high customer satisfaction and coveted word-of-mouth referrals. Positive touchpoints are required at every level, from social media to chatbots and customer service and beyond.

6. Third-Party Reviews

I‘m a curious customer: This drives me to seek out reviews before making a purchase. A couple of one-star reviews don’t bother me. However, three is too many. It turns out I’m not alone.

According to Susie Ippolito, a former community manager for HubSpot’s Trends, customer trust drops by 67% when reviews drop from just four stars to three.

Conversely, trust spikes to 95% at the five-star level. The bottom line? Work hard to increase customer satisfaction and earn great reviews for your business on third-party websites.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Incentive repeat customers to leave reviews, and then display them prominently in your marketing materials.

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Customer Touchpoint Examples During a Purchase

A customer is preparing to make a purchase — celebrate! This is what all previous touchpoints have been about. But customer contact is more important now than ever before. Here are six touchpoint examples in the purchase phase of the customer journey.

7. Conversations with Company Representatives

Your sales interactions are the most direct point of contact with customers. These conversations, which take place virtually with sales reps and in your stores, have an immediate impact on the customer’s purchase decision.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Have a thorough customer service rep onboarding process and maintain high standards.

8. Pricing Page

I feel exasperated when I want to buy a product, land on the pricing page, and all I see is “request a quote,” “schedule a demo,” or something similar. This is a turn-off; word on the street is that many people feel the same.

If you have a pricing page for your product, be transparent and put up the pricing. If you have no intention of displaying your price, make that clear on the homepage and avoid surprising customers with the extra step of reaching out for a quote or demo.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Make your language as clear as possible to avoid customer frustration.

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9. Product Catalogs

Whether they’re online or in hard copy, catalogs are an excellent medium for showcasing your product line. An image of the product, coupled with an enticing description, gives the customer everything they need to know before making a purchase.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Analyze your customer’s buyer objections, then speak to these concerns in your catalog. Aim for clarity and ease of use to maximize this customer touchpoint.

10. Ecommerce

Ecommerce is an effective way to acquire customers and close deals because websites can be accessed globally, making it possible for an SMB in one location to provide products and services to a customer on the other side of the world.

Understanding the touchpoints within ecommerce can dramatically improve the customer experience for SaaS and other online companies. Such touchpoints during a purchase include:

• Information on your product pages.
• Live chat feature.
• Your shopping cart.
• Checkout page.

Optimizing each of these touchpoints is crucial for winning the sale.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Customers ask themselves if a website is secure enough before making a purchase online. Reassure users by offering clear product information (sizes, dimensions, etc.) as well as store policy (return policy, customer support email, etc.). Anticipate their questions.

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11. Product Reviews

In today‘s digital age, product reviews are no longer just a pre-purchase touchpoint. Customers now have smart devices that can call up product reviews while they’re shopping in your stores or making a decision online.

Additionally, some online retailers include reviews on the listing page, allowing users to see what other customers think without navigating away from the page.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Engage with all written product reviews, thanking customers for providing feedback and showing how much you value their insights. With this approach, even negative reviews can turn into a positive touchpoint. The example below of an Airbnb host responding to a critical guest review is a great example of maximizing this touchpoint opportunity.

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12. Point of Sale

This is the last touchpoint your customers will reach before making a purchase. That’s because this is where your sales rep makes their case for why the customer needs your product. For all businesses, this is a momentous step in the customer journey.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Focus on speed and convenience at the point of sale. Offer multiple forms of payment and have trained associates handling these final sales to answer any questions about adoption that could sabotage the sale.

Customer Touchpoints Example After a Purchase

How do customers interact with your brand after they’ve made a purchase? Understanding this will help you identify customer touchpoints that impact your revenue most. Here are common touchpoint ideas.

13. Thank You Letters

One effective way to build customer rapport is by following up with a thank you letter. This can be an email, or, if possible, a handwritten note that thanks customers for their business. It’s a great way to show customers you care and develop a long-term relationship with them.

