Online Marketing Archives - Page 4 of 8

18 November 2015

Planning for 2016: Inbound Trends & Patterns Worth Noticing

As 2015 rushes toward its close, it’s time to start planning for next year. Any business that hopes to succeed will include a marketing plan in their business strategy, but it’s not enough to just pay lip service to it. That marketing plan should be actionable, measurable, and focused on Inbound Marketing practices.

graph paper with rising bar graph and pie chart with 'plan' written on it — Photo credit: Violka08 / Thinkstock / 527478745

Not sure exactly what “Inbound Marketing” really means? HubSpot, the company who coined the term in 2006, refers to it as “the art and science of drawing visitors to your company on their own terms versus obtrusively pushing your messages onto them… [It] is the superset of quality content and other ‘magnetic’ tactics.” And their annual ‘State of Inbound’ Report is rather like the State of the Nation and the Farmer’s Almanac of marketing, combined. The 2015 report identifies trends and patterns worth noticing as you build your business plan for 2016, providing insights that are aimed at helping businesses improve top-line performance.

While I strongly encourage you to download and read the whole document, the State of Inbound 2015 Report has 54 information-packed pages, so allow me to give you a brief taste of a few key ingredients for your 2016 marketing success recipe:

“Getting found” is priority #1 (and #2 and #3) for high performers

When conducting its survey and analyzing the results, HubSpot focused on the segment of inbound marketers who generated positive ROI. They looked at these high performers to see if their priorities were different than those of low performers.

Pattern: They found that high performers focused on programs aimed at getting their content (and thus their company) found. Specifically, their top priorities, in order, were: Blogging, organic search, and content amplification. “Blogging appears to have the most substantial impact on performance.”

Inbound Marketing has become an important, cost-effective source of leads

Trend: In 2015, more than twice as many respondents cited inbound (45%) as their primary source of leads versus outbound (22%).

Trend: 84% of inbound marketers cite organic, “top of funnel” lead sources (social media, blogs, SEO, and email marketing) as rising in importance over the last six months. And the Sales team agrees that these four have become the most important, although they place a relatively higher importance on email marketing, whereas Marketing prioritizes blogs and social media.

Related patterns:

Organizations that source more leads through inbound tend to enjoy an ROI advantage.
Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI
While cost per lead was difficult to quantify, it was found that leads sourced through inbound programs were consistently less expensive than outbound leads. This held true regardless of company size.

Inbound is on the rise

Trend: The number of marketers who state they are practicing inbound rose from 60% last year to 85% this year, while the percentage of marketers who concede they don’t run inbound was nearly halved to 13%.

Trend: Inbound is not limited to Marketing. Sales, services, and other departments are starting to use inbound practices. Fostering an inbound approach outside the marketing department has the potential to be a big competitive advantage.

Measurement is essential

Measurement is “the first step in developing a plan and the last step in determining results. This is why data is such a central component of the inbound machine.”

Trend: Alignment between leadership and marketers has increased. This is likely due to an increase in the use of measurement and metrics to collect unbiased, objective data that can be used to drive informed decisions and set appropriate priorities.

Pattern: Marketers that measure inbound Return on Investment (ROI) are 17 times more likely to see the same or higher ROI compared to the prior year. While this data may be skewed by the fact that high performing marketers are more likely to measure results, “there’s a strong correlation between simply measuring ROI and achieving it.”

Pattern: Proven ROI has a significant positive influence on the size of the marketing budget. In fact, “past success with inbound” had a greater impact on budget than any other single factor.

Putting it all together to create a solid plan for 2016

It seems clear from the results analyzed in HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2015 that Inbound is an essential part of the marketing strategy and overall business plan for any organization. It has been proven to generate leads, lower the average cost per lead, and increase ROI. So, how do you put it into practice?

Include inbound programs in your marketing plan and earmark resources for them.
Focus on Content Marketing as a key component of Inbound Marketing. Useful, compelling content is necessary to drive Inbound success. “Content is the lifeblood of Inbound.”
Establish key metrics, and measure as you go.
Identify the projects, activities that are providing the highest return.

