Posted by Patrick Murphy on Fri, Mar 05, 2010
Asking the question ‘what part does Inbound Marketing play in your business?' or even one step back ‘what part does your website play in your business?' is like asking the question ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg?' I can say majority of the business owners I speak to respond that their website is their business. The website is the only form of marketing and the only way for them to generate new clients. However somewhere along the conversation the value of the website starts to decrease. I don't know if it's the thought of investing any more money into the fancy site with lots of pictures that took months to build or it has to do with the lack of knowledge on what inbound marketing is and how much potential the website can hold by optimizing the site in all the right ways in order to make it a revenue generating machine.
So let's just lay all the cards on the table. If you can say yes to the following:
1. Your website is your shop front door
2. You have no budget to be doing any type of marketing or you have found various marketing methods in the past extremely ineffective.
3. You are not meeting your revenue goals as a business
4. You are not found on Google when searching for your products or services
Then...Unfortunately you need to hold your website at the highest caliber possible. The fact of the matter is, if you can't get found on Google, you are more likely not getting traffic to your site. And if you are not getting traffic to your site, then you are most definitely not getting any sort of tangible leads. And if you aren't getting tangible leads then you aren't generating a source of revenue for your business.
So if you are the business who's website is a billboard in the desert, then I recommend you seriously reconsider what status your website holds for your business, what potential you could leverage, and how you could put an end to the question - ‘what comes first, the chicken or the egg?'. Inbound Marketing is the key to your business if you have a website that was built to draw in visitors, generate leads, and obtain new customers.
Find out why you need to invest more time and money on your website and Inbound Marketing why Inbound Marketing could be the key to your business' success. Join us on Wednesday, March 10 to Learn from Google on How to Grow your Business.
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Sun, Feb 28, 2010
Before we start building your Inbound Marketing Plan, what is
Inbound Marketing? Inbound marketing is an overall strategy for drawing your target market to you rather than the traditional method of outbound marketing such as email marketing, telemarketing etc.
An Inbound marketing plan is the strategy that integrates various online resources and social media used together for a common goal for you and your company getting found online. The goal of your Inbound Marketing plan is to establish your company or business as the market leaders for the goods or services that you offer for your target market. The Lego pieces for your Inbound Marketing plan should be your website, your blog, social media, search engine optimization and link building or actually anything that can contribute to your online profile.
To help you build your Lego Inbound Marketing Plan, here are a few tips to start with.
1: Select your keywords. Try to identify the most valuable keywords that apply to the services or goods that you offer.
2: Develop your content or blogs specifically around your chosen keywords. Your keywords should be able to give you some guidance as what to write.
3: Try to consider a framework or network to distribute your relevant content that is optimized for your keywords. You should consider a Facebook fan page, Twitter or Linkedin
4: Try to keep it fresh, constantly develop new and fresh content that is optimized for your keywords.
These tips are only the foundations for you Lego Inbound Marketing Plan. While this might seem overwhelming at first so concentrate on the first parts and build from there according to your time and resources. With a correct Inbound Marketing Plan you will be amazed at what a couple of months of devoted time and effort will produce. Some say that Inbound Marketing can be the missing link to successfully using the Internet and Social Media to build your business.
What do you think?