Inbound Marketing Blog

Lead Generation Software: What is it? How do I use it?

In today's new world of Inbound Marketing, lead generation is the process of getting your business message in front of your target market at the time they are looking for your specific information, data or offer.

To be clear, other terms that can be used in conjunction with the term inbound marketing are:

1. Internet Marketing
2. Pull Marketing
3. Attraction Marketing
   
4. Online Marketing
5. SEO - Search Engine Optimization
6. SEM - Search Engine Marketing
   

When I use the term lead generation throughout this blog, I am referring to an application or software component that helps manage the Inbound marketing or Internet marketing process in full. The 4 main Inbound marketing or Internet marketing elements that can be namged through the application of lead generation software are as follow:

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The process of making all your website pages search engine friendly through on-page optimization techniques. This includes keyword development and the development of landing pages focused on additional and related keywords. 
2. Blog Development: The creation, development and management of regular blog posts that add new pages, new keywords and new inbound link's a result of each new blog post.
3. Social Media Development: The process of making your messages more accessible for a group or groups of people (or businesses) through social media networks, like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
4. Complete Analytics: This element should allow you to analyze and evaluate every element inside your Inbound marketing or Internet marketing system.
   

Finding and using the most appropriate lead generation software should give you the ability to manage all of these elements more efficiently and effectively.

The truth is that marketing online, not unlike traditional marketing, demands strategy, time, effort and budget. No matter what some ill informed, so called professionals may tell you, there is no quick, catch all solution. Inbound marketing is like anything else worth while, it takes a commitment and patience. The other truth is that Inbound marketing or Internet marketing must be done correctly, consistently and measured with regularity.

Virtual Support Systems has partnered with HubSpot and is implementing HubSpot lead generation software. Through our own usage and testing over time, we have determined that this specific lead generation software is the most complete with a built in philosophy that matches our own. Simply put, we believe and have experienced that this is the best lead generation software and Inbound marketing software available. One important idea to understand is that this Internet marketing or lead generation software was mostly developed for Inbound marketing agencies and Internet marketing professionals like Virtual Support Systems. This means that although this lead generation software solution is available to any end user or small business, it is absolutely recommended to partner with highly skilled and certified professionals to implement this lead generation system for your Inbound marketing campaign.

Virtual Support Systems is a certified HubSpot Inbound Marketing Partner. The objective of this new partnership is to provide inbound marketing clients (small & medium businesses) the powerful and comprehensive Internet marketing & search engine optimization software (HubSpot) coupled with the experienced services to expertly implement all marketing and lead generation software modules.

This is a very exciting partnership for all small businesses that are ready to get involved with the new age of Inbound marketing and move away from the expensive, 40 year old methods of "interruption" marketing.

Good lead generation software should address the following:

    •    Complete marketing software solutions under one umbrella
    •    A cutting edge CMS (content management system)
    •    On page optimization tools
    •    Keyword research tools
    •    Keyword management tools
    •    Blog creation tools
    •    Blog management tools
    •    Social media strategy support
    •    Synchronized blog, Facebook, Linked IN and Twitter posting
    •    Lead management systems
    •    Lead generation software
    •    Lead tracking software
    •    Lead nurturing software
    •    Prospect communication systems
    •    Advanced analytics
    •    100% support in launching and managing your Inbound marketing projects.

This lead generation software is a major advancement in the development, and management of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing has come a long way from the simple days of search engine submission. Everywhere you look, you can see the older marketing methods and lead generation methods loosing steam and effectiveness. As consumers and businesses, we have learned how to filter all of the "interruption" marketing techniques that have been used by the big companies over the last 40 years. Spam filters, DVRs, remotes, satellite radio subscriptions have all given us the power to filter and even stop the old school marketing and advertising and rendering old lead generation methods less useful.

Don't be left behind because you don't understand all these marketing developments or because you think, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Marketing is such an important component of any business and lead generation has always been a main element, but lead generation software is somewhat new. The marketing methods have changed and become more powerful as well as more efficient. Use it to your advantage.