And above all, stay nimble. “Inbound is about constantly reallocating your resources based on performance.”

Does your organization “do” Inbound? Have you noticed any other trends or patterns?

3 November 2015

Do-It-Yourself Online: Yes or No?

They say that a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. In the case of building on the Internet, this is particularly true. What used to be infinitely complex to create is now made simple by a myriad of software platforms that allow almost anyone to build stuff online. For an online business, doing it all yourself can be dangerous.

Websites, e-commerce, and social media business pages are possible for any business, regardless of technical skill, to create, publish and update. Content management systems such as WordPress, e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, and social media for business platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook are inexpensive and easy-to-use for any commercial enterprise. Even the elements of design are handled through the availability of numerous templates where you literally fill in the blanks.

The question is; just because you can do-it-yourself, should you actually do it?

Thinkstock / iStock

The answer lies not in the technical execution, but in the effectiveness of your efforts. A website or online store that does a better job of turning people away rather than selling your products and services is perhaps worse than not having anything online at all.

Much of it boils down to the writing.

Writing for the web is both easy and hard. Let’s review both sides for some context:

The Easy

In some ways, writing for the web is easier than writing a lot of other business stuff, especially stuff for print. The difference is in the way people read online vs. the way people read offline.

Online reading is more like scanning. People are after something specifically when online, searching for information. Decisions need to be made as to whether the online reader is in the right place or not.

Because of this the writing should be simple and brief. Short sentences and paragraphs. Don’t make the reader work to figure things out. There is no shortage of alternative websites and online stores if your reader should they choose to leave you.

Most lay people overwrite when writing for the web. Maybe it’s not so easy.

The Hard

You would think the messages you are trying to convey online would be easy, but it’s not. It can be very difficult to get right.

The challenge is in writing for your readers and not yourself.

Your readers should be personified as “your ideal customer”. The more real you make this persona the more targeted and effective your writing will be. Describe them in detail; demographics, wants, and problems they are trying to solve.

Another difficulty is in leaning towards what you like to talk about (and write) instead of what your web visitor wants to read. Business people love to talk about their accomplishments and their perceptions of their businesses, like proud parents.

The writing perspective needs to be that of the reader and what’s in it for them. The reader is interested in themselves, their needs and problems. In reality, they are not interested in your company or the fancy features of your products.

Should you do-it-yourself?

This depends on how focused you are on your online message, your target audience and the behavior of online shoppers. You know your business, no doubt, but this does not guarantee success in building a website or an online store.

Anyone can get something up using WordPress or Shopify but there is much to consider in what you say and how you say it through these platforms. You needn’t be a journalist or a novelist to be effective — just convey the right message from the right perspective.

If effective online writing seems daunting, you likely need some help. Don’t risk being misunderstood. Prospective customers are too precious. Seek help from a specialist.

29 October 2015

The 3 A’s to Business Networking Online

Recently, I have been looking up different ways to maximize online strategies to connect with potential partners and networks. I mostly found that articles don’t explore as much the idea of social media as a networking environment and focus mainly on reaching the end-user. Now, when I say networking, I mean mainly to interact and connect with other businesses and services that will help you promote, distribute and eventually, generate sales. To help you remember what you need to consider when thinking of such a strategy, check out my 3 A’s to Business Networking Online.

Achievement

Every good strategy has a goal or an objective. This is what I call an achievement. Although, you have not yet achieved it, this is what you want at the end of your networking efforts.

