Hubspot, a leader in Inbound Marketing, recently surveyed 644 companies to ascertain the state of both Traditional Media (print ads, telemarketing, tradeshows, etc.) & Inbound Marketing. As Hubspot defines it: “Inbound Marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a business and it’s products.”

This is part 10 of a 13 part series of blog posts that share bite-size portions of Hubspot’s overall report, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing.” If you’d like a full copy of the report, feel free to contact me by clicking here or search for the report by name on Google.

Looks like I’ll be spending a lot more time talking about Linkedin in the coming months. Although the network isn’t as large as Facebook, it clearly has the advantage when it comes to B2B models. The only place it takes a major hit is higher education and retail, which actually makes sense.

Personally I find Linkedin more complicated than Facebook, so I gravitate towards that tool. I suspect other small business owners feel the same way. However, if you have a B2B model, best to sharpen your online digital pencil and study up on Linkedin.

Blogging is going to be a good middle of the road tool for any online effective marketing plan, so long there’s a generous helping of long tail keyword research sweetening each post. If you’ve already been blogging for awhile, but aren’t experiencing good conversion rates, the content might need some help with a consumer analysis to dial in on what your target market is looking for.

 Click this button to Connect

Interested in learning more about how The Association can help you implement enterprise social media and Inbound Marketing? Visit my resources blog for helpful videos  or fill out a request form here.

Note: This is Part VII in an seven-part series I’m writing about Press Releases. Press releases are possibly an overlooked item in the enterprise social media toolbox, so I’m going to cover a few points and talk about how I’ve used them successfully for client campaigns.

Tracking Results: Where Performance is Measured, Performance Improves. A company considering a press release campaign, whether it’s 1 release or 10 releases, should have some way of measuring the results. Typically these results will be expressed in terms of visibility for certain keywords. When it comes to visibility online, one must pick one’s battles. Online that battle means showing up when people are typing in certain keywords.

Make sure whoever writes your press releases can give you a follow up report on what happened. How many keywords got your press release to the 1st page of Google, Yahoo or Bing? How many search engines featured the press release on the first page? How many other sites picked the release up? Your press release professional should be able to provide you with a formal report showing similiar numbers.

Pretty much anyone can write a press release and figure out how to get it distributed with today’s online tools. I’m not saying it’s hard to do. But pretty much anyone can paint an abstract oil painting too. The quality may be horrible…and typically you get what you pay for, so keep those two points in mind. Especially when it comes to investing in the long tail keyword research.

Ideally the best measure of success would be the sales results. But sometimes just better visibility or reputation management is the goal, so knowing those results are important. If your corporate social media campaign budget doesn’t allow for anything fancy, at the very least set up your own schedule to check keywords and record the results yourself. You might be surprised at what you find out!

Good luck and see you on the 1st page!

  Click this button to Connect

Hubspot, a leader in Inbound Marketing, recently surveyed 644 companies to ascertain the state of both Traditional Media (print ads, telemarketing, tradeshows, etc.) & Inbound Marketing. As Hubspot defines it: “Inbound Marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a business and it’s products.”

This is part 9 of a 13 part series of blog posts that share bite-size portions of Hubspot’s overall report, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing.” If you’d like a full copy of the report, feel free to contact me by clicking here or search for the report by name on Google.

Which online social network to use is a question that often comes up.  To some degree I don’t think it matters as it will help give your name exposure. But when it comes to customer acquisition, it appears clear that your business model is the determining factor.

Does your enterprise social media campaign include Linkedin and Facebook? Which one is the most effective for your business model?

 Click this button to Connect

Interested in learning more about how The Association can help you implement enterprise social media and Inbound Marketing? Visit my resources blog for helpful videos  or fill out a request form here.

Polly morgan visits the Canon Boot Camp in Prague

I figure that most people are pretty aware that there is a “generational gap” in the world of online marketing. Anyone over the age of 35 is probably having a tougher time understanding and shifting with the tides of marketing, as things go digital. There’s even a new name I heard that describes the younger set, “Digital Native.” It’s a great description.

But what about all us non-digital natives?

How do you understand something that you can’t really see or touch? Marketing online is a bit like being on a Ghost Hunter’s TV show. Talking to things that aren’t there, or are they? Is my marketing really working? I have a hard time even describing what it’s like for older marketers. But I finally came up with a description.