Internet Marketing/Inbound Marketing Is Growing At Record Pace

Are you finding it difficult to keep pace and keep current with Inbound marketing? It used to be a simple as executing a solid search engine optimization plan (SEO). Internet marketing has changed tremendously since those days. I know because I am in the business.

As recently as one year ago, my clients would generate leads and substantial other activity as a result of a carefully constructed search engine optimization program combined with some supportive content development.

Inbound or Internet marketing has expanded and in order to be successful, must include other components. Blog development and social media development are now critical elements of a complete Internet marketing plan.

Many organizations are having a difficult time understanding the need to refocus some (or most) of their marketing efforts in this newer direction. The transition and evolution from traditional or outbound marketing to inbound marketing can be confusing to many. Businesses understand the old marketing methods even if they admit they have become less effective. 

We are at an important crossroads for many businesses even if they don't notice. They must get involved in their marketing more than was demanded in the past.

An Overview:

• Outbound marketing is also considered "interruption" marketing.
• Outbound marketing is 40 year old technology.
  
• Outbound marketing is using a hammer to deliver your message.
• Inbound marketing is using a magnet to attract those sincerely interested in your message.
• Inbound marketing produces more quality leads at a lower cost per lead.

What should be included in your inbound marketing strategy?

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Blog development - regular blog posts
3. Social Media Strategies
4. Strong & accurate analytics or measurement

Developing and administering a strong Internet marketing plan takes the same effort and patience as developing a comprehensive traditional marketing plan. In most cases the budget won't have to be as extensive but the time commitment and ability to partner with highly skilled professionals is similar. Remember that in spite of what you read or what may appear in your inbox (or spam filter), a good inbound marketing strategy takes time, effort and a budget. There is no quick fix. Show me a keyword on page one of google and I will show you an organization that applied effort and had patience.

Internet marketing, at it's most basic level is about:

1. Lead Generation
2. Lead Tracking
3. Lead Nurturing
4. Lead Conversion
   

For a free inbound marketing white paper, click on this image:

Inbound marketing can consist of a simple SEO project or a more complete picture using SEO, blog & social media development with the appropriate analytics.

When analyzing and evaluating the Internet marketing needs of any business, it's important to understand that one size does not fit all. Each business will have different objectives, different budgets and therefore demand different and flexible solutions.

It is also important for businesses to realize that as Internet marketing or inbound marketing become more of a primary marketing mechanism, its important to apply the appropriate attention, budget and changes required to generate the return on investment that is, in most cases, the main objective. Understand that inbound marketing is now more efficient, more effective and more measurable than the way marketing has been implemented over the past 40 years (outbound marketing).

With this in mind, one of the decisions you will need to consider is the choice between PPC (sponsored ads) or a natural or organic search engine strategy. Although both can be beneficial, they do serve different objectives and need careful consideration before launch. Below are some basics that need to be understood in order to make an educated decision.

Any business and Internet marketing plan can benefit from both PPC or SEO so...

1. Where do you start?
   
2. Is it a sponsored ad campaign or organic search engine optimization?
   
3. Both are important so what where should I start or would be the right mix?
4. How do I determine what my budget should be?
   
5. How much should I spend on PPC and how much on SEO?
   
6. Which one has the higher rate of success?
   
7. Which one is easy to manage?
   

Many of these questions are asked by business owners while developing their online marketing strategies or working with an Internet marketing expert on consulting firm.



One of the first steps should be a basic understand of the differences between the two. Here is a simple explanation:

The standard industry term is PPC, which means "par per click". You pay search engines or any other publisher for the clicks you get on your advertisement links. Another way to explain this; the traffic you are getting is Paid Traffic through the creation and placement of your advertisement. The alternative is SEO or search engine optimization. SEO is where you work on your web pages to improve its natural rankings in the major Search engines for the selected (important) keywords. If done correctly the result is free traffic for your website. This doesn't mean the process of organic optimization is free. If you have the skills and time, it will be free but you may need to pay a specialists to perform these activities.

These are some Pros and Cons of both PPC and Organic SEO as part of an overall inbound marketing plan.