Important to note, contrary to a B2C approach, you will not be speaking directly to the end user. You will be connecting with like-minded partners, peers and other parts of your industry. So what do you want to achieve at the end of it all? Here are a few examples of achievements you should work towards:

– Position yourself, or your organization, as an expert in your field

– Find partners that are willing to work with you to push your message or cause

– Generate leads to grow your distribution channels

Like any worthy destination, these achievements will take some time and effort to reach. Which also means your networking strategy needs to be on a longer timeline than a simple social media campaign to promote a new product or make a quick sale. Best to set achievement goals that will push you to connect, network and create relationships over both the short and long term, but remember that time will be required to gain significant traction. To find inspiration, and check out what other businesses might consider a priority, check out Scott’s article on a recent HubSpot survey: Only 8% of Sales Leaders Prioritize Social Sales.

Audience

When thinking about the audience you want to reach, remember that every company has individual people in it. This being said, your message needs to be focused to achieve your goal, but accessible enough to be noticed by a broader audience. Typically, it will be be an employee, community manager, or even a CEO, looking on social media for like-minded partners that will find you and initiate the conversation.

To start that process, you will need to decide, what part of your industry you want to network with and why. If we adopt the three goals listed above, this is what could be considered:

– Position your company in the industry: you will want to connect with researchers, experts, other companies that are pushing the development of your industry.

– Find like-minded partners: you will be connecting with potential competitors, associations, organisations, partners in other countries, companies that can collaborate or recommend you.

– Generate leads and grow your distribution channels: you will connect with other parts of your supply chain, partners in new markets you want to reach, prospective customers.

Creating a dialogue with these people and nurturing relationships builds a network for referrals, feedback, advice and industry/competitive information. In many cases, these contacts become more intimate than in typical B2C social networks, where the relationship can be more generic.

Avenue

Here, I am referring to the different channels, platforms and media that are available to you. From a social standpoint, the main ones to include are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Now within each of those platforms, here are certain avenues to consider for your networking efforts:

Facebook: Does your industry have any specific Facebook groups you should be apart of? If not, maybe you should be the one to create it.

Twitter: Are your industry experts, researchers and partners online? Do they participate in certain Twitter chats? Are they on certain lists? If not, you should perhaps host a chat to regroup your like-minded partners.

LinkedIn: What groups should you be in? What kind of messages are your peers posting? What kind of knowledge do they want to receive? Can you contribute in any way?

Forums: Does your industry have its own topic? If so, than find those forums and see what the conversation is all about. Can your company help find solutions in any way? How can you get involved?

And let’s not forget the offline avenues! Lasting connections can be initiated and nurtured online but often offline conversations will reinforce those relationships and help you generate leads or references. Here are a few avenues to consider:

Events: What events can you go to? Can you be a guest speaker or host a workshop?

Publications: What publications should you be in and how can you contribute a piece of information instead of a simple ad?

Direct Contact: What companies can you meet face-to-face with and how can you connect with them directly?

These suggestions based on the 3 As (Achievement, Audience and Avenue) are meant to serve as pillars when building your online networking strategy. To start your journey and add the right elements into your plan, include these considerations!

13 October 2015

Only 8% of Sales Leaders Prioritize Social Sales [New Data]

For seven years now, HubSpot has been polling business to get a sense of where is the State of Inbound: how prevalent is Inbound Marketing, how is business implementing it, what challenges are they facing, and how well is it working for them. Last year, HubSpot added salespeople to the survey in order to get a fuller picture of Inbound’s affect on both marketing and sales. This not only provides greater detail into the use and relevance of Inbound, it makes the report especially valuable with insight into the implementation and ROI of such tactics. One of the greatest impacts that I have witnessed in the process of assisting firms with integrating inbound tactics is the alignment of marketing and sales and ensuing collaboration between these (often divided) departments.

Overall, Inbound Marketing is gaining tremendous speed as more organizations (small, large and even non-profits) successfully adopt such a strategy. The survey found that three out of four marketers, from around the globe, have more faith in an inbound approach than outbound tactics. In fact, Inbound tactics are three times more likely to generate higher ROI. None of this is surprising to any experienced marketer who has been working with both inbound and traditional marketing tactics.

