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 Wed, Mar 24, 2010
This is part 2 in a series of blogs started earlier this week so if you enjoy this blog on lead generation: what are other businesses doing?, please scroll down to read part one.
The question being asked to each every business I speak with is this: Would you explain what your business is doing to develop your lead generation efforts and how Inbound marketing plays a role in your lead generation, tracking and lead nurturing?
Today's blog features: The Corporate Sedan Service
Business Name: The Corporate Sedan Service
Business Web Site: www.philadelphia-limo-services.com
Business Location: Philadelphia, PA
Marketing Decision Maker: Gregg Fox
Business Description: Ground Transportation
What are your current marketing activities: Yellow pages, Philadelphia convention & Visitors Guide, SEO, Blog, Social Media
What is your primary marketing method?: Internet marketing
What changes are needed (if any) in your marketing methods?: Most of the important changes were made over 1st quarter of this year. Last year I ran a pretty aggressive search engine optimization program. This year I see the need to expand into more complete online marketing so I hired a professional who manages a more comprehensive system.
Do you know what Inbound Marketing is, if so, please define in your own words?: Yes - Inbound marketing uses a more friendly way to get my message out. Compared to the old way, it doesn't involve interrupting people with my message, it just makes it more available when they are search for related information. It includes a well optimized web site, an active blog and as much social media as I can support.
What percentage of your marketing budget is applied to Outbound marketing vs. Inbound marketing? Last year it was around 60% but this year is close to 90%.
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 tracking and nurturing
How are you currently measuring ROI?: I am using an Inbound Marketing software application to generate, track, nurture all leads and ROI. I am still setting up systems because I have to bridge a gap between my web site and a separate reservation system.
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
How are you measuring your web site's conversations?: Yes, Same answer as above
What search engine strategy has been employed?: A complete plan starting with a keyword analysis and research, then optimizing each page based on those results.
Are you using a blog? If so, how often are you posting a new article?: Yes but it's brand new
Who creates each blog article?: Myself but I plan on training others in my office to contribute.
Does your business have a Linked In account?: Yes
Does your business have a Twitter account?: Yes
Does your business have a Facebook account?: Yes, and a fan page
How would you define your lead generation system?: I consider my new inbound marketing application a comprehensive lead generation system.
How would you define your lead tracking system?: Basically, same as above but still working out the kinks and other obstacles.
How would you define your lead nurturing systems?: I am creating an autoresponder
Have you considered developing an Inbound Marketing Plan, if so, what are your challenges?: Yes, my biggest challenge is education. Learning more about the resources within my new system so I can use them in the most efficient way..
On a scale of 1-10, how important is developing a focused inbound marketing program?: 9
How soon do you plan on developing a better inbound marketing plan?: N/A
What would be your first step in creating a better inbound marketing plan?: Optimizing our web site.
Next blog and business interview will be Friday, March 26th, 2010.
Posted by Daniel Shlifer on Wed, Feb 24, 2010
What is search engine marketing software and how can I benefit?
Search engine marketing software can come in many forms, formats and price tags. For most web site project managers or web site owners, search engine marketing software is a collective menu of separate and independent applications developed to handle a single element of the search engine marketing process. For example, here are some general terms and descriptions of search engine marketing software used today:
- CMS (content management system) like Word Press or Joomla for web page management and development.
- Blogger.com is blog Development software used to create, manage and develop your blog activities.
- Wordtracker to research and build your master keyword database.
- Web Position for certain analytics and reporting and other SEO activities
- Google analytics to help analyze traffic
- Twitteriffic to help post tweets
- Many others...
All of these applications (search engine marketing software) can help a web site owner get found, promote, convert and report on the productivity of a search engine marketing campaign.
In 2010, efficiency goes hand in hand with effectiveness. What do I mean? Other than the obvious reasons, any business or web site owner trying to harness the increasing power of inbound marketing (Internet marketing) needs to understand how fast thing have been changing and will continue to change in the world of search engine marketing and search engine marketing software. This is why finding a more complete suite of search engine optimization or search engine marketing software is becoming more critical.
Think about just some of the components that a good search engine marketing software package can address and help manage:
- Keyword research and evaluation - usage, competition and difficulty
- Web page development - design and presentation
- Web page optimization - configuring title, description, keyword, header and image tags
- Blog management - creating new article posts
- Social media optimization - updating status and message out reach
- Lead Generation -internal software that configures lead generation
- Lead tracking - lead management
- Lead Nurturing - communicate and nurture leads through sales cycles
- Linking strategies - developing inbound links from other web sites
- Content development - expanding, advancing and managing your growing content.
- Evaluation - specific measurement of all inbound marketing strategies
- Reporting - creating real time data as needed for critical decisions
Even if you find this partial list of search engine marketing elements daunting, not to mention the underlying complexities and detail that make up each element, it ultimately can make the difference between Internet success or failure. Comprehensive search engine marketing software can equate to a much higher degree of efficiency and effectiveness. This is easy to see when you understand that:
Inbound marketing now delivers the #1 ROI (return on investment) when compared to all other marketing mediums.
- Inbound marketing now delivers the #1 ROI (return on investment) when compared to all other marketing mediums.
- Search engines are now the #1 resource used by consumers to find goods and services.
This issue reflects the fast moving world of inbound marketing. Many businesses can now see (in one form or another) that inbound marketing and it's related components are becoming more effective and more affordable than the 40 year old methods of outbound or "interruption" marketing. It's as if a light is slowly getting brighter in a dark room and we are all scrambling to gain internal control so we can take advantage of this marketing revolution.
Whether you hire an SEO professional, employ your own team or even do some of these tasks yourself, a comprehensive search engine marketing software package will make the job easier, more productive and ultimately could be the difference between Internet explosion or a complete business implosion.
Securing the right search engine marketing software and being able to manage all the details of search engine optimization, search engine marketing or inbound marketing should be on the top of every web site owner's to-do list.
Free Search Engine Marketing Report
