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Survey Says: Inbound Marketing, Social Media, and Blogs Are Surpassing Traditional Channels

April 9th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

In January, HubSpot surveyed almost 1,000 professionals about their businesses’ marketing strategies. Below are some of the findings, which drive home the fact that inbound marketing, social media, and blogs are the way to go.

Focus on Inbound Marketing

Businesses are tweaking their marketing strategies to focus more on inbound marketing, which involves pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a company and its products using blogging, content publishing, SEO and social media. These channels have the advantage of providing a low-cost alternative to pricier tactics like direct mail and purchased advertising. In fact, companies that focus on inbound marketing experience a cost per lead that is 61% lower than those of outbound-focused companies. Businesses are leveraging this advantage; of the companies surveyed, 89 percent are either maintaining or increasing their inbound marketing efforts.

Traditional Channels Slip

More traditional marketing channels – such as trade shows, direct mail, and telemarketing – are decreasing in value to businesses. HubSpot’s survey showed that 30 percentof respondents judged these channels as less important than newer ones. Not only are these channels becoming less influential in marketing strategies, but they also tend to be more costly than Internet-based forms of marketing.

The Rise of Social

Businesses are becoming more social – they are increasingly using blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to get their message out and to engage with customers. Both the 2012 and the 2009 HubSpot surveys showed increased importance for these social platforms. Company blogs were most cited as the social channel that is “critical” or “important” in both 2012 and 2009. Facebook gained importance by a margin of 15 percent since 2009, and Twitter gained 15 percent. However, other social media channels have decreased in importance, including StumbleUpon and Digg.

The Importance of Blogs

As I mentioned, blogs are holding steady as the most important social media channel. In fact, 25 percent of survey respondents said their blog was “critical” to their business. Blogs offer tremendous SEO value, as fresh content and links are supplied through a steady stream of blogging. Blogs also allow companies to feature new products in detail, highlight upcoming events, and show a more personal side of the company to customers and prospects.

How about you? Has your businesses shifted its marketing efforts to more social channels such as Facebook and Twitter? Are you giving your blog the time and attention it deserves?

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Tags: advertising, blogging, content creation, content publishing, Digg, direct mail, Facebook, Inbound Marketing, Marketing, seo, social media, StumbleUpon, Twitter, YouTube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Inbound Marketing and Online Advertising: Just-Released Stats and What They Mean for Your Business

August 5th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Inbound Marketing

I recently downloaded the just published “The Marketing Data Box,” and I found the information super useful for decisions related to online marketing. In this, the first of a two-part series, we’ll look at data on inbound marketing and online advertising; in the second, we’ll look at video marketing and mobile advertising.

So, where should you be spending your marketing dollars? Let’s begin by looking at the big picture. When it comes to marketing online, B2B and B2C businesses use:

Websites: 88%
Email: 84%
Social media: 66%
Paid search: 50%
Banner ads: 41%

If you are still relying on traditional marketing channels like direct mail and print ads because you think that online marketing is too costly, consider these numbers:

In 2011, the average cost per lead for outbound marketing was $373, while inbound was $143.

The least expensive inbound channels are blogs, social media and SEO, so if you are using those, you are likely spending your time and money well.

The most expensive? Paid search (PPC). (The most expensive source of leads overall, by the way, is trade shows.)

Don’t count out paid search, though, because it is still less expensive than traditional marketing or advertising. If you want to try it, use these numbers to help you decide where to spend your online ad dollars:

Google’s Ad Network reaches 93.1% of Americans online, followed by Yahoo Network Plus with an 85.5% reach, AOL Advertising with 85% and Yahoo Sites with 84.5%. Facebook.com crossed into the top 10 for the first time in January 2011 with a 72.3% reach.

So if you had to choose between advertising on Google and advertising on Facebook, you’ll need to know the demographics of your target market.

According to Gallup, men (42%) are about as likely as women (45%) to have a Facebook page. However, men (63%) are 12.5% more likely than women (56%) to say they visit Google in a given week. Overall, 40% more U.S. adults say they use Google in a typical week (60%) than have a Facebook page (43%).