If you have a newer site and need some faster exposure, PPC Campaigns can give you these quick results. You can launch your projects within hours and start getting search engine (or Facebook & LinkedIn) placement and traffic on your website over night. Pay per click programs are easy to monitor and lets you do specific testing and experimenting. This method will provide you with a detailed analysis of important metrics like:

1. How many times your ad had been displayed
2. How many people clicked on them
3. Which ad got maximum clicks
4. What is the conversion rate

Sponsored ad campaigns are also easy to control. You can control the placement of your listings and location where you want your ad to show, and stop your project anytime you want.

 PPC campaigns are also very effective to test the impact of changes in site architecture on conversion rate.

 PPC campaigns are great if you are going to promote some seasonal items and when it is not feasible to wait for improvement in organic rankings.



Cons - PPC campaigns, in most cases don’t have long term value. Your listings will disappear from search engines and other networks if you stop spending money. Usually a larger budget is needed to run an effective PPC campaign. If your niche is highly competitive and you are competing against big brands, this is even more true. In my opinion, the biggest reason to be careful when utilizing a sponsored ad campaign is because PPC ads get only 10% of click throughs when compared to  organic search rankings. 



Search Engine Optimization 

Pros - Natural Search results get 90% of the activity on a search engine results page. This means you can get much more traffic if you can get top positions in organic results. 

You don’t have to pay for extra traffic you get due to improvement of your website rankings in organic search results.

 You can stop your SEO (search engine optimization) and link building campaigns for few months once your rankings become stable in Search results and can enjoy free traffic.

 Proper SEO and Link Building will help you to increase the overall authority of your website.



Cons - SEO and Link Building is a time consuming process. It usually takes 6-8 months or even more to achieve the top results in organic rankings depending on the quality of your website and competition in your niche.

 No control on the Rankings of website and no guarantee of results because organic results are very unpredictable.





As you have now seen the pros and cons of both marketing strategies, the selection of the SEO or PPC depends on the purpose of your inbound marketing campaign. If you are looking for quick exposure for your new business then PPC campaign is your best option but if you are looking for long term solution then focus on your SEO and link building campaigns. Business owners need to maintain a proper balance between their SEO and PPC activities. While, money spent on SEO should be considered as long term investment for your business, PPC campaigns should be used only to fill out the gaps which cannot be achieved with SEO like running ads on content networks, for doing research of proper keywords or to test the new design of website.

I hope that as an Internet marketer, you consistently ask yourself these questions when considering your Internet marketing projects:

1. What is the real condition of my web site?
2. What do the search engine see when they evaluate rankings for a chosen keyword?
3. What is the marketing effectiveness of my web site?
   

One way to get a quick accurate and snapshot of your condition and some of the answers to these questions is to use a tool called website grader. You can request a free website grade report from Virtual Support Systems or go directly to website grader.

HubSpot has created a cutting edge software application for use by Inbound Marketing Agencies like Virtual Support Systems, that enable us to apply all of the new and revolutionary marketing systems to our clients Internet marketing projects. Therefore, our clients subscribe to the HubSpot software and retain Virtual Support Systems to apply and manage all aspects of this application. Virtual Support Systems is a Certified Inbound Marketing Partner with HubSpot.

Okay, now that I have explained how to generate a real time report showing the condition of any given website, You should read a recent post on the HubSpot blog with examples of other companies' reports.

Email marketing can provide wonderful support for your web site and Internet marketing efforts. But do it wisely....

Email Advertising and Marketing:
If you're smart you won't even think of developing an internet marketing plan &  web site without marrying it to a strategically created e-mail publication plan. The web site is the shy partner who passively waits for people to come to him. But the e-mail marketing strategy is the bold, active partner who goes out to where people are and invites them to come meet her groom. Together they make a great couple.

E-mail marketing is primarily a way to conserve the people who have shown some interest in your business by coming to your web site or responding to one of your offers. One of the highest priorities of your web site MUST be to get your visitor to sign up for your free newsletter, white paper, discussion list or updates publication. Offer a variety of inducements or compelling offers -- entry into a contest, a free gift, a free coupon -- whatever you must do to insure a steady stream of subscribers to your newsletter. Once they are subscribers -- if you give them "great content" they enjoy and learn from -- they'll stay with you for years, and you can gently build their trust and your relationship month after month. When they're ready to make a purchase, your site is at the top of their mind, and they'll probably buy from you. Figure the lifetime value to you of a single subscriber. When you've completed this exercise, you'll know why beginning your own e-mail marketing stratgey is so vital to marketing your business.