If you’re not sure how to start sending customer thank you letters, check out our guide on writing thank you letters.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Show gratitude to every customer at every tier of your business. A handwritten thank-you might be overkill for customers who make a small purchase on your website, but a smaller token of gratitude like an email or discount code for the next purchase will help your company be remembered.

14. Product Feedback Surveys

Product feedback surveys are sent after a purchase, and they evaluate the customer’s experience with your product or service. If the customer leaves a negative review, the company can reach out to learn more about the issue. They then relay this information to the product development team, who makes enhancements to the next version of the product.

Beyond making customers know that you care, these customer feedback surveys might help you retain customers who are five times harder to get, according to customer acquisition studies.

Optimizing this touchpoint: When asking for feedback, showcase how the brand has used previous customer feedback. This incentivizes customers to share thoughtful ideas for improving your product.

15. Upselling/Cross-Selling Emails

Customer needs don’t go away after a purchase is made. In fact, some customers have additional needs once they start to use your product.

This presents an opportunity for you to upsell or cross-sell customers on additional or premium items in your store. See an example of this in the image below.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Customize your cross-sell offers to each purchase. This will maximize conversion and expand customers’ understanding of your brand offerings as it relates to their interests.

16. Billing Actions

Billing is often an overlooked touchpoint on this list. That‘s because it happens after a purchase occurs and has no direct influence on the customer‘s decision to buy your product. However, it‘s still a vital step in the customer’s journey because a negative experience can result in an immediate instance of churn if not addressed properly.

Worst part is, identifying churn as a result of billing challenges may be hard. That’s where conducting regular surveys help in optimizing your billing process.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Review your billing process and look for improvement opportunities. Sit next to a member of your team who hasn’t used the customer billing portal and have them work through it. Look for opportunities to improve the process or offer positive reinforcement to customers.

17. Subscription Renewals

Renewals are crucial to your revenue model if you’re a subscription-based business. You need customers to renew their subscriptions to maintain steady growth for your business. This makes it important that you remove as much friction as possible from your renewal process. After all, it should be effortless for an existing customer to stay a customer after their contract is up.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Show the customer that you‘re thinking of their needs by making certain predictable steps easy to access. For example, how does a customer update their payment information or cancel? You can anticipate this question, and it shouldn’t require customers to speak with your customer support team.

Customer Touchpoint Examples in Customer Service

Speaking of customer service … This is your most valuable customer touchpoint. Here are five examples and ways to optimize these interactions.

18. Customer Support Channels

Customer support channels are any platforms that service agents use to communicate with customers. This includes:

• Live chat.
• AI bots.
• Email.
• Phone support.
• Social media.
• Peer review sites.
• And more.

Optimizing this touchpoint: The list of support channels goes on and on. Businesses need to invest in omnichannel support if they want to create a convenient experience for all customers. Optimize this by choosing a product like HubSpot Service Hub that combines multi-channel communication into one convenient interface so no touchpoint is lost.

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19. Customer Success Programs

A customer has a lot of direct contact with a company when in the wooing process. But what about after they purchase? Who’s there to help them succeed? This is where a customer success program comes in.

Customer success programs have various touchpoints. When a customer success department recognizes a potential problem, it contacts customers to notify them of the issue or offer a solution. This demonstrates a commitment to the customer’s goals, which builds additional rapport over time.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Improve customer success through both self-service avenues (like knowledge banks and AI chatbots) and direct contact with your success team. Some customers prefer a hands-on approach, and others will prefer to find the answers themselves — this aids both types of customers.

20. Customer Onboarding

The battle is not won after you win a new customer. You have to onboard your customer to truly win them. Customer onboarding is a popular touchpoint for service teams because many customers abandon products shortly after buying them.

Why does this happen? Either customers:

1. Don’t know how to use your product, or
2. They don’t have the time to learn how to use it

Both result in churn, making it essential for companies to invest in effective onboarding programs.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Onboard customers to your product as quickly as possible. Have your customer success team make immediate contact with new customers and equip them with materials to help them start using the product immediately.