However, one of the findings that I found surprising is that social sales is still a relatively low priority for companies in 2015. For years we’ve witnessed the continued explosion of social media for private use, and how many companies (large and small) have leveraged social media networks to position or build their brand, extend their reach, engage with key markets and even grow trials and sales for products. With this track record I expected small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to start embracing social media and put more effort and resources into its development.

I certainly appreciate that closing more sales and developing an efficient sales funnel are top priorities, they are after all the lifeblood of any organization. But, if prospecting continues to be an issue for companies, sourcing more leads via social selling and using the networks to nurture these leads must be part of the -solution. (For some insight into effective use of social media on an ongoing basis, check out this article by Dave Auten: Social Media Marketing – How Much Time Per Day?)

Perhaps it is an indication that we are still in relatively early years of businesses’ strategic use of social media and other inbound tactics. HubSpot was one of the pioneers and now is a leader in the field, but new tools and marketing automation software are still being introduced at a rapid pace and adoption rates are just starting to catch up. So it is natural that, despite their wish list, organizations must prioritize their needs. There are fundamental and structural requirements that need to addressed first, before some of the implementation and prospecting processes can be refined.

Interestingly, when the State of Inbound 2015 survey probed deeper, all levels of the organization were not totally in alignment. This graph shows how Executive and VP/Director levels placed a higher priority on social selling than middle management and salespeople. This could symbolize that those at the top are starting to understand the potential value of social selling, and that some top-down influence may initiate more organizational involvement in social media. Perhaps next year’s report will shed some light on that trend and its effectiveness.

State of Inbound 2015 Survey — Quick Facts:

Conducted in June and July 2015
3,957 respondents (only one-third have an affiliation with HubSpot)
B2B, B2C and non-profits represented
52% earn less than $1M and approx 4% earn over $500M
48% have fewer than 10 employees and 6% have more than 1,000
Over 150 countries represented

9 October 2015

Do I Have to Say it 100 Times? The Importance of Repetition.

They say a young child needs to be exposed to a new food between 10 and 30 times to develop a taste for it. Ten to thirty times! And every parent of a toddler out there knows that Do’s and Don’ts – especially Don’ts – will be need to be repeated much more often than that before you have a hope of anything sinking in.

two toddlers using a tin can telephone — Image Credit: Alexander Shalamov / iStock / Thinkstock

“Don’t you dare throw that toy train! It’s not a ball! It’s too hard and heavy to throw!”

Again and again, until your patience is thinner than a Nano chip. “Do I have to say it a hundred times?! No throwing toys!”

But eventually, somewhere around the two-hundred-and-first time – or maybe the three-hundred-and-first; it’s unpredictable, and that’s all part of the fun – something happens… Your toddler picks up the toy train and looks like he’s winding up for a little league worthy pitch. You say it again as he grips it, at the ready, and… he stops. He looks at you. He says: “Heavy! No throw!” And he puts the train down gently on the carpet.

Your prospects (hopefully) don’t behave like stubborn two-year-olds, but they still need a little – maybe more than a little – repetition thrown their way before a marketing message will sink in. Even a brilliantly clever message. It will almost certainly surprise you to see how many times you need broadcast your message in order to truly engage your audience. So borrow a page from the parenting handbook, and say it one, two, twenty, or maybe even a hundred times.

Now, I’m not advising you to be boring or annoying. You will need to mix it up a little. Not the core message – that should remain consistent and faithful to your key value proposition. Just the style or way of conveying the message, the visuals that accompany it, and the media and means used for delivering it. The same fundamental message and benefits can be conveyed and repeated through:

– Blog posts

– Social media

– White papers and how-to guides

– Articles in relevant trade publications

– Ads (online and print)

– Email marketing and drip campaigns

– Direct mail

– Trade show displays and promotional give-aways

– PowerPoint presentations

– And perhaps most importantly, the central hub of all your marketing efforts: your website

Be sure to adapt your central message to each format or media. Blog posts, ads, and trade show displays need to be brief an on-point, whereas articles, white papers, and even presentation give you room to elaborate on the benefits and value you offer.

