Inbound & Digital Marketing Blog

The birth of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest has opened doors for communication, connecting and expression for online marketers. These communities allow a level playing ground for discussions with marketers and prospects to interact and engage with each other. These forums give business owners and marketing professionals the opportunity to promote their brands by educating their prospects about their products and services - while potential and current customers can offer their suggestions and opinions for a better marketing experience.

Many businesses use social media incorrectly and ineffectively, and ultimately fail to gain successful and strategic marketing and sales campaigns for their businesses. Jim Klossner wrote an article mentioning the common mistakes businesses make in using social media, such as:

• Their Communication and Posts Are Too Formal - Tone is an important part of communication, and it can set the stage for your online relationships. For a B2B social media account, the social media managers in charge might be tempted to keep a corporate tone. After all, shouldn't you be professional when you're talking to other professionals?
• They Participate in Too Many Channels - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest; there are many social media platforms for B2B companies to choose. In social media, however, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Unless you have a full team of social media managers to handle all these platforms, it's nearly impossible to be effective in every channel.
• They Start Using Social Media without a Plan - The same company leaders who wouldn't dream of starting a business without having a plan in place will jump into social media with both feet without so much as researching what the competition is doing. The "it's the thing to do" mentality leads to stagnant accounts, inconsistent tone, and sloppy brand presence.

These are just a few of the things mentioned in his article. Check out “5 Social Media Practices that Can Hurt Your Marketing Efforts”, to find out what you shouldn’t do when you use social media for your business. Learn what to do, and apply these practices directly and immediately into your social media marketing strategy.

Social media can be one of the best ways to champion your business, as long as you know how to use it for your business’ advantage. As with any other aspect of marketing, there are rules to follow for success, so learn from others that have gone before you to save you time, energy and other resources. Above all, be sure you maintain a strong relationship with your current and potential customers by continuously interacting with them.

In business, it is always good to know what you are up against since many changes in the marketplace can interfere with your best plans, knocking you off course! According to the latest content marketing study of Marketing Profs and Content Marketing Institute, B2B marketers are spending more, using more tactics and distributing their content on more social networks than they have in the past years.

Since content is essential for your marketing and sales strategies, the study shows that B2B marketers are spending 33% of their marketing budgets on content marketing, which has increased from 26% last year - while 54% plan to boost content marketing spending next year. Content tactics are more commonly used today than they were a year ago, mostly due to the help of research reports, videos, and mobile. But the study also indicated that B2B entrepreneurs, marketing executives and content marketers this year are challenged with producing enough content. Previous findings showed that the top challenge was producing engaging content.

Social media communities such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, now play a more dominate role in B2B marketing. The study shows they are the most popular content marketing resource for information, while “producing enough content" is the biggest burden for many B2B content marketers. In addition to that, those needing educational and resourceful content typically use up to five social networking sites, with LinkedIn as the most popular. This is a big change, as Twitter had previously been the choice for content for the two previous years.

The full survey is available for you here: “2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends” Let us know what your thoughts are regarding the research found, and how this impacts – or will impact – your business.

Marketers often fail to launch a successful marketing strategy because it doesn’t begin with careful planning. Understand and anticipate the trends with case study, research and statistics, and use them as guidelines for strategizing and planning your marketing campaigns.

I had a client today ask me about the best practices for forms on landing pages. Well, the most direct path is not always the easiest or the best!

It's nearly always best to use the shortest possible form — Name, Email, and perhaps Phone Number.

Then, clients say: "Yes, but we need to know what zip code they are in to assign them to a salesperson." Or, "Yes, but we need to know their technical requirements."

You can still get all that information. Just don't kill your conversion rates by asking for it all at once.

It's like trying to climb a mountain. You could try to go straight up. That would be the most direct path — Unless you ran into a steep cliff and fell off!

Or, you could climb up using switchbacks to zig-zag your way. Less direct, but much more likely to get you to the top.

How to Use Multi-Step Conversion Forms

Don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to get all the information you want at once. Try this instead:

• Use the simplest possible form for the first conversion. Get the prospect's name and email address.
  
  
• Send them an email with a link to a valuable piece of content. In the email and in your content, have a call-to-action that encourages them to take the next step.
  
  
• The next step link goes to another form that requires they enter a bit more information, but also promises more value.
  
  
• Then, send another email that delivers the value and has another call-to-action.

When you have a valuable product that solves a problem for your prospects, they'll gladly take the next step. If you don't have a valuable product, stop spending money on marketing and invest instead in making your product better!

Plus, this way, you have their name and email. You can keep checking with them until you find a fit or determine there isn't a fit. If you ask for too much information up front, they may never give you anything, and there's nothing you can do.