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21. Customer Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs strengthen your relationship with customers and turn them into lifelong advocates. By incentivizing people with exclusive rewards and discounts, they’ll be more likely to share positive reviews about your business.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Make the enrollment process as frictionless as possible to incentivize signups. Consider having multiple types of loyalty rewards to reward customers with something valuable to them.

22. Self-Service Resources

When customers are in a hurry or only have a quick question for your support team, they don’t want to spend 20 minutes waiting on hold for a rep. Instead, you can offer self-service resources that feature troubleshooting steps customers can take on their own. That way, they’re not dependent on your service team for answers and can find solutions on their own time, making your product more convenient and easier to use.

Optimizing this touchpoint: Use AI to enhance your blog or knowledge base. This interactive approach to self-service will make this touchpoint more helpful for customers.

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All of these touchpoints are essential for creating and analyzing your customer’s journey. But how do you use them in your business? I’ll explain that below.

How to Use Customer Touchpoints in Your Business

By using customer touchpoints, you’ll exponentially improve the customer experience. But not all touchpoints will make sense for your company. For instance, if you‘re a SaaS business, you might not have an online catalog. And if you’re running the business on your own, your customer likely won’t run into a sales team.

To create a custom customer touchpoint map, I recommend the following steps.

1. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes.

First and foremost, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and envision the steps they take as they make a purchase decision. Where do they look first? How do they reach a purchase decision? And what do they do if they run into problems using the product?

Let’s take a look at an example customer journey below.

• The customer becomes aware of a problem and researches ways to solve their issue.
• After finding a solution, they search for a particular product. They look through product listings on Google and then explore offerings on retailer websites such as Amazon.
• They search for product reviews.
• After finding sufficient information, they purchase the product.
• They use the product but run into trouble. They look for articles and resources on how to solve the issue on their own.
• They reach out to a customer service representative.

After, match each of these customer actions to a certain touchpoint. Here’s what that looks like:

• Touchpoint 1. A robust blog that covers commonly-researched issues by your customers.
• Touchpoint 2. A series of paid ads on Google‘s and Amazon’s product pages.
• Touchpoint 3. A collection of unsponsored product reviews on your website.
• Touchpoint 4. A portal for customers to easily check and see their order status.
• Touchpoint 5. Self-service options such as knowledge bases and product how-tos.
• Touchpoint 6. An easy-to-find customer service portal or phone number that allows them to get in touch.

2. Decide what’s feasible based on your company size and budget.

Now that you have a rough idea of the resources and information your customer will need during their journey, it’s time to decide which ones are easiest to implement based on your company size and budget.

If you sell a complicated product but run a one-person business, investing in a full-scale service desk with knowledge bases and ticketing features might not be feasible. But you could start by adding free live chat.

The key here is to find an alternative that‘s easy to adopt for you and your team and scalable as your business grows. You don’t want to be boxed in after your customer touchpoint strategy yields positive results.

3. Establish touchpoint tasks.

Deciding on the touchpoints is one thing; translating them into actionable tasks is another. You‘ve decided what’s feasible, and now it’s time to turn it into action.

Here’s what that can look like for the example referenced above.

First Touchpoint Tasks

• Create a strong cluster content strategy that solves for the customer.
• Decide on the first five posts, which will be published in four weeks.
• Outsource the content creation by hiring freelancers to write the content.
• Use the in-house marketing team to leverage buyer personas and current customer acquisition data.

Second Touchpoint Tasks

• Create a Google Merchant Center account and an Amazon seller account.
• Write unique descriptions for each product using the services of two freelancers.
• Source product photos and general information such as specifications, country of origin, sustainability score, and so on.
• Add product listings to Google and Amazon.

Third Touchpoint Tasks

• Add product reviews to the site using a WordPress review plugin or another solution.
• Invite current customers to write reviews by offering a 10% discount on a future purchase.
• Respond to reviews as they come in so prospects can see the brand is active.

