Inbound & Digital Marketing Blog

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

The right educational content can do wonders for businesses. How about your business? Do you regularly write and promote helpful content that motivates and educates your prospects?

Corporate blogging not only allow companies to showcase their products and services, but gives them the leverage to inform and engage with their employees, prospects and customers.

The business that educates consumers on how to buy, dominates that marketplace. It is always an advantage for the savvy business to know what it’s targeted audience wants, beginning with the level of service - down to the quality and selection of the products and services offered. Having resourceful blogs on your business’ website provides a common ground for interaction between the company, their employees, their customers and their prospects. This way, everyone concerned will share a voice in the conversation.

By blogging for your business, your employees can contribute their viewpoints - which give them a sense of “ownership” and respect, and that can be a real asset for your company. Your potential and existing customers are able to share their thoughts, comments, questions (and yes, objections) that could help your business improve and grow. Blogs give room for a transparent and honest communication, and a forum to directly communicate and engage with you or parts of your team. These are ingredients you must have in order to increase your sales and making your business a success.

Michael Stelzner published an article on how content can help your business grow. It is a summary of an interview for the Social Media Marketing Podcast. They talked about how you can produce great contents, use it on your blogs and share it through social media outlets like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. There are many helpful takeaways from this article, so  to learn more about this, read his full article which also includes a video of the interview, entitled “Blogging for Business: How Content Can Improve Your Sales.”

Always keep in mind that blogging boils down to the quality of content you have. It is imperative that you only produce quality content that educates, “resets the buying criteria” and is a resource that’s worth reading and sharing. Your content should embody knowledge, entertainment, creativity and relevance. You should be able to capture the attention of your audience, and influence their minds through your words.

It is also essential that you share your content to all relevant platforms possible. Utilize all resources, such as article directories, social media groups and online forums to spread your contents. Great quality content that’s well administered, can improve your online presence and SEO rankings - which in turn can give you more leads and more sales for your business. By accomplishing successful business blogging, you are demonstrating to your industry and to your marketplace that you are an honest, trusted and reliable brand worthy of their business.

Useful analytics are your best friend when it comes to measuring and improving your inbound marketing.

• Who are visiting your site?
• Where they are coming from?
• Where are they going
• What they are viewing on your site.

Confused with how Google Analytics works? Leave a comment and share to us the questions you have and we’ll help you the best way we can.

Writing is self-expression in its simplest form. Still, you may find it hard.

For people to read your article, your content should be creative and relevant. According to Stephanie Mcgrath, anyone who can read can definitely write.

In her article, she tackles strategies and shares tips for web writing. She cited that you just have to remember the mantras of writing, like thinking about who you are writing for. 

Writing gives you the benefit of conveying your message to your readers, and, it's surely the best way to introduce your products and services. Just keep in mind that what you are writing should always be interesting and relevant to your readers.

Are you stuck with your writing? Here is another great article to help you get your thoughts together. Read Clarke Bishop’s Business Blogging: What to do about "Writer's Block.

What stops you from writing more? Leave a comment. Yes, I know that means you have to write a sentence or two!

Getting traffic is a good way to increase revenue but for your business to grow, you must understand the behavioral patterns of your site visitors. 

A great tool for this is Google Analytics. Everything you need to know about your site visitors is shown. You can truely understand your site visitors.

In Melinda’s article, she cited how you can set up Google Analytics on your site and listed her favorite statistical ways to do it.

Google Analytics is definitely a must-have tool for you if you want improvement for your business at its finest.

Read more on “Using Google Analytics to Improve Your Website”…

Are you using Google Analytics for your site? Leave a comment and share to us how Google Analytics improve your site.

Marketers want to really know buyers so they can help the buyer understand their products and services.

Analytics Software helps you reach out and understand your audience to improve and increase your site traffic.

Google Analytics is free and is said to be the easiest way to help and is more helpful to business neophytes according to Karlee Weinmann.

It tells you all you need to know about your site visitors. You will learn your site visitors innate behaviors when it comes to your products and services. You will gain better understanding of what does and what doesn't work for your prospective customers.

Google Analytics is definitely the tool you need to improve your business site. Read the full article on "7 Ways Google Analytics Will Improve..."

Share with us your experience with Google Analytics and let us know how it worked for you.

There are a lot of ways to get more leads through your webite. One of the best is to drive more traffic. However, there are many tools and strategies available. You may feel uncertain about what really works.

Elance Alex shares his idea on how to drive more traffic. He cited Search Engine Marketing (SEM) as the most effective.

Read the full article on “5 Ways to Drive…”

The point of SEM is to promote your website through paid advertisement. It may be costly but definitely worth it. It can bring a positive result in your website traffic.

There are many ways for you to increase site traffic. Some are free, and some may cost you money. But then, always keep in mind that sometimes, spending money is a small price to pay to have a more effective and profitable website.

Do you use Pay-per-click advertising? Did it work for you? Please leave a comment and tell us your experiences.

Creating a website is a great step to promote your business. It just isn't enough!

You can’t just sit around and wait for people to stumble upon your site. A very effective way to gain customers is by driving traffic to your site.

Clicknewz.com talks about using Social Network Sites to promote your products and services. Doing this will make it easier for people interested in your business to find you.