There's yet another advantage. Have you ever entered bogus information on a web form? I know I have. When you ask for too much, too soon, you encourage people to lie. But, that's not the end of the story. People at your company will assume the bogus data is valid and assign the new hot lead to a busy salesperson. The salesperson ends up wasting time chasing down a High School student who's just trying to write a term paper!

It helps if you have the right marketing platform to make the multi-step process easier to implement. Contact Me, if you want to know more.

Please leave a comment if you use multi-step forms. What have you found that works? 

Image Credit: tylerkaraszewski

Over the years, online entrepreneurs have indulged in the benefits of content marketing to promote their businesses online. But with the overflowing amount of data and content on the internet, it can be difficult for your readers to segregate useful and relevant information for their research needs.

Roger Parker is a coach, speaker and author and mentions that content marketers commonly experience difficulties with complexity, increased responsibilities and information overload in their content marketing strategies - but with the help of mind mapping, content marketers can overcome these challenges.

Mind mapping is a content productivity tool used to visually outline information centering on a specific topic and category. It helps content marketers gain a fresh perspective, sparking new ideas, encouraging collaboration and breaking complex projects into manageable tasks, according to Mr. Parker. There are many mind mapping tools online, here are just a few:

• Mindjet MindManager 2012 which is used by over 500 companies. It is easy to use and has amazing features, allowing you to integrate with Microsoft Office and Sharepoint.
• MindMeister has simple but well-designed functions which allow you to work simultaneously with colleagues on the same project. It is also cost-efficient and accessible on your mobile phone, which is very ideal if you want to access your work even while on the go.
• MindMaple lets you organize multiple threads of ideas creatively. It has arrows and callouts to show interactions between different sections of your maps. It is also ideal for planning of presentations or meetings.

Regardless of the mind mapping tool or software you plan to use, you can view as much (or as little) information you desire, plus with the ability to export your work. Through mind maps, you can analyze and track your competition, create buyer personas, plan editorial calendars, brainstorm article and blog topics and organize complex projects.

In the article written by Roger Parker entitled, "Top 10 Mind Mapping Productivity Tips for Content Marketing Success", he mentioned some tips on how to use your mind mapping tools to its full potential.

With the increasing prevalence of information overload online, mind mapping will definitely help you reduce the clutter for your prospects and customers. Remember that it doesn’t really matter what mind mapping tool or software you use, what truly matters is how you use it.

With the presence and power of social media, what better way to connect with your prospects and customers than through a platform which allows them to learn, share and engage with you and your company?

Chances are your prospects, customers and partners are engaging in social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. Done correctly, social media allows you to showcase your products and services in a way that educates, empowers and engages your network in a very cost-effective way. Social media encourages you to interact with your prospects through forums and discussions, which will help in your company’s growth not only in profits, but also in terms of branding. You want to be the business that fully understands what your prospects need, and have an expectation of what they need now, and will need down the road.

There are many social networking sites you can leverage to expand the exposure for your business. In an article by Ann Buehner, she mentioned four sites that are perfect for promoting your business online:

• Tumblr - Brands use Tumblr to create a community and to build a following fast with its quick and easy setup, seamless tagging and sharing capabilities. Existing brands also use the short-form blog to breathe life into content through a host of mixed-media that includes photos, links and video. Tumblr does not offer a reporting platform, and does not have the best reputation when it comes to collaborating with brands on advertising opportunities.
• Pinterest - Brands use Pinterest to build brand personality and inspire trends and influencers through instant social sharing. Pins are typically centered on major life events such as weddings and holidays. Users create theme-based collections through the site’s virtual pinboards. Dialogue is generated through the simple act of pinning, repining, “Liking” and commenting on images taken on a smartphone or from the web.
• Instagram - Brands use Instagram to showcase products, services, events or just a behind-the-scenes look through a feed of photos, instead of a slew of text. The photo sharing application for iPhone uses dazzling image filters, and features cross-posting to other social networks including Twitter, Facebook profiles, Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr and Posterous. The goal is to attract new fans with Instagram’s search and keyword function, and to draw engagement through likes, comments, @replies and #hashtags.
• Tout - Brands use Tout to create real-time, 15-second video status updates captured from Apple and Android smartphones, and then distributed through social networks. Instant video sharing is on the rise as more and more consumers use smartphones. Tout offers integration across multiple platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, and does include analytics. It’s essentially video Twitter.

To find out more about these sites, you can read her full article here: "4 Short-Form Blogging Networks Perfect for Customer Engagement"

With more social networking sites available at your fingertips, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the tools and features in order to use them to their fullest potential for your business’ success.

Blogging can be an essential way to inform and educate your prospects on their wants and needs (that your products or services may help them with). Because building a business empire takes an extraordinary amount of time and effort, and blogging is just one aspect of it, most busy professionals neglect updating their company blogs.