Though some Internet marketers focus on sending stand-alone e-mail ads to their mailing lists, I do not recommend this method. With so much SPAM (unsolicited e-mail) abounding, it's too easy for recipients to mistake your promotion for just another ad, and unsubscribe forever. Though an occasional promotional e-mail may be okay, your email marketing messages in the context of news and helpful information is much more effective, and builds loyalty that you can never gain by just bombarding your customers with ads.

Of course, you probably know by now that sending out mass e-mails to huge lists of e-mail addresses is a no-no. It violates the principle of Permission Marketing that says people respond better to a marketing message they have agreed to receive. Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (UCE) also runs contrary to a long-standing Internet tradition that responds to SPAM with angry flames and enough returned e-mail to cause your ISP to shut down your account very quickly. If you're interested in building a long-term business based on trust, don't send SPAM.

Consider this when developing your Twitter, social media strategy.

If you are still learning about Internet marketing, this inbound marketing white paper should help.

The article below was written to help Internet marketers that are using Twitter as part of their social media strategy. This inbound marketing blog post was created in an effort to educate on certain methods that may help or may hurt the social media cause.

Twitter can be a powerful tool for the social media element of your inbound marketing strategy (Internet marketing):

To create a successful inbound marketing campaign, including search engine optimization, regular blog posts and a well rounded social media component, ,you will undoubtedly begin using Twitter to spread your social media and business messages.

Twitter is a great way to use social media to advance your message, out reach, gain exposure, make new connections and distribute your select messages in a strategic method. All this being true, I wrote this blog article to advise you against stressing quantity over quality.

Think about who you really want reading your social media. These messages define who you are and describe the business you have spent so much time developing. If your audience is not really in your target market or even connected to your target market, then why spend so much effort (and money) communicating your solutions and messages? This isn't a true reflection of what social media really is. Quality is better than quantity.

There are many tools available online that were created to help you manage your social media accounts like Twitter communications. Some these tools let you automatically follow those that are following you, reply to follows and other twitter short cuts. As a disciple of the HubSpot school of inbound marketing and a student of the great book Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, I am not a proponent of these social media tools or methods.

I think that the obvious reason here is that you really are better off knowing who you are following and who is following you in more detail. Where is the sense in having organizations or individuals follow you if your information stream will never provide them benefit. If they are only a number and you issue your hard earned tweets, blogs and status updates to deaf ears, you have really achieved no substance or traction in advancing your remarkable content. Yes there is always the chance you may have your message spread through these social media channels but those chances are much better if the people on the other end value the content you provide.

I have even begun to notice that there is a large element of tweeters that will initially follow you in hopes you will reciprocate, only to wait a certain period of time, then hit the "unfollow" link. Their social media objective is obvious. They are only attempting to amass numbers without the thought as to the quality of those numbers. You can see that there is no real social or business interaction taking place in this example. You are now reading their tweets (and maybe retweeting) but they no longer are reading yours or really cared to in the first place. Yes you can track them down and unfollow yourself but I'm sure you can see the huge waste of time and effort by adding this process to your operation systems and your social media plan. You can also see the entire purpose of Twitter has been diluted and then only moves in the direction of pure or traditional advertising. As a true believer in the inbound marketing philosophy, this is a distressing concept.

If relationships are the ultimate goal of inbound marketing and social media, then this method of establishing connections doesn't help as much, especially when compared to the fundamental concepts created by Twitter at its inception. As pointed out in the book, Inbound Marketing, this type of relationship building is really no better than going to a business networking function and evaluating the success by the number of business cards you handed out in that room. Even though you may get a lead or two, this is hardly the level of relationship building and social media development that was intended and is available by using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in the intended way.