It is also recommended to tailor your key message to each target audience. While the same essential message may be applicable to all of your audiences, they may have different priorities. Different benefits and relevant examples will resonate better than a generic message. But I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: a good message bears repeating. It truly is the best way to drive it home.

So if you feel like you’ve been repeating yourself endlessly and no one is listening, make sure you’re varying the elements mentioned above, and then hang in there. Keep going. Because just when you’ve convinced yourself you must be talking to a wall, you might hear a surprising sound: Your phone ringing. Your email or Twitter notifications chiming. Your message being repeated back to you in the form of a question at a networking event. Break out your best, strongest, tailored version of your message and go answer that call. Your future success is waiting.

7 October 2015

Traditional Tweeting: The Merging of Traditional and SocialChannels

Marketers have long known advertising is no longer a one-way street. The social world has meshed with the so-called “real world,” with text conversations acting as bridges between in person meetings. However, in advertising, we still treat “social” and “traditional” as two separate channels.

Recent data indicates that the bridge between traditional and social has spread— at least when Twitter and TV is concerned. This means content strategies might be changing in the very near future to reflect consumers’ multiple screen habits.

In a world where personal video recorders, Netflix, and streaming are commonplace, it can be easy to think that TV is on rocky ground. However, there’s still nothing quite like watching an event the day it airs and talking about it with your friends. Twitter makes these conversations easy and real time, providing brands with a unique opportunity to engage with an influential audience.

Hashtag integration with live shows is slowly becoming commonplace. This season of So You Think You Can Dancedecided to give Twitter the power to save two dancers out of the bottom six, with the judges saving another two.Face Off, a competition reality show based around special effects makeup, has Twitter handles for the contestants. TLC often airs repeats of their programs with added Twitter commentary to show viewers’ reactions.

So what does this mean for brands? A lot, actually.

According to Adweek, 19% of people will consider trying a brand that engaged with them around a TV program. On top of this, 4 of 5 users active during primetime hours mention brands in their tweets.

Instead of simply having to rely on catchy commercials and jingles to gain traction, brands can now have genuine engagement between viewers around TV shows. Social media allows for unprecedented interaction, and conversations no longer have to rely around branded messages.

Facebook is catching on this trend, too. They’ve recently offered viewers three new ways to interact with their favourite TV shows, trying to compete with Twitter as being the go-to television social media. Whether or not these features pan out for companies is yet to be seen, but it could potentially further integrate traditional and social media into a single, indistinguishable whole.

Other media is almost certainly going to follow suit, with the availability of sharing and contributing to news articles online and augmented reality continuing to make strides. Marketers should think less in terms of “traditional” and “social,” instead viewing all media tools as complimentary tactics. The social world is here to stay and continues reinventing how we interact with the world around us. Those who ignore the shift will almost certainly be left behind.

29 September 2015

3 Tips for Using Stock Photography Appropriately

As of late, the use (or misuse) of stock photography has been much talked about in the media. The Conservative Party of Canada has come under attack for what some feel as an inappropriate and/or ill-informed use of stock photography.

So, aside from the legal aspects involved in using stock photography (including: licensing agreements and assigning credit to photographers) what are some important things to consider before using stock photography?

Credit: ThinkStock / tanjavashchuk / 479767450

Stock Photography Tip #1: Consider Your Audience and the Context of the Message

As with any marketing endeavour, in order to be effective, we must consider to whom we are speaking, what we are trying to get across, and how our market will interpret it. Visual storytelling works the same way, and you have to be particularly careful when using stock photography. As in the case above, you can end up offending your audience and casting yourself in a negative light.

In order to be successful, you must be sensitive to the needs, values, and beliefs of your audience. Take time to perform the research necessary on your audience and on the content you are planning on placing in your ad before allowing it to go live.

Lastly, if you have the resources, testing it against your market in a focus group or otherwise might be a wise final check.

