Posted by Daniel Shlifer on Tue, Mar 30, 2010
Inbound Marketing Successes & Experiences Shared
Today's blog features a graphic design firm in Norwood MA and is an interesting Inbound marketing participant. My assessment is that this firm absolutely understands the movement from outbound marketing to inbound marketing and understands this from first hand experience. Like many business Peartree is and has been studying and experimenting with various internet marketing options. They have used SEO, sponsored advertising, blogging, social media and traditional marketing methods. Peartree graphic design's inbound marketing strategy, like many of us in the business world, has evolved over the past couple of years. They used to do "this and that" but learned that maybe they really need to "try this and that" instead. For the record, this is exactly why I created this inbound marketing blog series. It seems to me that with companies like Peartree willing to share these experiences, all readers can avoid mistakes that have been made by others. We don't all need to recreate the wheel.
I believe this graphic design firm is close to isolating a system that meets it's needs and budget. The important thing to learn from this case is their desire and efforts to learn and listen. Even more importantly, this company has shown to be willing to take risks and apply inbound marketing elements in an effort to grow.
Featured Business: PearTree USA Graphic Design
Business Name: Peartree USA
Business Web Site: www.peartreeusa.com
Business Location: Norwood, MA
Marketing Decision Maker: Kevin Poirier
Business Description: Graphic Design, Logo Design, Brochure Design Services
What are your current marketing activities?: Yellow pages, email marketing, Google Adwords & now business.com. We used direct mail in the past with some return success.
What is your primary marketing method?: Email marketing
What changes are needed (if any) in your marketing methods?: A more aggressive strategy with alternative methods and execution, analysis is front burner for us to understand what we need to focus on first.
Do you know what Inbound Marketing is?: Yes - Driving people to contact me and our web site.
What percentage of your marketing budget is applied to Outbound marketing? 30%
How are you measuring ROI?: We use tracking codes for all of our promotional activity so either direct mail, email marketing or web site coupons, we track any activity through these codes.
Have you ever executed a keyword development strategy?: Yes, we hired an SEO company about a year ago and that was part of the first steps.
How are you measuring your web site's traffic?: Google analytics
How are you measuring your web site's conversions?: We use a contact form for site conversions while we ask all inbound callers how they got our name.
What search engine strategy has been employed?: We started with a Google Adwords campaign and other than securing one good client, we haven't seen any impressive results. Last year we hired an SEO company to optimize our site with limited results. We are now trying business.com with the idea that we will receive more qualified traffic.
Are you using a blog? If so, how often are you posting a new article?: Yes, 2 a month but I know I need to do more posts. I have a hard time creating subject matter and don't really understand why a business will take any time to read random information about graphic design. I do understand that in theory, its an important tool and I will continue to develop my blog.
Who creates each blog article?: I do
Does your business have a Linked In account?: Yes - Kevin Poirier
Does your business have a Twitter account?: Yes - PeartreeUSA
Does your business have a Facebook account?: Yes
How would you define your lead generation system?: No specific software being used but we are researching options.
How would you define your lead tracking system?: Tracking (promo code) through inbound phone call records and contact form.
How would you define your lead nurturing systems?: I don't believe a newsletter would make sense for some of the same reasons I have trouble grasping the blog value. I do think I need to discover new methods of interaction.
Have you considered developing an Inbound Marketing Plan, if so, what are your challenges?: Yes - Driving qualified businesses to my site
On a scale of 1-10, how important is developing a focused inbound marketing?: 8
How soon do you plan on developing a better inbound marketing plan?: This has started as explained earlier.
What would be your first step in creating a better inbound marketing plan?: We are in the middle of investigating more complete Internet marketing solutions. Our biggest concern with some solutions is the costs to start the process. Some of the solutions we looked at involved migrating our site at a significant cost so we were then locked in to using a specific CMS. I don't like that idea.
Stay tuned for "Part 5" by subscribing to this inbound marketing blog.
Posted by Daniel Shlifer on Mon, Mar 29, 2010
Inbound Marketing Questions & Answers (Part 3)
This inbound marketing blog article is part 3 in a blog series I have created to help my subscribers, as well as all other interested readers, understand how others are using various inbound marketing elements.
Each inbound marketing blog posts features a different business and includes interview question and answers. In this specific inbound marketing blog article I have answered the interview questions myself. The thought was that I needed a point of reference for those readers with limited inbound marketing experience. This blog post can be used as a guide to certain inbound marketing standards that I believe should be established.
In my next blog, I will continue to highlight and provide interview results from other businesses that were kind enough to take the time to answer these questions. I think they should all help us in learning more about how to create the appropriate inbound marketing campaign. I welcome all comments, good or bad.
To become a featured business and share your inbound marketing experience: Let Us Interview Your Business.
Featured Business: Virtual Support Systems
Business Name: Virtual Support Systems
Business Web Site: www.virtualsupportsystems.com
Business Location: Sarasota, FL
Marketing Decision Maker: Daniel Shlifer
Business Description: Inbound Marketing Consulting, Search Engine Optimization, Blog Development, Social Media Development Through Software & Service Application
What are your current marketing activities?: Web site development & optimization, blog development, social media out reach, lead generation, lead tracking and lead nurturing using specific inbound marketing software.