Another pitfall with using these social media automated systems is that it's very possible that the people or businesses on the other end of your messages see right away that you are using this kind of automation tool in your social media development and it diminishes your credibility each time.

Be social, act social (it is social media after all), try to help those that really want to understand what you have to say. Stay consistent with your strategy. Listen, and learn what your follows are really able to use. Provide value, assistance, support and education. What are your audience's issues and challenges and if you have info with substance or data that would help them see some of these challenges through, you become the hero and they pass on your offerings. They spread the word and this is one of the main ideas behind the creation of social media.

 Inbound Marketing Has Many Components: Affiliate Marketing Can Be A Nice Fit For Some.

Affiliate Marketing Strategy:

For small businesses and low-traffic sites, a well designed affiliate marketing strategy can be one of the easiest ways to generate revenue online. As part of thier overall inbound marketing projects, many of the Internet's most popular retailers have an affiliate marketing strategy available as programs that pay Webmasters a commission for sales they refer. The programs are available for books, credit cards, loans, and for Internet superstores like Amazon.

If you're in the business of selling and understand the power of inbound marketing, a well planned affiliate marketing strategy can be a cost-effective way to get your products and brand out to the masses. If you're in the content business, affiliate marketing strategies are a great way to give your visitors value-added features such as books or software related to your site's topic.

When it comes to the web, Amazon.com really started the affiliate ball rolling. In July 1996, it launched its "associates" program and now counts over 450,000 sites in its network.

The basic model works something like this: A small web site owner starting his/her inbound marketing efforts, registers with Amazon (or any other affiliate program), he/she then puts various links, banners, and products on her web site. When her visitors click through on these links and purchase a book or other product, the small web site owner is paid a commission for generating the sale.
In all cases, the goal is for inbound marketers to only spend money when their particular performance objective is met. While Amazon only pays when a sale is made, merchants selling big ticket items like cars, or marketing services like credit cards, have modified the model -- paying instead for clicks or qualified leads.
In fact, compensation schemes are as varied as the merchants themselves.
As merchants have rushed to build affiliate marketing strategies, an entirely new category has been born: affiliate networks. Running a network of affiliates is not rocket science, but it does require quite a bit of time and commitment. For that reason, many merchants are finding that outsource providers offer a compelling solution.

To support your affiliate marketing strategy, some vendors like LinkShare provide tracking, reporting, and affiliate recruiting. Other programs like Dynamic Trade and Commission Junction offer additional services: cutting checks, sending out end-of-year tax forms, and responding to webmaster queries.

In a few short years, affiliate marketing strategy has become a significant force in how commerce on the Web occurs. Thousands of merchants now use affiliate marketing to get business done. The model is now being flexed to drive behavior beyond mere commerce transactions as part of more comprehensive inbound marketing strategies. And yet for all the jargon and hype, an affiliate marketing strategy is about connecting buyers and sellers -- and rewarding those that facilitate the connections. After all, the value isn't in the transaction, it's in the relationship. This is now the main principle of social media as part of a good inbound marketing strategy. The successful affiliate program does not happen by accident. Many factors contribute to an affiliate program's ability to rise above the mediocre masses. One such factor is the level of investment by a company in the longevity and growth of that affiliate marketing strategy; another is the relative experience of the affiliate manager/team. Search engine optimization will also be a factor in generating sales as part of your affiliate marketing strategy.

The Achilles' heel of many affiliate programs is their hasty, uninformed choice regarding an affiliate solutions provider. Although a number of decisions must be made when launching an affiliate marketing strategy, the choice of an affiliate solution is one that must be given much weight.

Do your research, and make the right decision the first time. In one recent poll, nearly 40 percent of affiliate managers said they would select a different affiliate solution provider if they could do it all over again. Also don't get too caught up in your affiliate marketing strategy at the expense of your parent inbound marketing efforts.

Story originally published on ClickZ Network

Viral marketing or viral traffic is a result of good inbound marketing.

Create a compelling offer or content and spread the word to qualified, interested prospects.

Viral Marketing Explained
The term "viral marketing" at its basis can somewhat be offensive. Go ahead and call yourself a Viral Marketer and people may take two steps back. "Do they have a vaccine for that yet?" they wonder. A virus is a sinister thing, fraught with doom, it is not quite dead yet not fully alive.