If you want to lengthen the life of your blogs, and you don’t have the time to update your blogs on a consistent basis- what should you do? Here are six strategies you can put into place right away:

• Make sure that your blogs are search engine friendly. Always double check your title and description tags, categories and keywords to be certain that they stay relevant to your post. Make sure you don’t stray from the guidelines set forth by search engines, otherwise your blog will be penalized.
• Inter-link your posts. Make sure that when writing your post, you link relevant keyword phrases to previously published articles. It will help in your search engine optimization.
• Send your subscribers emails about your post. Include a brief summary of your blog and communicate the value of why they should read your blog by telling them how it can help solve their problems. You can also encourage them to subscribe to your blog so that they don’t miss out on the important updates. By doing this, you will build a stronger relationship with your email subscribers.
• Be certain that your blogs have CTAs (Call-to-Action). This directs your readers on what they need to do next, and so they will know where to reach you.  CTAs are important because, in most instances, people need to be told what to do and typically respond well when there’s a clear step of what to do next.
• Repurpose your blogs. By sharing someone else’s information that would also be beneficial for your network, you can repurpose a blog or article that’s an old post (that’s still relevant) or use as a theme for one of your upcoming webinars. By using other’s content, you now have an entire mini-package comprised of useful information and tools to share with your prospects or clients.
• Use social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. These are a popular and valuable platform to showcase your blogs and articles. Link your post to your social networking sites to spread your content across all platforms, and allow your readers to “share” these resourceful posts.

Blogging will be a major asset for your business to reach your targeted prospects as long as you stay relevant and true to your prospects needs. Offer realistic and timely solutions in every post, in order for your customers to feel value and to help gain their trust. Blogging allows you to interact and engage with your audience, and to get immediate feedback regarding their concerns. Engaging them in discussions to gather comments and suggestions regarding your company’s brand will help your business grow profitably and professionally.

The most important thing you should remember in blogging is consistency. Even if you can’t regularly post blogs, make sure you continue to communicate with your prospects and clients through your blogs to strengthen your relationship with them.

Because your business website is the representation of your company, it should convey the image your company wants to portray to your prospects, the principles you uphold and the quality of service your consumers expect.

Appearance and first impressions are brief but lasting reminders. Surely you wouldn’t want to give the wrong perception to your prospects by having unnecessary and irrelevant items on your company’s website. Either take responsibility, (or delegate / outsource the responsibility) to constantly update your business website to make sure that everything is  relevant and useful for your marketing strategies.

In an article written by Randy Milanovic, he mentioned a number of things that shouldn’t be seen on your website anymore. Here are a few examples:

1. Old bios, images and product descriptions
   
   These include everything from executive bios for members of the company who have moved on to product shots from the ’70s. If who you are and what you sell isn't accurately reflected on your website, what does that tell your buyers?
   
   You have to make sure that the data you post on your website is accurate. From the bios of your executives and staff, to the details of each product and every service  your company offers.
   
   
2. Prices that aren’t accurate anymore
   
   Besides the fact that incorrect pricing can lead to all kinds of legal liabilities, lost sales and hits to your profit margin - having the wrong prices for your products or services also put you at a disadvantage with your competitors.
   
   Your customers and clients surely wouldn’t want to think they’ve been fooled with incorrect pricing. The price certainly plays a big part in the whole buying process, so be sure to reflect the correct price of your products and services.
   
   
3. Products or services that are no longer being offered
   
   It's a bad idea to have pages for things you no longer sell, since it inevitably leads to requests that can’t be honored. That in turn, is one of the surest ways to negative reviews and a poor online reputation.
   
   It is a waste of space to have pages dedicated to products and services that you can no longer provide your consumers. Not only will that irritate your prospects, it will also send a signal of being incompetent that you can’t maintain a functional website.

You can find out more about things that shouldn’t be on your business website when you read his full article entitled, “What is on Your Business Website That Shouldn't be?”

Remember, you don’t want to give your prospects the wrong impression, so keep in mind to always update your business website. It should be a continuous process to ensure your website conveys what you intend to reflect and communicate to your prospects and to your customers.

Every day, millions of people surf online to search, research and purchase products and services that fit their wants and needs. Because of this, savvy business owners and online marketers make it a priority to continuously improve the quality of service they can offer to their consumers. To stay competitive, it is vital for online marketers to adapt to the changes and enhancements of the tools and features they use in their marketing strategies.

HubSpot is well-known for helping business owners and online marketers provide their customers and clients with an excellent service they truly deserve. As an advocate of marketing, they have constantly developed tools and strategies that help online marketers and their prospects have the best marketing experience possible.

Recently, HubSpot enhanced their list segmentation tool.  In addition to building segments from form submissions, list memberships and properties, it is now easy to set page views and events as criteria. This feature makes it possible to build a list, trigger an email or internal notification, start a workflow, trigger a web hook, or serve Smart CTAs to contacts that have completed a specific event or viewed a specific page.