We've had great success using LinkedIn to drive traffic. Find out more:

An important thing to remember is to constantly improve your site. Develop strategies or tools which you can use to make your site more interesting. Once people are interested, it gives you more traffic, thus, more customers.

Read more on "Driving Traffic To A New Website"...

If you just got started with Inbound Marketing, leave a comment and let us know how you are planning to get more visitors.                                                  

LinkedIn is an amazing resource for B2B lead generation -- If you know how and don't mind doing some work!

Most small business people are on LinkedIn, but many have never gotten any leads. One reason is that people think of LinkedIn like other social networks. They try to amass connections, but nothing happens. It's not about how many connections you have. 

There's a better way, and I'm going to share our LinkedIn Lead Generation Formula!

Step-by-Step Guide to Lead Generation with LinkedIn

1. Know Your Ideal Prospects

For effective sales or marketing, you need to know who would be a great prospect. This is especially true on LinkedIn. For our clients, we usually create one or two Personas that describe their ideal prospect.

Let's say you have a product that is especially valuable to hotels, but you only serve Dallas, Texas and the surrounding area. 

Try this: Log into LinkedIn and click the advanced search button. 

Put in the keywords: hotel, hospitality

Put in a Dallas zip code: 75201, and a radius: 75 miles

Click Search. I got over 2,800 results.

Now all of these may not be perfect prospects, but they are all in your target industry and your target geography. And, each of them almost certainly knows several of your perfect prospects.

2. Create Valuable Content

Your prospects have problems and business challenges, and you have valuable knowledge. 

If you were an expert in staffing for hotels, and you knew how to find reliable employees, don't you think most hotel managers would want to hear from you?

So let your prospects know your tricks! Are you worried that you won't be able to sell your services anymore once you tell prospects what you know? Well, don't. It's almost always easier and cheaper to hire an expert. But first, you have to let your prospects know you are an expert!

Content can mean many things. Videos, Blogs, PDFs, eBooks, Info-Graphcs, Photos, MP3s -- Anything that communicates. You know your prospects, so you know what they would appreciate.

3. Announce Your Content with LinkedIn

Knowing your prospects and creating valuable content -- That's what you do for any Inbound Marketing campaign.

It's a common problem that small businesses have. They put up a website or blog, but nobody comes to see their great content. You can have the best content in the world, but it doesn't matter is nobody sees it.

You also need a content announcement strategy that connects your prospects to your content. This is where LinkedIn shines. Here are some examples of ways to get the word out:

• Send a direct message to all your contacts
• Announce your content to groups you've joined
• Use a status update to announce your content
• Create your own group and provide value
• Do a Poll and let everyone know the results

Even though all of these are possible with LinkedIn, many companies don't take advantage. Why? Because it takes time -- Time that small companies don't have. Plus, it does take some specialized knowledge so, 

Typical Lead Generation Results

This is all nice, but does it work? I'll share the actual metrics with you from a LinkedIn campaign we did internally in the fall of 2011. 

In one day, we got 15 leads. It kept growing, but we neglected to capture the graphs or I'd show you the rest. How many of you wouldn't love to get 15 quality leads a week -- Every week? These are typical results -- Not a special case.

For a large business, that's not enough, but for most smaller businesses, you'll quickly overwhelm your sales team.

Even better, these were very qualified leads. You can visit the Quickly Boost B2B Sales landing page. It's a good landing page, but a 50% conversion rate? The only way you get that high a conversion rate is to have great content and send very qualified traffic!

Here's another thing that happens. Your LinkedIn visitors will vote for your content. Good results confirm that you are solving their problems and delivering valuable content. Who do you think they'll call when they need your products or services?

The example below got 51 LinkedIn "shares" and 6 Re-tweets. The Twitter results came for free as we have our LinkedIn and Twitter accounts connected together. We weren't even focused on Twitter!

Inbound Marketing Takeaways

Use LinkedIn correctly and you can connect your prospects with your content -- Everybody wins.

• Know your prospects -- Be targeted.
• Create valuable content that solves your prospect's problems.
• Announce your content on LinkedIn. Let your world know.
• Track your results.

 

Inbound Marketing depends on two things -- Creating valuable content and driving traffic to your site. Great content is useless if nobody sees it!

It's a never-ending process. You have to constantly think of ways to increase traffic. Inc.com's article talks about the many platforms you can use to drive traffic to your site. You can brand your products or services, upload photos, create blogs or use social media.

They believe that social media actually drives more traffic to your site. In today’s modern world, everybody’s engaged with social networking. Promoting your products or services in social networks actually gives you more potential customers.

Another great fact about social media is that, people have the chance to like or even share information, photos or pages with one another. Let's say a customer likes your service and you have a social network page. What will likely happen is, that customer will "like' the page you've created and refer you to her social network friends.

Social networking is used by people to communicate and, what better way to promote your business, than let people talk about it? Just always remember never to take things for granted. Constantly challenge yourself to develop strategies to help you attract more site visitors. After all, more visitors mean more customers.

Read the full article: "How to Drive More Traffic to Your Website"...

Are you already using social networks? LinkedIn? Watch a video on how to get visitors to your site using LinkedIn. Then, when you're really ready to see your traffic grow, join our LinkedIn content promotion program.