But you have to admire the virus. He lives unaware to the host and uses its resources to increase in number until he is so numerous that he wins by sheer weight of numbers.

Viral Marketing Defined
What does a virus have to do with inbound marketing? Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to expose the message to thousands and sometimes millions.

Off the Internet, viral marketing has been referred to as word-of-mouth, but on the Internet, for better or worse, it's called viral marketing.

Example: The Classic Hotmail.com
The classic example of viral marketing is Hotmail.com, one of the first free Web-based e-mail services. The strategy is simple:

• Give away free e-mail addresses and services

• Attach a simple inbound marketing message at the bottom of every e-mail saying, "Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com"

• People e-mail to their network of friends and associates

• Each person sees the message

• People sign up for their own free e-mail service, and then
• These new subscribers then propel the message still wider

This is a great example of a carefully designed viral marketing strategy that ripples outward extremely rapidly.

Elements of a Viral Marketing Strategy:
Some viral marketing strategies work better than others, and few work as well as the simple Hotmail.com strategy. Below are six basic elements that you should consider in your strategy and inbound marketing program. A viral marketing strategy does not need to contain all of these elements, but the more elements it embraces, the more powerful the results are likely to be. An effective viral marketing strategy:

1. Gives away products and/or services
2. Provides for effortless transfer to others
3. Scales easily from small to large
4. Exploits common consumer motivations and behaviors
5. Utilizes existing communication networks
6. Takes advantage of others' resources

Below examines each strategy more in-depth:

1. Gives away valuable products or services - "Free" is the most powerful word in a marketer's vocabulary. Most viral marketing programs give away valuable products or services to attract attention. Free e-mail services, free information, free software programs, etc. This part of your inbound marketing campaign may not profit right away, but if it can generate a groundswell of interest, rest assured, you will be able to profit at some point. Patience is key here. Free attracts people. People then see other desirable things that you are selling, and, this is how you earn money. Give away something, sell something.
2. Provides for effortless transfer to others - The medium that carries your marketing message must be easy to transfer and replicate. Viral marketing works famously as part of an Internet marketing plan because instant communication has become so easy and inexpensive. From a marketing standpoint, you must simplify your marketing message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation. Short is better. The classic is: "Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com." The message is compelling, compressed, and copied at the bottom of every free e-mail message.
3. Scales easily from small to large - To spread like wildfire the transmission method must be rapidly scalable from small to large. The weakness of the Hotmail model is that a free e-mail service requires its own mail servers to transmit the message. If the strategy is wildly successful, mail servers must be added very quickly or the rapid growth will bog down and die. If the virus multiplies only to kill the host before spreading, nothing is accomplished. So long as you have planned ahead of time how you can add mail servers rapidly you're okay. You must build in salability to your viral model.
4. Exploits common consumer motivations and behaviors - Clever viral marketing plans take advantage of common human motivations. The desire to be cool. Greed drives people. So does the hunger to be popular, loved, and understood. The resulting urge to communicate produces millions of web sites and billions of e-mail messages. Design a marketing strategy that builds on common motivations and behaviors for its transmission.
5. Utilizes existing communication networks - Social scientists tell us that each person has a close network of 8 to 12 people. A person's broader network may consist of scores, hundreds, or thousands of people, depending upon their position in society. Affiliate programs and e-mail lists exploit such networks. Learn to place your message into existing communications between people, and this will rapidly multiply its dispersion.
6. Takes advantage of others' resources - The most creative viral marketing plans use others' resources to get the word out. Affiliate programs, for example, place text or graphic links on others' web sites. Authors who give away free articles, seek to position their articles on others' blog or web pages. A news release can be picked up by hundreds of periodicals and form the basis of articles seen by hundreds of thousands of readers. Now someone else's newsprint or web page is relaying your marketing message. Someone else's resources are depleted rather than your own.
   

This is a very powerful tool that is part of a larger inbound marketing strategy and if done right can help you and your company grow by leaps and bounds. Get started today and learn how I Business Lab can help you in your next viral marketing campaign.