What is your primary marketing method?: Inbound marketing or Internet marketing
What changes are needed (if any) in your marketing methods?: More aggressive or active social media involvement. Further development of all current inbound marketing activities will help generate more traffic and gain more traction on the search engines and blog subscribers. I also need to further develop my lead conversion strategies through closer traffic analysis. By better analysis, I will be better able to modify all my target marketing activities to achieve high conversion and close ratios.
Do you know what Inbound Marketing is, if so, please define in your own words?: Yes - I am in the inbound marketing business as an inbound marketing consultant. Inbound marketing is the process of creating a compelling offer, getting found, promoting the offer, analyzing the results and making the appropriate modifications.
What percentage of your marketing budget is applied to Outbound marketing vs. Inbound marketing? In 2009 it was 80% of all our marketing budget. It is now 100% as we terminated all outbound marketing activities.
What inbound marketing components are you currently utilizing?: Web site development and optimization, blog post creation, Twitter, Facebook and Linked In status updates, email marketing, lead generation, lead tracking and lead nurturing using comprehensive inbound marketing software.
How are you currently measuring ROI?: I am using an Inbound Marketing software application to generate, track, nurture all leads and ROI. This application monitors traffic, conversion of that traffic, blog subscriptions, social media activity and more.
Have you ever executed a keyword development strategy for your web site?: Yes, as part of my new inbound marketing application.
How are you measuring your web site's traffic?: Yes, Same answer as above coupled with reporting software from Web Position.
How are you measuring your web site's conversions?: Yes, my web site uses landing pages as part of creating compelling offers and converting traffic to leads so I am able to separate all landing pages and all offers and analyze leads generated from these pages as well as the blog and social media activity.
What search engine strategy has been employed?: We have created every web page with a specific keyword and message targeted. This also applies to each blog post and social media message.
Are you using a blog? If so, how often are you posting a new article?: Yes - 3 blog posts per week minimum.
Who creates each blog article?: Me
Does your business have a Linked In account?: Yes - http://www.linkedin.com/in/vssseo
Does your business have a Twitter account?: Yes - @SEMSEO1
Does your business have a YouTube account?: Yes - inbound marketing condition video
Does your business have a Facebook account?: Yes
How would you define your lead generation system?: I use lead generation software.
How would you define your lead tracking system?: I use lead tracking software.
How would you define your lead nurturing systems?: I use internal autoresponders and Mail Chimp email marketing software
Have you considered developing an Inbound Marketing Plan, if so, what are your challenges?: Yes, I am using a comprehensive inbound marketing solution and I would say my current challenges includes securing better search engine rankings, blog subscribers and a better conversion rate.
On a scale of 1-10, how important is developing a focused inbound marketing program?: 11
How soon do you plan on developing a better inbound marketing plan?: Started a complete inbound marketing program in January 2010. This was developed from an already existing search engine optimization applied over the past 2 years.
What would be your first step in creating a better inbound marketing plan?: Better social media strategies.
Posted by Daniel Shlifer on Tue, Mar 02, 2010
The Marketing Revolution & Your Online Marketing Strategy
One of my primary objectives as an inbound marketing consultant is to inform and educate clients and others, that we really are in the midst of a serious marketing revolution.
Although I will explain this in more detail, my message is simple:
Those business owners that don't recognize these many significant changes and react accordingly, will be passed by those that do. Changes like these simply can't be ignored or even placed on the shoulders of another. This particular marketing revolution calls for company leaders to be more involved in the new online marketing strategy process.The art and science of lead generation is evolving quickly.
As a business owner, business professional or company leader, you have something (hopefully many things) to say to your clients and target markets. As a business owner, business professional or company leader, your clients and target market actually want to hear what you have to say. They want a different relationship with your organization. It is no longer enough to place this responsibility on your advertising or outbound marketing agency alone. As a leader, you must be involved with your online marketing strategy and B2B lead generation.
Your target market(s) are tired and even turned off by "interruption" marketing and are offering open ears and real loyalty to those organizations who have something to say and offer when they are asked. "When they are asked"? What does that mean?
It means this marketing revolution allows you to place your powerful message in front of your target market when they are actively searching (asking), as oppose to jamming it in front of them at the time of your choosing. More and more businesses and consumers are becoming very skilled at filtering out outbound marketing messages. There are 2 important points here:
- The significant money being spent on outbound marketing messages are less effective and therefore, more costly.
- This marketing revolution is providing opportunity for those companies with less or lower marketing budgets to create a competitive presence.
Doing things the old outbound way or utilizing traditional marketing methods will always have it's place and in many cases will provide a return on investment. However, there is more power being shifted with those that are paying attention and embracing the new age of inbound marketing (Internet marketing) and they are being rewarded. If you are considering getting involved with this marketing revolution and creating a better online marketing strategy, I encourage you to keep moving forward. Why?
- Search engine and a good online marketing strategy now offers the #1 return on investment when compared to ALL other marketing mediums.
- Consumers now use search engines more than any other resource to research, consider and select their goods and services.
Statistics don't lie. We are in the midst of a marketing revolution and your online marketing strategy is more important than ever. It represents more opportunity than ever.