Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Aug 03, 2010
Inbound Marketing is based around people finding you and not through advertising so how are companies using technology to give them online inbound marketing advantage? Most companies should use or plan to use inbound marketing as an opportunity to engage or up sell existing clients their products and services. There is no doubt that Inbound Marketing is attractive to companies as there is less clutter and improved ROI.
Inbound Marketing is growing and growing fast as there is growing consumer impatience with the volume and irrelevance of outbound communications. The opportunity to enrich the experience and the added opportunity to reinforce the brand, make inbound marketing a compelling marketing solution.
Technology is growing with Inbound Marketing as technology provides tools that allow marketers to plan, test, and execute programs. Companies today need the ability to design, plan, and simulate inbound marketing campaigns before making them operational. Inbound Marketing software such as HubSpot provide technology and interfaces that enable business users to define messaging strategies, apply testing scenarios, monitor results, and make changes as they see fit.
When selecting technology to help you with Inbound Marketing you should keep the following points in mind.
Adopt a mindset of proactive engagement. The goal of inbound marketing should be to provide the best possible experience, not just to make a sale. Smart marketers view the role of the inbound channels as an opportunity to establish an emotional connection with the customer, build trust, capture information, and where possible deepen relationship.
At SiliconCloud we suggest HubSpot as one solution that enables your company to create, optimize & promote your content. Once your content is developed HubSpot goes further to capture, manage & nurture leads to win more customers while enables your company to make smart inbound marketing investments that get results.
Still unsure of what inbound marketing strategy to use for your company take advantage of our free inbound marketing workshop.
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Wed, Jul 14, 2010
You have a Social Media or Inbound Marketing strategy but what questions or goals should it answer. Go through every point below and see does your strategy answer them or at least send you in the right direction.
First look at your social media and inbound marketing competitive landscape to see what works and what should be avoided.
- What is the competitive landscape for companies or products like yours?
- How are people researching for companies and products that you offer?
- How are they finding your company or products online?
- Will their habits change with the increased mobile adoption of smart phones?
- What are your primary competitors doing? Does it seem to be working for them?
Second question for your Inbound Marketing and Social Media strategy is to establish and research the value your target market.
- What percentage of your target market can you reach online?
- Compared to other forms of media how does the cost of a social media or inbound marketing strategy compare?
- If you are to look at the total target market what percentage can you reach online against offline?
- Can you increase the customer lifetime value with an online strategy against that of a traditional marketing strategy?
- Are there new markets that could be available to you online?
Any social media or inbound marketing strategy needs to drive revenue or business growth. Your strategies success comes down to what you put into it. So spend time reviewing any potential cost savings.
- Can inbound marketing or social media channels take over for more expensive offline channels?
- Are there ways in which your social media or inbound marketing strategy can cut time or expense from customer service or lead generation?
And finally never forget about measuring and recording, so as part of your final review of your social media or inbound marketing strategy look at what success is to you and your company.
- What are the measures and metrics of success for your company?
- What are the metrics that will be used by marketing for each marketing and social media channel, audience growth, engagement, etc?
- What are the measures that will be used to show business level performance?
Without these questions and answers social media and inbound marketing can get very hard. What are the questions your social media strategy answers for you?
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Wed, Jun 02, 2010
Inbound Marketing should sometimes be viewed like picking up a date in a bar. In many ways they are very similar, you have neither heard of each other but as she/he is eying up your html code and you eyeing up the possible lead, the basics stay the same. Here we have outlined just some of similarities.
Inbound Marking Pick Up Basic No 1: Survey the territory or the internet. In the same way you would check out the bar and figure out the best location to plant yourself. The same should go with the internet, pick the best keywords that you want to be found for. Do your research as what keywords will attract the most relevant visitors to your area of the bar/internet with inbound marketing.
Inbound Marking Pick Up Basic No 2: Who is your target. When entering a bar you might scan the bar to see who catches your eye. Inbound Marketing is no difference you should already know who is your type and how best to attach and engage with them through inbound marketing.
Inbound Marking Pick Up Basic No 3: Let them know you are there. Before approaching her, try and signal your interest by catching her eye. Your website and inbound marketing strategy needs to attract them. Avoid having a disappointing or overly flash website sometimes it is the simple things that works best but have something to attract their attention.
Inbound Marking Pick Up Basic No 4: Offer her something. In a bar it might just a drink by asking her what she's drinking and if she's almost finished, if she'd like another one. Take the same strategy to your website and inbound marketing, offer something. It could be a whitepaper or free trial but it should be something.
And after all that it is up to you now to take that lead and move it on to the second date. To help you secure that phone number, SiliconCloud are running free webinar today on how to make the most of your website and increase your conversion rate. You can read more here: Website Workshop
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Jun 01, 2010
For inbound marketing, your website and the world cup it is a simple answer, it needs goals. Imagine a world cup where the teams ran around with no intention of scoring any goals. Worse than that, where eleven men are sent out on to a football pitch with no direction as to what they had to achieve. Really would not make for a very successful football team. Well your inbound marketing strategy or website needs similar direction or goals as to what you want to achieve.
With inbound marketing and website design you sometimes have to think about your goals and what you want to achieve before anything else. Your goals for your website and inbound marketing can lead to very different approach to your planning, design, and promotion. We have come up with two basic goals your can have for your inbound marketing and website.
First Inbound Marketing strategy or Website goal: Your website is not the end it should be the starting point. Maybe all that is required from your website is simple information about your company, your products or your services. Your website could simply be a website to provide your clients or your potential clients with information. Remember Inbound Marketing starts with someone asking a question or looking for more information.