“The Marketing Data Box” is a quarterly series published by Watershed Publishing’s Data Insights, based on HubSpot’s data and using graphics supplied by MarketingCharts.com.

Image by Flickr user epSos.de (Creative Commons)

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Tags: blogs, email, Facebook, Google, Inbound Marketing, Marketing, onine advertising, paid search, pay-per-click, PPC, seo, social media, The Marketing Data Box, websites
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

Blogs, Videos, and Websites: More Online Marketing Success Stories

February 14th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

In my last blog post, I wrote about a recent ebook from HubSpot called 11 Examples of Online Marketing Success. It was written by David Meerman Scott, who is a wonderful source of useful information, and this ebook is definitely useful. My favorite thing about it is the companies that are featured. While most of them are in very blah industries, their success stories are exciting and inspiring.

Here is what I learned from a manufacturer that used an optimized blog, a medical billing and EMR provider that used a viral video, and an author that used an audience-centric website to energize their online marketing efforts:

Search Rankings and Sales Improve With an Optimized Blog

Agilent Technologies, a company that manufactures and sells life sciences and chemical analysis tools and electronic tests and measurement tools (I know, super exciting stuff), was having a problem ranking for a specific keyword, signal integrity, even though they are in a very niche industry.

To fix this, their head of marketing decided to start blogging in a very thoughtful and targeted way. He didn’t create a company blog; instead, he created an industry blog based on signal integrity that was fully optimized for search: The blog domain is consistent with Web page titles and the content in each blog post. (Check yours to see if that’s true for your blog posts! In the top navigation bar, the name of your blog plus the title of the blog post should appear.)

Because they are publishing useful, relevant content and optimizing the blog with keywords for search, the blog is yielding great results. Agilent ranks high in search engines because of the blog, and the blog ranks on the first page of Google for signal integrity and is generating qualified leads. Just as awesome is the fact that journalists at industry publications are reading the blog and back-linking to it, which search engines reward.

The Power of One Viral Video

Producing just one video that is fun, creative, and engaging can have far-reaching results, as Nuesoft Technologies learned this past fall. Again, this is a company in a very un-sexy industry: they provide medical billing solutions and electronic medical records (EMR). Yawn.

But check out what they did: Their IT department produced and distributed a really funny parody video of Lady Gaga’s song Poker Face called Interface. Watch it! When I viewed it, they were just short of 8,000 views.

Their goal with the video was simple: increase online visibility within the industry. They got that, and a whole lot more: 3 of the most important industry blogs wrote about the video, and it was shared virally on Facebook, generating a lot of comments and likes. In an industry of 400 competitors, they are one of the very few who have taken video marketing to the next level. As a result, they now stand out in a very crowded marketplace.

Complete Website Overhaul Leads to Inbound Marketing Success

If your website is a static, brochure site that is not optimized for search and lacks engaging, useful content, keep reading! Victor Conshin wrote the number one book on gout (yes, gout) called Beating Gout: A Sufferer’s Guide to Living Pain Free. (I didn’t even know what gout was until I read this success story.) His original website was a huge failure, and not because the design was horrible (it was fine), but it was not ranked, very hard to find, and contained no interesting content. It was just a boring, product-focused brochure.

He completely redid his website to make it audience-focused. It is now optimized for search, answers gout FAQs, and provides the latest news in the food and drug industry. Traffic has doubled, and his bounce rate has gone down significantly, which means people are exploring his site beyond the home page. As a result, book sales have increased and the site now ranks on the first page of a Google search.

Image courtesy Flickr user Claudio Matsuoka (Creative Commons)

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Tags: blogging, Inbound Marketing, Marketing, seo, social media, Website, website redesign
Posted in Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media, Thought Leadership, Web Design | 2 Comments »

Leveraging Your Blog for your Inbound Marketing Efforts

August 12th, 2010 :: Steven Fisher

In these days of social media marketing there are all sorts of tools that help you market but the most fundamental is your blog. It is funny that only six years ago all that everyone talked about was blogging. Now it has seemed to fade into the background and that is actually a good thing. A blog has become a fundamental component in an organizations communication strategy that if you do not have it included or have one running you will be perceived as behind the times.