It's now possible to do things such as:

• Send an email to a contact (or nurture them) when they view a specific page on your website
• Build a list of everyone who has seen a specific page on your website
• Send a notification email to the lead owner in Salesforce when a contact views your pricing page
• Turn a lead into a marketing qualified lead when they view a product related page
• Show a specific CTA to contacts who have clicked a "buy now" button in the past or completed a transaction on your website
• Send a notification email to an account manager when a contact views a cancellation page
• Trigger a web hook when a custom event is triggered

To find out more about the timeline segmentation, check out the article, “Timeline Segmentation: A New Way to Segment Your Database with HubSpot Enterprise” by Jeffrey Russo.

Use HubSpot’s timeline segmentation tool to build segments off of form submissions, list memberships, and properties, and easily set page views and events as criteria to convey more relevant purposeful messages.

Marketing has become an art form that continues to be perfected over time, and your business’ success depends on how creatively you position yourself in the marketplace. The success of your marketing messages is dependent upon how relevant, interesting and appealing you can make them connect with your audience.

You may know that blogging can be one of the best ways to promote your business, but are you actively and consistently doing so? Business blogs can open doors for communication and interaction between you and your potential customers and/or clients. Though your blogs, you can engage in forums and join community discussions to understand the wants and needs of your prospects and at the same time, offer them knowledge and information regarding your offered products and services. This helps promote brand awareness and will make you a trusted brand by understanding your potential customers and clients’ desires.

More importantly, a relevant, interesting and creative blog can help boost more traffic to your website and help you generate more leads by engaging prospects looking for answers and information.

An established online presence can also be accomplished with the help of blogging. If you post content that is relevant and purposive for your audience, you can capture their interest, which can lead to a considerable amount of followers. The more popular your blogs become, the more they will be shared, and the more they will be “relevant” to Google – thus helping more people to be aware of your business and your brand. This can help you be seen as a trusted brand and a company that can surely address their problems and needs.

Here are four basic points to remember if you want to blog effectively for your business:

1. Be creative. Think of topics that are relatable to your business and make them interesting and entertaining for readers to actually want to read them. When an idea pops into your head, make sure you write it down so you can eventually write about it later. You can use online tools such as Evernote or Google Docs to help you accomplish this. Keep in mind that creativity is the key, and an epiphany can happen when you least expect it, so when you have an idea, make sure to write it down.
2. Be punctual. Always write in a schedule. You don’t have to write a 600 word blog in one sitting, just be certain that you take time for just an hour or two a day. This will help stimulate your mind so that you will feel inspired and ideas will eventually keep flowing.
3. Be open-minded. The best thing about blogs is the interaction you can generate from them. Encourage comments, questions and suggestions so that you’ll have a point of view on what your prospects and clients need, want and desire.
4. Be consistent. Your efforts won’t bear fruits over-night so be patient. Blogging is a continuous effort, so be unrelenting in your strategies for blog topics, and consistent in your campaigns if you want to be successful.

With great content that informs, educates and empowers and with the help of social media and other online tools, your business blogs can reach your targeted buyers across multiple platforms and begin a lead generation process for your business.

Photo Credit: Flickr

As you know, content is an essential part of your inbound marketing strategy, and with great content, you can position your company’s website or blog to success. Fortunately for you, there are many online tools that can help you in your content marketing research.

The quality of your content will determine the success of your marketing campaigns, so to get the attention of your targeted prospects, your content should be useful, relevant, educating and interesting for them.
To achieve this, you’ll need creativity and a little research. You’ll want to utilize the resources you have available online at your disposal to come up with the topics, concepts and intriguing content for your marketing that is appealing for your prospects while maintaining  the brand  your company embodies. There are many online tools that can help with your content marketing research such as Google AdWords, Keyword Tool, LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers and Bottlenose.

Since all searches begin with keywords, Google AdWords is the best tool to help you determine what keywords are more searched than others. Google AdWords can also be useful in the optimization of your content marketing strategies.

With 175 million members, LinkedIn is the largest networking community for business professionals, making it the best place for discussions and forums for people of all industries and all backgrounds. These forums and discussions are very helpful for ideas with your content marketing research.

Yahoo Answers is one of the largest online answer sites with millions of questions and answers from people all over the world. All topics are categorized and ranked according to what’s best for the users.

As you can imagine, social media has had a major impact on today’s content marketing campaigns. If you want to search for trending articles and social commentaries, Bottlenose is the best tool for you. It allows users to view social media information in clearer and simpler ways.

Arnie Kuenn wrote an article, “12 Content Research Tools You Should Be Using”, which contains important tools that can help in your content marketing research. Use them to your advantage and save yourself time by being smarter and not working harder.

Use these research tools as guides to help you get to the right starting point for your content topic or message. Having these tools to immediately find the questions to what your prospects are asking, is an efficient way to build your content marketing strategy.