For many business owners who have had a website for the past few years, they understand the importance of having a presence online. However, they may be getting visitors and NO sales. Why is that? Weren’t we supposed to just build a website, and everyone would just show up and buy something? How come “someone” shows up, but they don’t take that next step?

Many “effective marketing plans” fall down right at that spot. Visitors arrive, and they are standing on the edge of a cliff, except they don’t see the chasm between them and actually signing up as an actual lead. If this is happening on your site, what you are missing is a conversion process. That conversion process is the virtual bridge between a visitor to one of your web presences, and actually buying something.

The first step of this conversion process is really understanding your target market. What do they need? What does your consumer analysis tell you about the people that would buy from you, if they could find you?

Are your website visitors falling into a chasm? If there aren’t any sales coming from your website or blog, but you have some consistent volume of online visitors, why yes, they are! That means the content of the site needs an overhaul, probably, as well as implementation of a conversion process.

Hubspot, a leader in Inbound Marketing, recently surveyed 644 companies to ascertain the state of both Traditional Media (print ads, telemarketing, tradeshows, etc.) & Inbound Marketing. As Hubspot defines it: “Inbound Marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a business and it’s products.”

This is part 8 of a 13 part series of blog posts that share bite-size portions of Hubspot’s overall report, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing.” If you’d like a full copy of the report, feel free to contact me by clicking here or search for the report by name on Google.

So you’ve started a blog and just don’t have the time to post frequently? Well, you’re in good company. The majority of companies surveyed blog weekly. The minority blog daily. Face it, it’s tough to come up with good, unique content.

We use a system I call Topic Optimized Marketing. While it does all the technical aspects right, like the utilization of long tail keywords, is also makes the implementation of a corporate social media plan easy. About as difficult as sending an email, once the content is created.

In other words, if you can log in to Gmail and send an email, you could use Topic Optimized Marketing. And so can all your employees or ghost writers. It even allows your customers to post stories and successes to your blog with the click of a button.

Worried about random posts and rants from customers? Relax. The whole system is moderated and only approved content appears on the system.

Regardless of what platform is utilized, the main thing is to create content and post it frequently.

 Click this button to Connect

Interested in learning more about how The Association can help you implement enterprise social media and Inbound Marketing? Visit my resources blog for helpful videos  or fill out a request form here.

Too much sheet…   

Each morning my wife and I, upon arising, make our bed together. For some unexplained but persistent reason, there is always a lot more cover on my wife’s side of the bed than mine. Every morning, for decades now, I’ve been going through bed-making training.

Each morning we make the bed.  My wife, being a tidy homemaker wants to be sure that the length the sheet hangs down is exactly even on her side of the bed as on my side of the bed.  This is in case Martha Stewart drops by.

Maybe some of you go through this ritual in your life. I’m resigned to it.  Here’s the conversation each morning as we make our bed.

“I need more sheet,” she says.

“You want me to give you more sheet?” I say.

“Yes.  I want you to give me more sheet.”

“I thought I had already given you too much sheet.”

“No. I want some more sheet.”

That’s how it goes.  Recently, we had a big breakthrough. Here’s how it went:

“You gave me too much sheet, Honey,” I say.

“You want me to take some sheet back?”

“Yes. I want you to take back that sheet.”

She smiles triumphantly.

“You can’t take my sheet, can you.”

“No,” I answer.  “There’s only so much sheet I can take.”

The only time I don’t get sheet from my wife is when we stay in a hotel. The maid makes the bed.

THE MORALE OF THE STORY IS….

If you want to get less sheet from your wife, take her on a trip.

(This story is rated by Flesch-Kincaid at 2nd Grade Level)

Hubspot, a leader in Inbound Marketing, recently surveyed 644 companies to ascertain the state of both Traditional Media (print ads, telemarketing, tradeshows, etc.) & Inbound Marketing. As Hubspot defines it: “Inbound Marketing is a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a business and it’s products.”

This is part 7 of a 13 part series of blog posts that share bite-size portions of Hubspot’s overall report, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing.” If you’d like a full copy of the report, feel free to contact me by clicking here or search for the report by name on Google.

If a company is going to expect new customer acquisition using organic search with the use of blogs, the best bet is to gear up for posting weekly as a minimum level of activity. Ideally a company would post multiple times per day, but often this isn’t possible for a new business just breaking into the brave new world of social media.