 Your Search Engine Placement Can Be Handcuffed Without Strong Visitor Optimization

Another term to explain what I mean would be Usability Modeling and Testing.

The main point being made in this blog article is this: If you are going to spend significant amounts of time, effort and money developing your inbound marketing plan and search engine placement, you would be doing yourself a dis-service by not paying as much attention to what your visitor gets once they arrive at your site. Great search engine placement will do little if you can't take advantage of it. If your current bounce rates are showing that you have a retention challenge, you might want to refocus some analytic effort to the usability of your main pages. This is an important but sometimes overlooked component of an overall inbound marketing strategy.

You landing pages should already be configured to focus on very specific topics and they will probably do a better job at retaining and then converting your targeted traffic. But, what about your home page and the follow, main, site pages.

If you have good search engine placement for your main pages. but wondering why that traffic isn't staying on your site or converting to leads, you have to ask yourself if these pages are delivering exactly what your visitor is hunting for. This is the essence of good inbound marketing. You are attracting those customers that are actively searching for your information. Don't send them in the other direction because your site is unclear, confusing or drowning in images.

Search engine placement is great but know that once you've lost a customer on your Web site, you've lost that customer for good. This happens for many reasons: faulty or ambiguous navigation, bad interface design, long download time, incompatible technology, and so on.

What can you do about it? The answer is simple: Find out what your site visitors want your site to do. The earlier you discover their needs, the better. If you have a site running and still don't know why the logs aren't meeting your expectations, try testing your site for usability. One way to do this is to create dummy sites to test various scenarios of users transporting themselves through your site.

Usability is an integral part of the design process and should accelerate your search engine placement naturally. It should not constrain good design. Rather, it should enhance the ability of a good design to create a highly functional and usable site.

To make it easy for you, I have created a Usability Checklist that can be used to test your site before launch or even after you have secured some good search engine placement:

1. Purpose of the Site - Is your site fulfilling its purpose?
 Is it designed to give your audience what they want?
2. Abilities of the Site - Is it efficient?

   • Is it intuitive?

   • Does it behave and appear consistently throughout?

   • Is it engaging enough for the user to feel in control and relaxed?
3. Branding -Does the first screen from your Web site portray your business in a distinctive light?
   
• Does the branding appear on all the pages of the site?
   
• Does the branding appear in a prominent area on the top of the page, like on the left side?

   • Branding can serve as part of the navigation system, as a link back to the home page.
4. Navigation - Does the main navigation of the site appear in a prominent place before the scroll?
   
• Is your site navigation in the form of images? If so, consider also having text-based navigation on the page.

   • Do the image links have tags filled in?
   
• If JavaScript is used for the navigation tools, have you also provided text links on the page?

   • Are there any dead links on the site?
   
• Does your site have a site map or search engine for those who prefer to reach the information without having to navigate the entire site?
   
• Are the navigation tools and system consistent across the site?
   
• Does your site give the user his or her exact location within the site, with clear options to move back or forward?
   
• Do the links tell users where they lead to?
5. Images - Are images used in context with the content?

   • Are images optimized for their file size?
   
• If there is a need to describe an image, is the description clear?
   
• Have you added text to the tag for the image? This also helps with the search engine placement efforts.
   
6. Animations - Avoid continuous cycling animations unless they serve a purpose, as these can be distracting.
   
• Use Flash animations only if they are indispensable. They take long to download and often require a plug-in.
7. Sponsors and Advertising - If your site has ad banners, have you considered optimizing the file size?
   
• Where have you placed the banners?
8. Content - Is the content in sync with not only your search engine placement but the context of the page or the site?
   
• Is your content brief and precise?

   • Have you cross-linked the content to documents or sites with related information?
9. Technology - Are the interactive widgets on your site compatible with your target audience's browsers, or does your audience need to download a plug-in or software to use them?

   • If it's important to use such a technology, have you informed the user about its need and importance?
10. Overall Interface - Does your site have a pleasing interface, with colors matching the need and flavor of the site?
    
• Does the layout have enough white space to be pleasing to the eye?
    
• Is the interface consistent, layout and colors, throughout the site?