Stock Photography Tip #2: Be Careful to Stay on Brand

It can be a challenge to stay on brand when using stock photography, as you are limited to the vision the photographer had at the time of taking the photograph. For example, you might find a photo that captures the right kind of person with the perfect expression, but the lighting in the background of the image is foreboding, while the message you’re trying to send about your brand is a cheery one.

Finding a piece of stock photography that fits in perfectly with your brand and message can be a challenge, but it is worth getting it right to maintain the integrity of your brand.

Stock Photography Tip #3: Strive to Maintain Authenticity

There is a lot of good stock photography out there. However, sometimes even the best stock photography can come off as less than authentic and genuine. People can appear too posed, with overly polished expressions, and are often found standing beneath unnatural, fluorescent lighting. If you want your current and potential customers to trust you, you need to establish and maintain a sense of authenticity.

People (young people, in particular) have become incredibly savvy and are able to detect and then distrust and even ridicule what they feel to be phony, posed photography. There are even contemporary celebrities who make fun of the truly terrible stock photography out there.

Also consider: is it even authentic for your brand to use stock photography at all? Many brands, depending on a variety of factors such as their target demographic may eschew stock photography altogether. The Instagram Generation in particular (i.e. Millenials and Gen Z) is one for which you should exercise caution when opting to use stock photography. This generation expects to see and responds positively to natural, organic-looking photography. Further, they can often tell when stock photography is being used and might not respond the way you would hope.

BONUS: Hire a Professional Photographer

When the budget allows, it is of course ideal to use a professional photographer. You have a much greater chance of successfully communicating the message you want to get across to your audience and getting the response you want. A professional photographer will work with you to help ensure you reach your goals, ensuring every detail works together to achieve the intended results.

24 September 2015

Using Growth Driven Design to Make Existing Websites Perform

With consumers (B2C and B2B) using the Internet to research or validate purchase decisions, your website is a critical component to your marketing and sales process. Yet many companies are still treating it as a digital brochure — it is a passive information piece and not playing an active role in engaging with your market and converting leads. Just as you require ongoing reports and communication from your sales team, you should expect the same from your website. And just as you expect your sales team to adapt and respond accordingly to meet their goals, so too should your website.

Your Website is a Marketing Investment

Like every other business investment, you should have set goals and be measuring the ROI of your website. This process of ongoing stewardship and incremental changes in pursuit of realizing your goals is often referred to as Growth Driven Design. Like many buzz words or trends, it is simply common sense.

You don’t have to start with a whole new website (however, you aren’t going to get good results with a poor website, so consider starting from scratch). The first priority in putting your website to work is establishing what it can do for you. Determine how it fits into your marketing and sales process and what roles it can play to make that process more efficient and effective.

Then quantify those roles into achievable goals and determine what metrics you will track to monitor progress. You will, no doubt, have to upgrade parts of your website so it can do the job you expect of it. For example, if one of your goals is to gain 10 qualified leads per month, your website will need the tools to attract and engage your market. Such items would include strategically written content (for both engagement and SEO), relevant and compelling photos and videos, on-site call-to-actions, landing pages and forms, information and downloads with perceived value, etc.

Monitor activity on your website on a regular basis. (So if you haven’t already, set up Google analytics. Marketing automation software such as HubSpot and SharpSpring provide additional tracking information.) Plan on continuous (at least monthly) changes to add and fine-tune the items listed above to improve performance and build on your successes.

Growth Driven Design Structures Continuous Improvement

This ongoing process of attentive and responsive activity is the foundation of Growth Driven Design, and it works effectively on existing websites as well as new. Focusing on incremental change for steady gain is a strategic approach to increasing your website activity and developing sales.

Companies are typically slow to fully understand and effectively implement new technologies. The Internet has evolved at such a dramatic pace that playing catch-up every 3-5 years with a new website means you are perennially out-dated. That didn’t matter as much ten years ago, but now that your web presence is becoming one of your most valuable assets, you can’t afford not to pay continuous attention to your website.

