So, you are considering starting a blog for your business or within your company. Congratulations! You are on your way to increasing your website traffic and building expert source credibility. Blogging for beginners can often become an overwhelming challenge to continue to create enough content to keep a consistent blogging schedule. However, one of the key resources that can be used in blogging for beginners is to leverage internal staff to serve as experts to [...]
Archive for inbound marketing
If you want an effective sales funnel, stop selling and start helping
Businesses spend a lot of time looking at how they can improve their sales funnel to shorten the time it takes to close a new customer. An article by Jeff Thull published a couple of years ago in Inc. Magazine, identified the primary challenges as awareness and perceptions. When you boil it all down, there are really only two reasons why people don’t buy: 1) They do not believe their problem is significant enough to [...]
3 things your marketing dashboard should answer
How good is your marketing dashboard at tracking the results and impact of your marketing programs on your company’s bottom line? In a National Association of Advertisers study published last week on MarketingCharts.com 64% senior marketers identified accountability as one of their top three concerns. It’s been our experience that too many marketers go wrong in not thinking through what activities deserve tracking and which are just providing noise. How to build a better marketing [...]
Why blog for your business? Because it will deliver for your bottom line
Businesses that are already blogging, know how much of an impact their blog is have on the business’ ability to attract visitors and generate leads. So for those who are asking the question why blog let’s spell it out. This past week I led a seminar on Blogging for Business and the value thought leadership provides a company. In the session we covered Why Blog, How to Blog and finally a better way to think [...]
INFOGRAPHIC: 12 reasons starting a blog for your business is a must
3 marketing strategies to increase sales
With infinite opportunities for your business to take advantage of to bring in more customers, the greatest challenge for sales leaders now is to sift through which of the marketing strategies to increase sales is best for their business. Although it may be hard for you to consider implementing new methods for your website, the three options listed below can give you concrete marketing strategies to increase sales. Bolster content marketing by writing relevant blogs [...]
Website maintenance: optimizing your blog content to build website traffic
There are a number of factors you need to consider for website maintenance. Does your site load quickly, is the content updated, are the pages intuitive and easy for your visitor to navigate? One factor that many forget to include in the mix is the need for ongoing optimization of the site’s content. Brands need to provide an easy to find and follow path for potential buyers searching for solutions they provide. Onsite SEO of [...]
How blogging for beginners will increase your site traffic
Studies show that blogging can have a significant impact on your websites ability to attract more traffic. If your blog is integrated with your site, even blogging for beginners can make a difference. Research released by HubSpot found that companies that have a business blog have: Writing a business blog creates fresh material for search engines and provides important content for inbound marketing. Blogging for beginners should spend time focusing on content related to your [...]
Of all the inbound marketing strategies which has the most impact?
I like to talk about the 5 disciplines of inbound marketing and how with a few practical tips businesses can use inbound marketing strategies to build to scale into their business and grow. So what is the number one strategy every business should be leveraging? If you guessed building traffic to your site, or getting ranked on Google you’re wrong. While these are important components of using inbound marketing strategies, traffic alone to your website [...]
Optimizing for targeted website traffic
The first rule of targeted website traffic that generates more leads and sales is more is not always better One of the greatest problems that companies try to solve in designing websites is how to attract the right kind of business. It’s great to get tons of hits to your site, but if you do not focus on targeted website traffic, your bounce rate will be high and you will not convert many leads. There [...]
Start with why | building an inbound marketing strategy that sells
The internet has changed the way buyers go about researching and making purchases. As little as 5 years ago companies generally held all of the information on their products and how they compared to the competition. These were the days when marketing’s primary job was creating collateral with pretty images, a brand promise, feature and benefit charts that every member of the sales team had in their briefcase. Today, this is just not good enough. [...]
Small business lead generation, how to jumpstart your business
Everyone has heard of Brand X. They’re the other guy. And how about Acme, made famous by Wile E. Coyote’s endless pursuit of the ultrafast Roadrunner (beep, beep!). OK, that last one may be in a cartoon, but it’s a very well branded one. Sometimes it seems like big companies have all the advantages. How can you help your company rise to that level of prominence in today’s speedy marketplace to boost small business lead [...]
3 signs it’s time for a website redesign
The answer to every digital marketing problem isn’t a website redesign. Sometimes all you really need is a refresh, some new content, a few new landing pages and maybe some more effective Call to Action buttons. But how can you tell if it is time to get moving on a complete website redesign. 3 signs that it may be time for a website redesign Making even simple copy updates requires complex HTML skills Today, there [...]
The Three E’s of what makes a good website
If you’re looking for an easy way to increase leads or sales with your business, the best way is to take advantage of the digital market with a well designed website. But what makes a good website? There are many company websites on the Internet that are too complicated and too cluttered for customers to understand. On the other hand, other websites are too dull and boring to catch the eye of the customer. In order [...]
The 3 part recipe for generating free website traffic for your brand
Search for “free website traffic” and Google will present you with 70.8 Million results. Try it and you will find hundreds of sites promising short cuts and quick fixes to generate all the traffic you could want. With so many returns promising easy solutions, why is anyone still looking to generate traffic? We should have all the free website traffic our server can handle. You’ve got that problem right, too much site traffic? Ok maybe [...]