You’d continue down the touchpoints list, adding tasks until you have a comprehensive checklist that everyone on your team can reference.

4. Leverage software tools to automate touchpoint tasks.

Use marketing, sales, and service software to ensure touchpoint tasks run smoothly with minor intervention.

Let‘s say you’ve decided to invest in social media marketing as the first touchpoint, but you have a three-person marketing team, and you don’t know how to get started. You can consider a social media management tool such as HubSpot’s Social Inbox (included in Marketing Hub). And if your team is new to social media management, you can have everyone take a social media certification course.

If you‘ve decided that one of your customers’ touchpoints is chatting with a salesperson, you’d invest in a CRM that helps your sales team keep track of all communication and automatically schedule follow-up calls.

If one of your touchpoints is a discount delivered via email, you’ll want to use email marketing software to automatically send the message. This way, you won’t need to manually type each email and send it to every customer.

And if one of your touchpoints is an easy-to-reach service desk, you’ll invest in customer service software that can take care of ticketing — and even resolve simple inquiries with a customer service bot.

These tools can help you streamline your customer touchpoint process so that it progresses with minimal team intervention. As you serve more customers, no touchpoint slips through the cracks.

Use Customer Touchpoints to Enhance the Customer Journey

After reading all this, I hope you see that you can play a role at every step of the customer journey by identifying, planning for, and leveraging each customer touchpoint. Nothing is left up to chance. Instead, you provide targeted information at just the right time.

Now, it’s time to identify customer touchpoints that impact your ROI most.

Whether you’re a one-person business or an enterprise-level team, I recommend using touchpoints to enhance the customer experience, empowering you to retain more customers and grow better.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in January 2020 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.

My early days as a customer support agent really drove home the importance of having clear, accessible knowledge base articles that let customers solve problems on their own, and this became a consistent part of my support ethos.

My journey in customer support has taken me through startups and larger corporate organizations where I’ve implemented knowledge bases that cut support tickets by as much as 70%, boosted customer satisfaction scores, and even improved organic search for terms like “knowledge base articles.”

Now, as a seasoned customer experience (CX) professional writing this guide for HubSpot, I’m excited to share the lessons I’ve learned about creating and using a knowledge base effectively.

Whether you’re a business owner, a support team lead, or someone passionate about CX, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know to leverage knowledge bases for customer success.

Table of Contents

• What is a knowledge base article?
• Benefits of Knowledge Base Articles
• How to Create Knowledge Base Articles
• Examples of Knowledge Base Articles
• Knowledge Base Article Templates

From my years of working in CX, I’ve come to see these articles as the backbone for effective customer support. Depending on the audience, they can take various forms:

• Step-by-step guides
• FAQs
• Troubleshooting instructions
• Detailed feature breakdowns

I’ve used text-based articles most often, but do love incorporating screenshots, videos, and infographics to make complex topics easier to understand. This is especially important considering people have different learning styles.

What makes knowledge base articles different from other content?

What makes a knowledge base article unique, in my experience, is its focus on practicality and clarity. Unlike blog posts, which might aim to entertain or inform, these articles prioritize delivering solutions in a straightforward way.

For example, I’ve written an article about how to reset your API key that included numbered steps and a screenshot of the dashboard. Within weeks, support requests for that particular issue dropped.

Knowledge base articles also differ from other types of content because they’re highly targeted. Each one addresses a single problem or question, and they are organized for easy access and searchability, often under categories like Account Management, Billing, or Troubleshooting.

Next, I’ll explain why knowledge base articles are so valuable and how you can create them effectively.

Benefits of Knowledge Base Articles

I’ve seen how knowledge base articles deliver tangible results for both customers and businesses. They’re necessary for any organization serious about customer success.

Below, I’ve outlined six key benefits, each backed by recent data and my own experiences in Silicon Valley’s fast-paced tech environment. These advantages extend beyond support –– they affect productivity, consistency, and even aspects of marketing.