If you can move from posting monthly to posting daily, the chances of acquiring a customer through blogging increases by about 30%. I think that’s worth the effort!

Having trouble coming up with content? Get a long list of long tail keywords that are applicable to your activity, and base your campaign around those words. The list will give you ideas of what to blog about that people are actually searching for right now. When you do write articles, write long pieces on each topic you can break up into smaller posts. It’s easier mentally!

Already blogging? How do you come up with content for your  enterprise social media campaign?

 Click this button to Connect

Interested in learning more about how The Association can help you implement enterprise social media and Inbound Marketing? Visit my resources blog for helpful videos  or fill out a request form here.

Note: This is Part VI in an seven-part series I’m writing about Press Releases. Press releases are possibly an overlooked item in the enterprise social media toolbox, so I’m going to cover a few points and talk about how I’ve used them successfully for client campaigns.

The overall picture: Where do Press Releases fit? When I develop an online campaign, I consider short range, medium range and long range tools. In the case of a new business or product line, Press Releases can be an excellent short range tool for gaining visibility on search engines. But Press releases don’t last forever! So they must be followed up with medium range and long range tools that do have staying power. Social media and websites, for example. Blogging is another great way to feature yourself more permanently.

When I say Press Releases don’t last forever, I really mean they don’t stay on the first page of Google and other search engines. Of course, they are still online and can be found through search. There are a number of factors affecting how it shows up in search. Long tail keywords are a big one.

However, if you know your target market well, writing relevant content that will be popular should be fairly easy to do. If you’re not going to ask the actual people you’re writing for (or lacking the services of a market survey company), at least consider the kind of information you’d be interested in hearing. Or read articles written by others on the same topic to get some ideas.

By writing on relevant topics that are unique, useful and interesting, you’ll find the time, effort and money invested into a typically short-range, instant-visibility tool just might extend into a long-range visibility tool. We’re all busy getting the show on the road, so try to make each effort into an effective marketing plan count for the long term. Don’t brush off anything, be as thorough as you can considering the resources you have, then push it a little more.

Here’s to the success of your 2011 market development strategy!

  Click this button to Connect

Is the Internet working out for you? Is your website being found? Are the visitors you’re getting the ones you want?

A lot of people embraced the Internet and it’s promise of a new life with abundant cash flow. Most of us have gone through a huge learning curve to master new terms and technology to be able to "surf the web".  Then, we set up shop with our own website. We waited for millions of visitors to come by and make us millionaires.  But for a lot of people that never happened. Even worse, nobody ever came by their carefully thought out website. Bummer.

"Experts" we consulted told us that Google didn’t consider our site "relevant", hence the low ranking in searches.

Are you on page 3,563,295 on a Google search? Next to the guy who can show you how to recycle paper towels at home?

Being told you’re irrelevant you have only two options: get relevant or buy your way to the top with a Pay Per Click AdWords campaign.

A lot of people are gambling with their Pay Per Click campaign. The money for each click goes out fast but the results are not as stunning as they’d hoped.  One of our clients had a $10k a month Pay Per Click / AdWords campaign. He told us that two months before our campaign was to launch, he shut off his earlier Pay Per Click campaign. During those two months his Internet leads didn’t drop at all!  This convinced him PPC didn’t work. The truth is badly-done PPC doesn’t work. Just like a badly done web strategy doesn’t lift your "relevancy" in Google’s eyes. When we launched our PPC campaign he had 8.5% conversions in the first week.  So PPC can be done correctly, which makes sense because I don’t really think Google is trying to fleece everyone.

It’s kind of like Vegas.  Google has set up the game to reward those most relevant.  Whether you buy you way to the top with AdWords or earn your way to the top, you can win at the game. When you learn the game your odds of winning vastly improve.

Besides, shouldn’t we be relevant to our prospective website visitors? And if we’re not relevant shouldn’t Google label us as relevant? Google wants to help the "searcher" find their goal as quickly as possible. So, you have to be what they’re looking for or in Google’s eyes, you’re out.

You can address this issue or continue to "gamble blindfolded" on the web, wasting tons of money on a poorly thought out campaign that when it does bring a visitor to your site, they don’t convert. But you could make your efforts pay off. You just have to learn the game.

But you can have an effective marketing plan that works. Start with learning what a Long Tail Keyword is.