Second Inbound Marketing strategy or Website goal: Most company's goal is for simple lead generation and if this is the case then try to view your website as part of advertising strategy. While it is fine to provide information on your website you should look to take it a stage further and find ways to engage for the purpose of generating leads.
When thinking about inbound marketing and your website these should be just the starting point for your strategy. Regardless of why or what your inbound marketing or website goals is make sure you have one and stick to it. To help you along, SiliconCloud are running a free webinar this week on how to make the most of your website. You can read more here: Website Redesign.
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Thu, Mar 11, 2010
Interesting question on what is the Secret to Inbound Market or is there a secret to it? What makes some companies succeed at inbound marketing and some companies fail. Inbound marketing is about people finding you and your company which yes can be said for most marketing. But Inbound Marketing is more focused on people coming across you and your company either though Google or maybe social media. The principle is that they are looking for what you are offering and find you! This is against the traditional outbound marketing. For example, years ago while in New Zealand I did some outbound sales and never once did anyone say "Hey, I was just looking for a new telephone provider". I had to introduce or push myself into their life, and this is outbound marketing. Whereas Inbound Marketing is people finding me and saying "you are just what I am looking for."
So what is the secret of Inbound Marketing? Luckily enough there is a secret and it is not too hard but it does take time. You need to know what you want to achieve and who else is in the race. What do I mean about that? Think about your school sports day as you line up to the starting line. First thing you do is to look around and eye up the competition. It is not different for Inbound Marketing as the secret to Inbound Marketing is to know who your competition and how to beat them.
Therefore the secret to Inbound Marketing is to know who your competition is. Yes this is very important as without any research it is very difficult to build any type of Inbound Marketing Strategy. You may find your competition is a larger company than you but that does not mean you cannot win and succeed. Inbound Marketing comes down to using your brains and not your wallet to win, so let's be cleaver. And figure where your strengths lie and what are your competitor's weak points. Once we know that then we can go ahead a build a winning Inbound Marketing Strategy.
To help with your secret to Inbound Marketing, SiliconCloud are offering a free competition analysis. Click here to register, Inbound Marketing Strategy.
What is your secret to Inbound Marketing?
Posted by Naylla Kassam on Tue, Mar 09, 2010
Have you had to cut back and trim the fat on your inbound marketing or general marketing plans? Like many companies, budgets have been cut and marketing has taken a hit due to the lack of success in various costly marketing activities. Understandably so - direct mail, telemarketing, tradeshows, and newspaper ads tend to be very costly and have poor conversion rates. These outbound marketing tactics are difficult to measure and have little success. So where can people on a marketing diet turn to for their quick fix, should it be inbound marketing?
You do not have to starve your marketing plans, just switch to the new low fat diet of Inbound Marketing. Inbound marketing is the new way of getting your company found, generating more leads, and converting more of those leads into customers. More importantly, inbound marketing is a lot more cost effective, with higher results, reaching to a larger audience, with measurable results. However, like any diet or self-improvement plan, you need to dedicate the time to eat right and exercise. This also applies to your inbound marketing activities; you need to dedicate the time, you need to create a routine, and you need to follow the plan in order to see results. It is the recipe for success for your company and your marketing activities. So get your inbound marketing strategy gym fit.
To be successful in inbound marketing, you need to follow the ingredients. That is to ensure you are getting found on the web through search engine optimization, create new and remarkable content and promote it through social media, capture your visitors through various calls to actions and landing pages, and a method to measure the results. To be fair, Inbound Marketing is not the "sea food diet" or should it be classed as the "see food and eat it" diet. In a short time you can see the rewards from your Inbound Marketing strategy.
Just like a diet, inbound marketing takes dedication, hard work, and measurable actions in order to see results! Google is a great example of how companies can do this. Join us on Wednesday March 10th and Learn from Google on How to Grow your Business.
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Mar 02, 2010
No matter who you talk to about Inbound Marketing everyone mentions how important your link building strategy is to your website. But what happens if you are completely new to inbound marketing and for that matter the internet. At times is seems to could be easier to find the missing link that rather than link building. Unfortunately if you are a new website or looking to increase your traffic you need links to develop any sort of search engine traffic or visibility.
Why do we need links or a link building strategy? Well links pointing to your website can help you have your site indexed and in turn will help you to start ranking in Google for your keywords. Then these keywords will send more visitors searching to your website and allows you gain a new visitor which should turn into a lead and from there into a customer.
For all the new websites out there here are some "link building tips" or "link building strategies" that should help your Inbound Marketing Strategy.
First Link Building Tip: This should always be first, submit your website to web directories. It can take some time, going from directory to directory. By the way Google and Yahoo cover the majority of website users!
Second Link Building Tip: Use your social media profiles. Take Linkedin for example it allows you to insert a link to your website on your profile page. So sign up to the main social networks which allow you to insert a link to your website on the profile page. Where possible try to use a username that brands your business or you as a person. This will become very useful for your Inbound Marketing Strategy when you decide to promote your business and website via social media in the future.
Third Link Building Tip: Bookmark your own website or blog. Most social networks such as Digg have the ability to bookmark your content and your blogs. Often these are crawled by search engines and their links will help you get your site indexed.
Fourth Link Building Tip: Leave your comments on other people's blogs. Start commenting on relevant blogs and or popular websites that are in your field. But do not spam for the links but look to build a relationship with them and other bloggers. Try to write relevant comments that add value to their site and blog.
By the way this is not a complete list just some methods to start your Inbound Marketing Strategy or you Link Building Strategy.
What else do you have to add?
It is no surprise that Google is the number one website, we are running a webinar on what you can learn from Google. So check out our next webinar on "How to Googlize your Business".