Reduces Support Ticket Volume

One of the core benefits of introducing knowledge base articles is their ability to lighten the load on support teams. When a self-service resource is able to handle the inquiry alone and does not need to escalate a ticket, we refer to this as a deflection.

For example, at Skybound, I analyze ticket data weekly and look for any repeating patterns in customer inquiries. If I notice there’s a consistently higher volume around a particular question or issue, I’ll create a knowledge base article and add it to the knowledge base.

Typically what’ll find is that tickets around that subject slowly become deflected, as customers learn to navigate your knowledge base. In fact, according to 2024 data, businesses with well-crafted knowledge base articles can see a 23% reduction in customer support ticket volume.

Improves Customer Satisfaction

When customers can solve problems on their own, they feel empowered, and that significantly boosts their satisfaction. This empowerment comes from several things.

• A sense of control. Customers can take control of their problems without waiting for support.
• Increased autonomy. Customers appreciate a sense of independence.
• Enhanced trust. When customers can solve their own issue, it builds trust with a brand because they perceive the company as proactive and customer-focused. This can lead to loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.

Historically, whenever I’ve introduced a robust knowledge base, the business has seen increased CSAT scores and a rise in NPS.

Enhances Employee Productivity

Knowledge base articles don’t just help customers — they make life easier for employees, too.

At a company I worked with in 2022, our sales team used articles like “Understanding Subscription Tiers” to answer prospect questions during live demos, saving them time as they prepared for each new opportunity. Similarly, our technical support team relied on internal knowledge base articles to document bug fixes and feature requests.

Similarly, at Skybound, my current support team was able to cut their average handle time by 40% as of Q4 of 2024, simply by using centralized troubleshooting guides.

In other words, your knowledge base ends up serving your customers and becoming a training resource for your team. Research has found that your average worker spends about 30% of their workday searching for information. So, this not only helps drive efficiency but reduces the potential for lower morale.

Standardizes Information

Consistency matters, especially as teams grow. Early in my career, I quickly noticed how there would often be a knowledge gap as customers moved down various funnels in their customer journey. By the time they reached customer support, everyone involved had conflicting information. This not only leads to confusion but also a spike in support tickets.

In contrast, when everyone delivers the same message, customers feel more confident in your brand.

Supports 24/7 Availability

In a global and digital market, customers don’t stick to your time zone. Knowledge base articles provide around-the-clock support without extra staffing costs. I love waking up to check our knowledge base queries from the previous night, typically from Asia-Pacific customers, to see that many of them deflected and did not escalate into a ticket.

There’s also a growing demand for self-service that complements this. A 2024 study found that 67% of customers prefer using some form of self-service over talking to a live agent.

In my view, a well-crafted knowledge base article is a strategic asset for streamlining support operations.

Boosts SEO and Organic Traffic

One benefit I didn’t anticipate early on was the SEO power of knowledge base articles, as 52% of keywords people search for have informational intent.

By optimizing titles and content for long-tail keywords like “How to fix integration sync errors,” you can actually end up ranking in Google search results, thus driving more traffic to your website because of people finding your knowledge base –– and ultimately driving new leads. By creating content that addresses specific user inquiries, you can improve your search engine rankings and establish yourself as an industry authority.

The benefits are convincing, as they not only enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency but also contribute to long-term business growth through improved SEO and reduced support costs.

For more ideas, check out this HubSpot article on knowledge base examples.

How to Create Knowledge Base Articles

Creating effective knowledge base articles is a process I’ve honed over years of trial and error. You really need to focus on solving problems efficiently.

Below, I’ve detailed a nine-step approach, complete with tools and tips from my experience. This method ensures your articles are clear, actionable, and results-oriented.

Step 1: Identify common customer queries.

You can’t solve problems you don’t understand, so I start by digging into support ticket data to find recurring issues and general common questions.

Try to pinpoint as many frequent topics as you can and then mentally bundle them into categories — topics like “How do I update my account information?” and “Why did my payment fail?” Then, create a diagram chart mapping out the categories and the associated topics.