But let’s face it, writing for writing sake can be fun in some cases but in this case you are looking for customers. The term inbound marketing is the opposite of outbound marketing (i.e. cold calls, email marketing) and it is focused on getting the customer to come to you on their own. One of the best way to do this is through blogs.

A few great ways to use you blog for inbound marketing are:

Forms for downloading content – You want to drive leads to your site and the best way to do that is give something away. These can be white papers and ebooks or other types of content that people want. One thing to keep in mind is that your content doesn’t have to be completely new. It can be repackaged blog posts in a new context along with some updated content.

Surveys and polls – This is a great and quick way to engage the reader. People that read your blog have an opinion and if you are looking to learn from them, do a survey or a poll. It can also be a great way to test new features or content types that people might want in the future. Don’t forget to make a blog post about the survey, it will bring people to the site to engage.

Most of all….provide fresh content – This continues to establish you as an authority and search engines love it. They see that as a site that is new and with linking and trackbacks it builds your search engine juice.

So don’t just look at a blog as a necessary evil you have to “deal with” and “write for” but a real communications channel that can engage and make new sales in ways you never thought possible.

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Tags: blogs, Inbound Marketing, social media
Posted in Marketing, sales process, social media | No Comments »

5 Steps to an Effective Buzz Piece

May 18th, 2010 :: Thursday Bram

A great buzz piece can make marketing much easier. A report or a white paper can turn cold calls into warm calls — just offer to send prospective customers a free report about their industry. A few weeks later, you can follow up and start discussing business. That same report can get you inbound links from blogs and news sites covering your industry. It can even help establish you as an expert — someone for the media to contact with questions.

To achieve all of that, though, your buzz piece has to be absolutely spot on. Whether it takes the form of a report, a tip list or even a workbook, you have to make it as effective as possible. These tips can help you prepare the best buzz piece you can.

Be relevant to your customers: You may have a list of ideas that you would find incredibly interesting, but you have to make sure that your buzz pieces are interesting to your prospective clients, not just to you. If, for instance, you sell sporting goods, you might find a report on which brands sell best to be very interesting. But your customers would much rather see tips on getting their gear ready for next season. If you aren’t sure, ask a couple of your existing customers if they’d be interested in reading the buzz piece you’re putting together.
Hire help, if you need it: You may think that putting together your buzz piece all on your own is the best route, but there is value to be had from hiring someone for at least part of the work. A designer, for instance, can make sure your buzz piece doesn’t look like it was put together in Microsoft Word. There’s a world of difference that taking a document out of Microsoft Word can provide.
Don’t just rehash old information: A few buzz pieces are little more than compilations of statistics easily found anywhere. Even if you aren’t in the position to do original research on the topic you’re writing about, you have to add something to the buzz piece. Analyze the data you’re including, if nothing else.
Make your buzz piece available for free: When I say free, I mean it. I’m not just talking price, although no good buzz piece comes with a price tag. It shouldn’t come with strings attached, either. The temptation may be to request contact information from anyone who wants to download it, but even something as simple as a request for a name and email address can derail many prospective readers. Instead, make it very easy for a reader to follow up with you. Include all of your contact information in your buzz piece.
Push your piece yourself: Putting a truly amazing report online is no guarantee that anyone will actually look at it. However, if you start getting it out to people who will actually care about the contents, such as bloggers who cover your industry, you can quickly build up the buzz that was your goal in the first place.

Image by Flickr user Foreign and Commonwealth Office

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Tags: buzz piece, Inbound Marketing, report, white paper
Posted in small business | No Comments »

Social Media in Action Part Two: How a Farm Has Achieved Inbound Marketing Success

May 5th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

My last blog post, Social Media in Action Part One: How a Farm Cultivates Fans on Facebook, looked at one significant aspect of Great Country Farms’ (GCF) successful inbound marketing program. With the help of public relations, social media, and event planning expert Christine Geno of Geno Communications, GCF grew their Facebook fan page 580% in 8 ½ months—and for 4 ½ of those months, they were closed (not much going on at a farm in northern Virginia during the winter months).

