Inbound Marketing Questions & Answers (Part 3)
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.