Pro tip: Use tools like HubSpot’s Service Analytics to spot trends. You can also run keyword searches in your ticketing system for phrases like “how do I” or “error.” If available to you, don’t stop at just tickets –– survey customers or use AI tools like Gong.io to analyze call transcripts for unlogged pain points.

Step 2: Define a clear structure.

A logical structure makes articles easy to follow. I like to promote doing this early on and taking it seriously because your ability to scale knowledge management depends on it. Otherwise, you’ll have to come back and make changes that might take time to overhaul.

My go-to format includes:

• A keyword-rich titles (e.g., “Why was my order canceled?”).
• A short intro (2-3 sentences on what the article covers).
• Numbered steps or sections with clear headings.
• Visual aids like screenshots or videos.
• A brief conclusion or next steps.

Pro tip: Test your structure with a small user group. You might learn some things that need adjusting to improve comprehension. I recommend keeping sections short, aiming for around 75-100 words each. This helps avoid overwhelming the readers. Consistency is key to scalability.

Step 3: Write for your audience.

Your audience dictates your tone and depth. For developers and product managers, I use technical terms; for the average user, I stick to plain language.

A Statista study shows that 60 to 65% of website traffic comes from mobile devices, suggesting people are more likely to access knowledge base articles on mobile.

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Pro tip: Use tools like Hemingway App to target a particular grade level of reading for broad accessibility. I think grade 6 through 8 reading level is good in that it does not assume a high level of literacy. Also, define any unavoidable jargon in a sidebar or tooltip –– don’t assume prior knowledge.

Step 4: Incorporate visuals.

Sometimes, words alone are not enough to describe complex tasks. How difficult would it be to put together your newly purchased IKEA furniture if it only included written instructions instead of images? Knowledge base articles are no different. I always add screenshots, annotated diagrams, or 30-60 second videos to clarify steps.

Research shows that 36% of people have struggled to process information without visuals since elementary school –– and 50% are actively looking for visual aids when reading informational content to improve their understanding. Adding screenshots, diagrams, or short videos to your knowledge base articles can make complex steps clearer and more digestible.

Pro tip: Use tools like TechSmith Capture or Loom for screenshots and videos — and remember to optimize your content for mobile and add alt text for accessibility and SEO.

Step 5: Optimize for SEO.

Search engines can lead users to your knowledge base articles, so I like to include primary keywords in titles and headings, and long-tail phrases in the body.

HubSpot’s Knowledge Base Software has AI-driven keyword suggestions, which are very powerful for boosting search rankings.

Pro tip: Research your competitors with Ahrefs or Semrush to find high-volume, low-competition terms. Write your meta descriptions between 150 to 160 characters, summarizing the article and including your keyword.

Step 6: Categorize and tag.

A well-organized knowledge base is important for both customers and employees. I group content into clear categories like “Getting Started,” “Billing,” or “Troubleshooting,” and use tags like “login error” or “refund request” to make searching easy.

Keep your categories and tags straightforward. This helps everyone find answers quickly, reducing customer frustration and agent handling time.

Pro tip: I’ve always found that a simple navigation menu with 3 to 6 core categories is a good starting point. Too many options can overwhelm users, while too few can make finding specific information harder.

Step 7: Review and update regularly.

Outdated content loses trust. It’s important to manage your knowledge base and optimize your content for accuracy, freshness, or even new media formats depending on what you’re seeing in the visitor traffic data. I personally review knowledge base data weekly and make small adjustments as needed. For larger overhauls, I’ll take notes and go back to step 2 if required.

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Pro tip: Try applying the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. It talks about how roughly 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. Using this in a knowledge base context, start with the top 20% of viewed knowledge base articles –– this typically addresses 80% of user issues.

Step 8: Gather feedback.

While you can see a lot in the data, sometimes it’s helpful to turn directly to your audience. Sending a quarterly survey can help gauge how much your customers value your self-service resources and identify any gaps that need to be filled.