Improving the sales process with a lead nurturing approach
The sales process can be broken into different stages or steps. At each stage your buyer has different needs and objectives. Businesses that recognize the difference and tailor their content and interaction to fit each stage will end up with a more efficient sales process and improve overall performance. The key is to take a nurturing approach to move the buyer through each stage to becoming a customer. The Suspect : Are there better ways [...]
The changing landscape of B2B lead generation tactics
If you were looking to develop a B2B lead generation program five years ago, you’d start by identifying where you could find your target audience. What trade shows did they attend? What publications did they read? Where could you purchase a list of their phone numbers, postal addresses or emails? With this information you could kick off a series of outbound marketing campaigns with print ads, direct mail, telemarketing, and trade show exhibits. These tactics [...]
3 inbound marketing strategies you should be using
The concept of inbound marketing is a relatively new term, coined by HubSpot’s Brian Halligan in 2005. At the moment, few businesses are taking full advantage of inbound marketing to convert their leads into real sales. However, inbound marketing strategies are especially effective for businesses that deal with longer cycles of research and knowledge-based products. Inbound marketers aren’t looking to buy the public’s attention with paid ads, direct mail or telemarketing. With inbound marketing strategies, [...]
Targeted lead generation doesn’t mean more of what has already failed
If doing more of the same and expecting different results is the definition of crazy – Then continuing to run the same targeted lead generation campaign over and over again without testing new approaches is a path to failure. …continuing to run the same lead generation campaign over and over again without testing new approaches is a path to failure A truly targeted lead generation campaign takes a step by step approach to bringing suspects and [...]
Tips for making social media marketing management easier
I was meeting with a client this week and discussing how she could leverage social media to engage customers and prospects, and drive more traffic for her business. She agreed that this would be a good idea but had concerns about how she could tackle the entire social media marketing management with the packed schedule she already has. Social media can be effective and efficient as long as you set objectives, priorities and leverage a [...]
How to create a more targeted lead generation program with 5 inbound marketing strategies
Targeted lead generation is a goal of most organizations trying to increase their sales. With the changes in digital marketing and social media, brands now have alternatives to traditional outbound marketing campaigns for lead generation. These inbound marketing strategies that can deliver qualified leads at 61% lower costs per lead vs traditional outbound campaigns. 5 inbound marketing strategies to develop a targeted lead generation program that will help you get found, engage, and convert more qualified lead [...]
Ideas to promote your business online using inbound marketing
So much has changed with the explosion of digital marketing and social media over the past few years. It’s forcing every brand to be smarter about where they invest their precious time and budget. Where do you start if you’re looking for ideas to promote your business online? Your prospects are spending more of their buying cycle researching solutions online. In fact, one study from HubSpot found that prospective buyers spend upwards of 70% of [...]
Fear of testing is killing your strategic marketing approach
Companies spend countless hours developing a strategic marketing plan to launch a new product or enter a new market. When it comes time to go live too many don’t build testing into their campaigns. Why not? If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my 15 plus years in marketing it’s that testing is the only way to achieve sustainable success. Even when you have something that has worked for years, times change, environments change, and tastes [...]
Do you know your prospect’s social media handle?
I saw a post written by Steve Olenski in Social Media Today that was intriguing. It’s 2012, Do You Know Your Customer’s Social Media Handle? In the article he quoted from a survey conducted by Axiom and Loyalty360 that provided some very interesting stats on data collection in marketing. 2% of respondents do not even capture name, address and email 14% do not track nor plan to track transaction data 40% have no plans to track basic [...]
Marketing strategies to increase sales
Developing online marketing strategies to increase sales is central for any business looking to grow. Before you start a new campaign or marketing activity, you need to step back and look at the big picture. What are your objectives? who are your best prospects? what are their needs? Setting goals and objectives before taking action will help you make smarter decisions on what is the right direction for your internet marketing plan. There have been [...]
My favorite free tools for social media
I frequently talk to marketing people at small to medium sized businesses and I keep hearing the same thing. They’re trying to leverage social media for their business, but are struggling with the time commitment it takes to execute a smart social strategy. Look for time saving applications wherever you can to make your job easier. There are some great paid tools you can purchase, but for anyone just getting started I thought I’d share [...]
Social media in an integrated marketing strategy
Social media offers a powerful tool to influence. But to make a real impact, use it within an integrated marketing strategy. I saw an interesting article on Bloomberg.com that talked about the shortcomings of Facebook’s F-commerce. (Gamestop to J.C.Penney Shut Facebook Stores ] Last year there was a lot of news about companies opening storefronts on Facebook. Now several of these retailers have closed them. Brands who have closed their Facebook storefronts included the Gap, J.C [...]
Essential guide to internet marketing
Internet Marketing in today’s business world is essential to establishing a strong base of customers and converting visitors into measurable sales. Whether your business is just getting started with internet marketing or you just want to brush up on the basics, we can give you a few pointers for setting up and implementing a successful internet marketing strategy in 8 basic steps: General words like “marketing” or “business” are too competitive, but if you focus [...]
Inbound marketing and social media success in 5 steps
It used to be that the only way to build visibility with potential customers was to undertake major outbound marketing campaigns with components including print ads, broadcast, direct mail, and event marketing. While these can still work, they take a significant budget to be effective. The good news, is that by using inbound marketing approaches with digital marketing and social media tactics, you have another way to be effective. Even better, if you’re willing put in [...]