Inbound Marketing Blog

Internet marketing boiled down looks like this...

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

In my last blog post I discussed the process and methodology of managing the middle of the funnel and converting tier one traffic into leads. I talked about how this component of the overall process (listed above) may be the most important of all. In a recent tweet posted on Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn, I stated that I would rather have less traffic with a high conversion ratio than mountains of traffic with a weak conversion ratio. I'm sure you can see why I would say this. If the end game is new customers, than the conversion process has to be high on the priority list. But how? What must we do to convert the traffic we have created into leads, then into customers.

In my last post, I spoke about this concept and tried to share what needs to be considered. After all, you need to have an understanding of the big picture before you are able to drill down and work the details.

The guts of any conversion strategy will be well constructed landing pages. Technically, a landing page is any web page or blog page that includes a conversion form. You may get a different definition from other inbound marketing or Internet marketing professionals but this explanation may make it easy for you to conceptualize.

A landing page is the page destination where you want to lead your traffic. As part of your Internet marketing strategy, you must:

1. Optimize
2. Promote
3. Convert
4. Analyze

Step number 3 happens on a well designed landing page that includes compelling content and a CTA or call to action. If you have optimized and promoted your content well, you, will have filtered much of you top line traffic into your landing page. This is where your conversion opportunities lay.

If you are a shoe seller, your goal at the promotion phase (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc...) was to promote or highlight a specific brand, style, discount or event. If you have done this with focus, you will have filtered some of your main shoe store (home page) traffic directly to the landing page that outlines your offer, discount or event. You now have the strongest opportunity to convert this targeted traffic into a lead.

Create this landing page to discuss the features and benefits of this particular offer and no other. This prospect "landed" on this page because they were research or shopping for something very specific and you successfully got their attention. Now you must use this page to present an offer compelling enough for them to take some action.

Your goal may be simply to collect email addresses from semi-interested parties for future and ongoing promotions (lead nurturing). Or, you may be in a position to make a sale. In the shoe store case, this is entirely reasonable. If your technology is in place, there is no reason not to make a sale directly from a well constructed landing page.

In summary: You need to have an accurate view of your entire inbound marketing strategy first. Then you need to isolate & define each element. Remember to develop all elements with focus and the understanding of your specific market.

In my next blog post I will discuss the technology available to manage this process in conjunction with all the other elements of your Internet marketing..

Other resources available to help you expand your reach:

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.

Featured Business: Signs In One Day - Signage Retailers

Business Name: Signs In One Day
Business Web Site: www.sarasotasign.com
Business Location: Sarasota, FL
Marketing Decision Maker: Ken Frank
Business Description: Sign retailer - Manufactures, installs and repairs commercial signage

What are your current marketing activities?: Word of mouth, networking, yellow pages, web site search engine optimization.

What is your primary marketing method?: Yellow pages

What changes are needed (if any) in your marketing methods?: I am currently re-evaluating all of may marketing efforts. I took over this small business about 8 years ago and have grown significantly. I realize that what I have been doing needs evaluation and certain changes to keep current with the times. My issue is I don't know where to start and if I even have the time to devote these changes. I hired an SEO company about 6 months ago and have gone from zero internet presence to very dominant positions but I don't see it translating to the kind of customers and accounts I am looking for. My market is almost entirely local and I keep pretty busy but I do see the need for changes sooner than later.

Do you know what Inbound Marketing is, if so, please define in your own words?: Sort of - The truth is that I have little time and desire to learn anything new that will place new demands on my time. I usually stay with what works and even though the economy slowed, I have stayed busy. My understand of Inbound marketing is having a web site and some internet exposure so my customers can find me easier.

What percentage of your marketing budget is applied to Outbound marketing vs. Inbound marketing? In 2009 it was 100% of all our marketing budget. It is now 80%. We launch a new web site and hired an SEO company 4 months ago. Our rankings seem to be outstanding but I am not even sure (yet) what is translating into business customers. When I have more time I will evaluate this further.

What inbound marketing components are you currently utilizing?: Web site development (content) and an SEO program.

How are you currently measuring ROI?: I have only measured ROI resulting from my yellow page ads. I have not yet constructed the appropriate ROI measurement from my web site activity.

Have you ever executed a keyword development strategy for your web site?: Yes, as part of my new search engine marketing campaign.

How are you measuring your web site's traffic?: Not.

How are you measuring your web site's conversions?: Not.

What search engine strategy has been employed?: We have hired an SEO company to optimize our site for about 15 different keywords.

Are you using a blog? If so, how often are you posting a new article?: No, I don't see why people would care what I have to say about sign installation and I don't have the time to do the writing or blog development.

Who creates each blog article?: N/A

Does your business have a Linked In account?: No.

Does your business have a Twitter account?: No.

Does your business have a Facebook account?: Yes and my wife created a fan page.

How would you define your lead generation system?: It's more of a traditional, fly by the seat of my pants lead generation from referrals, yellow pages and now my web site.

How would you define your lead tracking system?: I have none.

How would you define your lead nurturing systems?: Follow up call from my staff.

Have you considered developing an Inbound Marketing Plan, if so, what are your challenges?: Yes, I would like to get more involved but I don't really know where to start and frankly I don't see it as a priority.