One way to do this directly in the knowledge base article is by using those little “Was this helpful?” buttons. This will give you a general overview of which articles are working and which are not. Then, review the feedback and prioritize the most high-value opportunities while addressing the low-rated articles for updates.

Pro tip: Add a free-form comment field alongside the “Was this helpful?” buttons so you can capture specific improvement suggestions. This makes the binary feedback a bit more actionable.

Step 9: Leverage AI tools.

AI can really help speed up this entire process without completely sacrificing quality. Don’t get me wrong, it requires your effort and guidance, but by using large language models to help you create drafts and get started, you can get moving more quickly than ever before.

For example, you can feed the LLM various customer issues or how-tos and then have it start compiling a foundation that you can build upon. Support teams are finding a lot of success leveraging AI for knowledge base management.

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Pro tip: Use AI to suggest related articles or keywords to enhance user navigation and SEO, but always edit AI output for accuracy and brand voice –– don’t just publish “copypasta.”

This approach consistently transforms overwhelming support backlogs into efficient self-service resources that delight customers and reduce operational cost.

Examples of Knowledge Base Articles

Let’s look at a few examples of knowledge bases that implement these principles. Knowledge bases come in many forms, but the best ones have common characteristics that make them useful.

Greenhouse Support Center

My alma mater Greenhouse Software has a support center that shows many knowledge base best practices. Notice that the homepage has multiple entry points, with a search bar, popular searches, and visual categories.

This recognizes that different users have different preferences for finding information –– some want to search directly, while others like to browse categories.

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I think this homepage’s effectiveness lies in its clean and minimal design, which puts the most used information front and center. The “Most popular subjects” section has visual thumbnails with straightforward article titles, so users can find what they are looking for easily.

This follows the 80/20 rule I mentioned earlier — tackling the 20% subjects that solve 80% of user problems directly on the homepage.

Looking at a specific knowledge base article, this jobs manual from Greenhouse shows how to organize step-by-step instructions efficiently. The article breaks down what could be a complex process into manageable parts with easy navigation, highlighted notes,and visual elements that enhance the written instructions.

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I really like how this article uses green info boxes to highlight important exceptions or edge cases. And the table that compares different job creation options allows users to see their choices.

These visual cues reduce the mental load on the user, making it easier for them to understand the choices and make a decision. In my experience, this kind of thoughtful formatting can reduce tickets and enhance customer experience.

When you’re building your knowledge base, these are some elements I think you should consider:

• Clear organization.
• Visual support.
• Minimalist design.
• Highlighting the most common user paths.

Remember, the best knowledge base articles are discoverable, clear, and solution-focused.

Slack Help Center

The Slack help center is a great example of a well-organized knowledge base. The site feels friendly right away thanks to a conversational header that says, “Hi. How can we help?” and gives you a number of ways to get information.

There’s a big search bar, quick links to popular topics, and categories that are easy to see. It’s great that they incorporate different learning styles.

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I like that the layout is simple but still very useful, and the common questions and categories are easy to see right away. It’s clear that when designing this, Slack wanted to make it easier for people to quickly find and solve their own problems.

Diving into one of their knowledge base articles, I took a look at their piece on “Managing your organization’s connections.” First thing that I tested was whether it appeared in search engine results. We talked earlier about the importance of optimizing for SEO, and it looks like Slack took this into consideration.

As you can see, the knowledge base article appears at the top of the SERPS, even recognized by the native Google Gemini search labs AI overview. This means customers don’t even need to visit your knowledge base directly to find their answers — they’ll be led there by the search engine, thanks to your knowledge base articles focusing on primary and keyword structure.

What I like most about this knowledge base article is that it tells you what to expect right away. It also lets users know which roles can use the tool, so they don’t waste time if they don’t have the right permissions.

The process doesn’t feel too difficult as each step is short, clear, and shown visually. I also like the quick feedback buttons at the end. As I mentioned earlier, that’s a smart way to get feedback from real users to improve the material.