What are your thoughts? How do you feel a website could profit from ongoing change?

8 September 2015

Back to School: Content Generation 101

While some schools started last week, it is today that the majority of our kids are headed back to school. In honour of this occasion, today’s blog post is all about continuous learning on how to create great content and how to ensure that your best content keeps working for you. So, whether this is new to you or you are simply seeking a refresher, let’s head back to school for Content Generation 101.

tablet surrounded by broken pencils with "back to school" written on it like a chalkboard — Photo: Thinkstock iStock / nito100 / 506210469

What are Content Generation and Content Marketing?

Content Generation is an essential step in generating online traffic to your website, and in nurturing prospects into becoming customers and advocates of your business. Content Marketing is the practice of creating content that people actively seek will out to help them, amuse entertain them, or otherwise provide value to them. Useful content will be shared, which further benefits your business by increasing its reach and extending your influence.

Develop a solid content strategy

As with any marketing effort, the best way to be successful at content generation is to start by developing a strategy.

Set objectives: What are you hoping to achieve? What are your business goals?
Identify your audience: Who are you trying to reach? What interests them the most? Which of their pain points can your business address?
Pinpoint the fit: How do your products or services fit the needs of your audience? What content can you create that will resonate with them?

Create a plan and editorial calendar

An effective content generation plan will start with the objectives and strategy you’ve set (see above), and set out the tactics and steps required to make it happen.

Aspects of the plan: Some of the most effective tactics includes blogs, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media.
Types of content: Create a range of content of varying depth, including blog posts, infographics, website content, newsletters, and white papers.
Develop an editorial calendar: Building a list of topics and ideas well in advance will help to make content generation less daunting and make it easier to keep up with a steady flow of blog posts and other marketing assets.
- Decide what your key messages are.
- Identify topics that reflect this message and that are consistent with your overall company brand and objectives.
- Monitor news and trends in your industry, and cover these topics in a way that is meaningful to your target market and pertinent to your business offering.
- Set a calendar identifying these planned topics and the dates you will publish posts on these topics. This will keep you organized and on track.

Focus on Quality

Once you have the content generation machine in motion, it is easy to veer off track in the quest to churn out frequent content. Don’t lose sight of your primary business objectives, your key message, or your value proposition. High quality, useful, relevant content is critical to steer a steady stream of prospects to your website, and to convert them into qualified leads, then into happy customers and advocates. Consider the things that will interest your audience, educate them, or make their lives easier, and marry those up with the benefits and unique features of the products or services you offer. Connect the dots for your prospects, and provide them with useful information.

Attract and Nurture your Audience

For a content marketing strategy to be effective, your content has to reach your audience, draw them into your website, and nurture them through your sales process. If you’ve followed our advice on creating and implementing an editorial calendar with frequent generation of useful content, the hard part is done. Our last recommendations focus on propagation of your content:

Make sharing effortless: Now that you are regularly creating terrific content, you want people to share it far and wide. Make this as easy as possible by:
- Publishing your content in accessible formats (for example, .pdf, .jpg, mobile-friendly web content, YouTube videos, etc.)
- Including social media sharing buttons, so that sharing your content is a simple click away.
But keep some of your deeper or more focused content “guarded” to guide people through your sales nurturing process. In other words, keep some content accessibly only by filling out a form on your website. This lets you see who has downloaded specific content and gives you an opportunity to collect a bit of information about them and their interests – knowledge that will allow you to continue to nurture the relationship.

Content Generation is something all businesses need to do in order to stay relevant, to continually draw new prospects to their website, and to convert them into loyal repeat customers. We hope our Content Generation 101 post has given you a head start on creating meaningful, interesting content for your business. And now, school’s out for today!