    • Does the site look the same on different platforms and browsers?
11. Feedback - Do you provide an appropriate feedback mechanism for any action on the part of the user?

    • Do you give users an opportunity to provide you with praise and/or suggestions or to make an inquiry on any issue related to the site or its content?
    
• Does your site give users access to your email and postal address, phone numbers, and fax?
    

When testing your site for usability, you can, undoubtedly, add more things to this checklist. However, this checklist will give you a good start when evaluating on where your company's web site may need some initial improvements and can take better advantage of your great search engine placement.

Keyword Generators & Internet Marketing

The first point I would like to make on this subject is this: Good keyword analysis, bad keyword analysis, good keyword generator or bad keyword generator, ultimately its what you'll do with the results offered by the keyword generator you choose.

The world of Internet marketing has changed and is changing at a dramatic pace. I recommend that whatever keyword generator you select, that you make it one piece of your comprehensive Internet marketing program. The configurations I suggest you consider are:

1. After creating your plan of action and Internet marketing strategy, define and isolate the software elements, including the keyword generator of choice, that you think will work best and start to construct your project. Wordpress, Yahoo Keyword Tool, TypePad, Google Analytics, etc.
2. Hire an staff whose primary focus is the implementation of your Internet marketing plan using the components listed above.
3. Hire an independent team of professionals that already have the systems in place.
4. Subscribe to a comprehensive software solution that includes all of these elements under one process like HubSpot.
5. Subscribe to an application like HubSpot coupled with an expert, certified team to implement all aspects of the Internet marketing and keyword generation process.

The simple fact is that if you are truly planning on being competitive, you have to find a way to apply the following:

1. Configure your web site layout the best possible way for your target market.
2. Have a CMS (content management system) in place so you can make quick modifications.
3. Utilize a keyword generator and keyword management tool.
   
4. Develop a regular blog and blog strategy.
5. Monitor and contribute to a defined social media campaign.
6. Be able to create landing and conversion pages on a regular basis.
7. Analyze all of the above on a daily basis.
   

Here is some recommended thinking &  fundamental information on using a keyword generator.

Keyword Generator & Keyword Targeting:
The keystone of a good Internet marketing campaign is correctly targeted keywords and key phrases. Just as an arch will crumble when the keystone is removed, so, too, will a search engine positioning strategy if you don't use the appropriate keyword generator & target the correct keywords or key phrases. Target the right keywords and key phrases, and you are on the way to increased traffic. Target the wrong ones and, well, you are in for a lot of work and not much reward.

Since keywords and key phrases are the keystone of a good Internet marketing strategy, how do we know when we have found a winner? Where do all of these "keystone" words and phrases come from? There are several ways to generate compelling and useful keywords and phrases and a good keyword generator will be used after you spend some time on the following methods:

• Brainstorm - When I consult in this area, the first thing I do is have the top brass of a company get together and brainstorm on as many words and phrases as possible that describe what they do. Next, I ask them to combine these words and phrases in meaningful ways. This is usually informative, as management tends to have its own vocabulary -- a vocabulary that does not necessarily reflect what their customers use.
• Examine Competitors' Sites - Another rich source for finding keywords and key phrases is to examine your competitors' sites. What words and phrases are your competitors using to describe their products and/or services? You might even want to check out their source code and see what words and phrases have been inserted into their keywords meta tag. Note: Do not copy these terms verbatim -- most likely they are copyrighted. But this is useful to expand the universe of potential words and phrases and help stimulate your creativity.
• Talk to a Flesh-and-Blood Consumer - Come on, you can do it! Talk to your customers. Ask them what terms or phrases they would use to search for your site. Their answers may surprise you and conflict with what you have learned thus far.
• Analyze Your Web Logs - A rich source of keyword and key-phrase data may be right under your nose -- in your Web logs. When a visitor is referred to your page from a search engine or directory, he or she leaves a footprint that reveals what keywords and key phrases he or she used to search for your site.

Remember that the right keywords may dictate the success of your efforts more than any other single element of your strategy so chose a keyword generator that produces results that in turn reflects your ideas and plan.