The way Slack does things is a great example for anyone who wants to build or improve a knowledge base. Some great takeaways to remember are:

• Use friendly language.
• Organize visuals clearly.
• Keep things simple and step-by-step.
• Include a feedback loop that keeps content changing.

Answers should be simple to find, simple to understand, and simple to improve over time.

HubSpot Knowledge Base

Okay, I know I’m writing this for HubSpot –– so of course I have to plug the HubSpot Knowledge Base. But honestly, even if I wasn’t, it would still make the list (I promise they didn’t make me say that). Here’s why.

Right from the homepage, it’s clear HubSpot wants to make things easy. Much like Slack’s, there’s a prominent search bar, quick links to popular topics, and organized categories covering everything from marketing and sales to CRM setup and beyond.

Plus, there’s a little chat widget in the bottom-right corner, which I love. I like these widgets because they’re like a safety net — they’re great to use when you’re convinced you’ve looked everywhere but still can’t find what you need.

What stands out to me most is how HubSpot balances practical guidance with education. It’s not just a bunch of questions and answers, their knowledge base is packed with actionable marketing, sales, and service strategies. It feels less like a support resource and more like a learning hub that happens to solve your problems along the way.

One article I keep coming back to is the guide on setting up automation workflows. This could easily be a complicated mess, but the article breaks it down into consumable sections that are action-oriented. It makes everything feel less overwhelming.

What I really like about this article is that it doesn’t just tell you how to build a workflow –– it explains why certain steps matter. It’s part tutorial, and part strategy guide, which makes it more useful than a basic troubleshooting page. You walk away knowing not only how to set things up, but how to make them work better for your business.

The biggest takeaways for me are:

• Clear structure.
• A balance of technical and strategic guidance.
• Scannable formatting.
• A focus on empowering the user –– not just fixing the problem.

A truly great knowledge base article helps people get smarter.

Knowledge Base Article Templates

I’ve created these two templates to help you easily build effective knowledge base articles. My goal was to make them simple to use, so you can quickly structure your information and get it out to your users.

Whether you need to explain a process or help someone fix a problem, these templates give you a foundation to get started. (You can also download HubSpot’s free knowledge base articles template, too.)

Here are two templates you can apply today.

Template 1: How-To & Educational Articles

Title: [What the user will learn to do/understand]

Intro: [One or two sentences. What’s the goal?]

Section 1: [First Step or Concept]

If it’s steps:

1. Do this first.
2. Then do this.
3. And so on…

[Screenshots]

[What should they see after the steps?]

[Screenshots]

[Possible problem? How to fix it?]

If it’s explaining something:

• Explain it simply.
• Use short sentences.
• Use bullet points.

Section 2: [Next Steps or Concept] (Repeat the format above)

…(More sections if needed)…

Related Articles:

• [Link 1]
• [Link 2]
• [Link 3]

Still Need Help? (How to contact support)

Was This Helpful? Yes / No (Optional comment box)

The first template is your go-to for creating a step-by-step approach to explaining concepts. This second template is for troubleshooting articles, and helping users identify and fix problems on their own.

Template 2: Troubleshooting Articles

Title: [Problem the user is having]

What’s Happening? [One or two sentences describing the problem]

Possible Causes:

• [Cause 1]
• [Cause 2]
• [Cause 3] (Add more if needed)

How to Fix It:

Solution 1:

1. Try this first.
2. Then try this.

[Screenshots]

What Should Happen? [Short description of expected behavior]

[Screenshots]

If that didn’t work do this:

1. Try this.
2. Then try this.

Still Not Working? [Link to submit ticket]

Related Articles:

• Link 1
• Link 2
• Link 3

Was This Helpful? Yes / No (Optional comment box)

Your Knowledge Base, Your Success

Knowledge base articles are for building a resource that empowers your customers and frees up your team. As you work on your own knowledge base articles, don’t be afraid to experiment. Try different formats, gather feedback relentlessly, and keep iterating.

And one last tip: start small. Focus on the top 20% of questions and issues, and build from there. The most important thing is to start, keep learning, and always put your customers first.

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