On a scale of 1-10, how important is developing a focused inbound marketing program?: 1

How soon do you plan on developing a better inbound marketing plan?: I developed a new web site 6 months ago and hired an SEO company to get search engine exposure. I'm not sure what my next step will be. I guess my main challenges is trying to understand what inbound marketing means to me and if I can really benefit without giving up my management time.

What would be your first step in creating a better inbound marketing plan?: Speaking with an expert on the subject.

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.

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.

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.

   

Local Internet Marketing Is A Powerful Marketing Solution But Still Somewhat Unrecognized or Simply Ignored!

If you have a built in advantage... USE IT!

One observation I continue to make about local (geographically targeted) Internet marketing strategies, is the significant gap between the possibilities (advantages) and the recognition of those possibilities by local business. I believe it is mostly an education issue and the sooner a given business realizes the opportunity, the sooner that business will also realize a real boost in visibility.

If you own or operate a local (geographically targeted) business and have considered marketing your product or service online, you may have come to conclusion that it doesn't fit into your marketing budget. This is a common conclusion that in my  professional opinion, should no longer be as easily accepted as a final conclusion.

Marketing is as important as it ever was and because of the Internet, it is more available that it ever was. There has been (and will continue to be) a major shift in Internet usage with more and more consumers and businesses turning to the search engines (and social media) to find products and services. This simple fact requires local or small business to adjust their marketing budget accordingly. Ignoring this shift, or not including your business in this shift can become a death sentence. 

As an Internet marketing (Inbound Marketing) professional (includes local Internet marketing), I would like to offer the following information and encourage that you as a small business owner to reconsider the powerful local Internet marketing tools available.

1. Businesses that have a specific geographic target market do have an advantage.
2. Local Internet marketing eliminates a certain element of national competition.
3. Local Internet marketing eliminates a certain element of regional competition.
4. Using a local Internet marketing focus provides faster traction and visibility.
5. Many business prospects prefer to do business with local companies.
6. Local Internet marketing is designed to take advantage of the "lower hanging fruit" that exsists in virtually all markets.
7. Local Internet marketing doesn't require the same marketing budget as a national marketing campaign. It's even more affordable.
   
8. Even national or regionally based products and services can benefit greatly from a geographically targeted messages or local Internet marketing activities.

The significant advantages available to business through local Internet marketing will not last forever. Not only will your local competitors enter the world of Inbound (Internet) marketing, but as you might already recognize, bigger business is also starting to focus efforts on local markets.

Another advantage local small business needs to recognize is that many competitors are still behind the technology curve. Those that become the first local Internet marketing players will get a significant head start. Those that don't will be passed by their direct local competitors.

Although Internet marketing budgets are much more manageable than traditional marketing budgets, local Internet marketing budgets offer even more benefit and message delivery power.

As a small business owner myself, I encourage all other small business to change they way they think about marketing in general and learn as much as possible about using local Internet marketing to:

• Get Found
• Convert Visitors To Leads
• Convert Leads To Customers

Marketing campaign software thats well synchronized with your marketing objectives can be a powerful combination.

Comprehensive marketing campaign software is still very earlier in it's overall development, availability and effectiveness. The capabilities of developing and managing every component of our Inbound marketing or Internet marketing plan under one roof or umbrella is a very attractive thought and we are not as far away from this as we might feel. We could probably all agree that having one tool or resources in the form of comprehensive marketing campaign software would make it easier. more effective and efficient for us to:

• Define your online target markets.
• Connect the most powerful keywords to those markets.
• Evaluate the real time condition of your web site and marketing objectives.
  
• Monitor the activity of those important keywords over time.
• Create the content that includes the keyword prominence and density that will serve us (and our market) best.
• Further optimize and expand our pages for target market accuracy and reach.
• Develop and manage our blogging.
• Develop, manage and connect our social media accounts and efforts.
  
• Develop and manage our inbound links
  
• Develop and test landing page idea
• Manage an appropriate PPC project
• Lead generation
• Lead tracking
• Lead nurturing
  
• Analyze all of this for ROI
• More & more & more...

The better and more complete the marketing campaign software is, the closer you will be able to meet your marketing objectives.

Currently there are a great deal of available marketing campaign software options but the challenge is to avoid developing your marketing campaign execution strategy using 25, unrelated, unconnected, unsupported and completely independent software components. You'll get the job done to some degree but it won't be the most efficient method and most likely, even in the sort run, it will be come less and less efficient as this industry develops.

Inbound marketing, Internet marketing, SEO, PPC are all still very new and to some, very different methods of marketing. In many cases we are seeing a large array of organizations gravitate towards making these methods their primary avenues of marketing. Some aren't even realizing this as it's happening.  It appears more like plugging leaks or throwing darts.

Companies need to analyze, evaluate and prepare more for our changing times and one powerful results should be isolating and applying a comprehensive marketing campaign software solution. Rather than getting pushed and pulled by the speed at which blogging, linking, social media and search engines are growing, a company needs to access the current condition and create a real answer and a real marketing campaign software solution with marketing objectives that are in alignment.