3 September 2015

Three Truths About Inbound Marketing (that they don’t want you to know)

With some of the claims being made by online marketers, you could be forgiven for thinking that you can ramp up your business quickly and easily. The truth is that marketing automation is not easy, success does not just happen, and unicorns don’t really exist. (Actually, I’m not totally sure about the last one, however, I have sufficient first-hand experience to attest to the first two.)

Can inbound marketing tactics gain new clients and grow your business? Absolutely. But, let’s take an honest look at the reality of inbound marketing.

Just because it’s online doesn’t make it cheap.

True, there is no print cost or physical distribution required. Definite cost savings. But there are hard costs involved in SEO, PPC, Google AdWords, etc. Keep in mind that a considerable amount of time is required to write strategic content and effectively implement a content marketing campaign (blogs, social media posts, white papers, infographics, video interviews, press releases, etc.). And, the knowledge and experience to develop and execute an inbound marketing strategic to attain your goals is most likely a skill set that you don’t have in-house.

So it may well be cheaper than traditional methods that you’ve used in the past, but it is still an investment that needs to be budgeted for.

It’s not a quick fix.

Remember how you used to be able to buy a bunch of radio airtime and some newspaper ads and you’d see an immediate increase in interest and lift in business? That was exciting, and the cause and effect relationship was easy to understand. Traditional methods aren’t as effective anymore because buyers and their methodology have changed. They do their own research prompted by their own desire to buy when they are so inclined. Buyers often seem impervious to broad-based advertising and companies are having a hard time understanding that. (There are of course exceptions, consult your marketing physician to see if it may have application for you.)

Buyers are better informed and looking for guidance, even a relationship, to warrant their purchase. You earn their trust and loyalty by understanding your market and providing value-ridden content, quality service and solutions relevant to their needs. The tables have turned and consumers are now in control of determining and satisfying their desires. So simply broadcasting about your product/service and how wonderful it is falls on deaf ears unless they are ready and willing to listen.

Strategic content generation weaves keywords into compelling stories and informative articles so that those looking for your solution will find it and desire it. Doing this well gets a little complicated and there are myriad tactics and techniques used along the process to nurture these potential customers and earn their purchase. Rather than being a quick fix, it is more of a sophisticated, long-term approach to building sustainable business.

Having just explained that inbound marketing is not a quick fix to drive new business, I must acknowledge that online paid advertising can certainly create results quite quickly. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) does form part of the online marketing mix; however, to be effective it needs to be part of a strategic campaign that requires planning, research, as well as consistent and concerted effort to deliver successfully. Just sayin’ that it will take more time and money to provide actual sales than many online marketing companies claim.

Not anybody who can use Facebook is an inbound marketer.

Spending time online and understanding social media is a plus when it comes to online marketing tactics. However, familiarity only goes so far. My neighbour is a surgeon, but I’m not going to let his 20 year old son who “watches surgery shows on the Discovery Channel all the time” operate on me. I’ll choose his dad who spent years at university learning his skill and has lots of experience, thanks very much. You may be less fussy about the health of your company than your own, but I think you’ll agree that trusting experts makes more sense.

Inbound marketing involves understanding your market and their psychological make-up, creating keyword lists and fine-tuning SEO and SEM, paid advertising campaigns, developing and modifying strategy, writing different types of content, gathering and interpreting data… it’s a long list of skills and expertise and no one person could possibly master. It takes a team to stay up-to-date on many of these tools and have the wherewithal to plan and implement a successful strategy. Point is, don’t trust just anybody, even if the price is low and they promise so much. (Like really, how many times will you make this mistake?)

So yes, I obviously believe in the power of inbound marketing and feel that it is a necessary marketing component to grow your business. My caveat is that it is not a magic solution that brings results without spending time and money. Like any investment you should be wise and implement your online marketing in a strategic manner that will truly benefit your company. Look beyond marketers’ claims and ensure you are working with a qualified resource that is truly concerned with your long-term growth.

Further Reading:
3 Ways to Spring Clean Your Blog
How to Find Your Ideal Client
7 Common Dangers of Social Media Illiteracy to Your Business