Just to recap quickly: GCF is a 200 acre working farm owned by the Zurschmeide family nestled at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in small, historic, rural, and beautiful Bluemont, VA. They are part of the thriving tourism industry in Loudoun County, VA that is heavily promoted in and around the metro Washington, DC area and the Mid-Atlantic region. Though they have gotten promotional help from Loudoun County’s very active tourism board, the Zurschmeides have done a great deal of work themselves to promote their farm.

So what is GCF and why do they attract so many fans? Their tagline “Buy Local. Play Local. Eat Local.” pretty much describes what they are. GCF offers organic farm shares from May through October (list is full for 2010, but you can get on a wait list for 2011); rents their facilities for special events, and provides a fun farm experience for us city-folk, including picking produce, climbing and playing on old tractor and farming equipment, going on hayrides, shopping at their farm market/store, and petting and feeding farm animals.

In addition to cultivating a robust, active, and enthusiastic fan base on Facebook, GCF and Chris Geno (her company’s website is under construction) are successfully using several platforms to drive their inbound marketing strategy.

Twitter. Kate Zurschmeide tweets what GCF is currently planting and picking, and, as mentioned in the first post, their Twitter account is linked to their Facebook account, so all GCF Facebook posts are also tweeted. Chris Geno then retweets via her own Twitter account, and her tweets are also often retweeted by others, including the local tourism board. Chris has a large media following on Twitter and has strategically positioned her Twitter account to follow media, event planners, moms groups, etc.
Newsletter. Members of their CSA and Fans of the Farm (aka, season pass holders—yes, there is a daily admission to the farm) receive a monthly newsletter that includes special events and promotions, recipes, farm news, produce information, and more.
Theme weeks. To boost attendance during the week, GCF decided to get creative and
“theme” each week they are open. “Future Farmers”, “Dirt Dirt Dirt!”, “Flower Power”, Berrylicious”, and “Cowabunga” are a handful of examples.
Auction items. GCF sometimes donates gift certificates for birthday parties to local auctions/benefits for worthy causes.
Military perks. Entrance fees are waived for anyone with a military ID, which Chris advertises on the USO’s and various moms group Facebook pages.
Bumper stickers. Lots of cars sport black and white oval “GCF” bumper stickers in northern Virginia. Cheap, mobile advertising! Can’t beat it.
Cross promotions. Directly across from the entrance driveway to GCF is a driveway leading to Bluemont Vineyard, which is co-owned by the Zurschmeides. Both the winery and farm cross promote each other. This is a unique situation, of course, but one they fully take advantage of. As a result, the winery is kid- and dog-friendly and full of picnicking families during weekend afternoons.
Festivals. Who doesn’t love a festival? Starting with the Marshmallow Harvest and Egg Hunt in March and ending with the Pumpkin Chunkin Weekend in November, they are holding a total of 14 festivals this season.
Other online channels: Chris uses LinkedIn to promote events at GCF and videos of the farm are listed on YouTube
Advertising. GCF has moved away from traditional advertising (in local newspapers), and instead utilizes their own website, listings on tourism websites, and word-of-mouth advertising to promote the farm.

Because of their extensive marketing efforts, GCF is a known entity in northern Virginia. They have gotten a lot of coverage in the news media, on local blogs and television stations, their parking lot is packed on nice weekends from spring through fall, and rental demand for weddings, birthday parties, corporate retreats, and group events has taken off. Not bad for a family farm, huh?

All photos courtesy of Great Country Farms.

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Tags: Branding, Inbound Marketing, Marketing, social media
Posted in Branding, Email marketing, Marketing, social media | 2 Comments »

How to Use Contest As An Effective Inbound Marketing Tool

April 30th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

I love participating in contests. The idea of getting something great for free has a magnetic pull on me, as it does for many people. You can sponsor a big contest (Win a Trip to NYC and a $1,000 Shopping Spree!) or a small one (Win a 30 Minute Massage!)—it doesn’t really matter. As long as you are giving away something people want, a contest is a great way to drive leads and boost your inbound marketing program.

To get the message out as widely as possible, cross-promote your contest on your website, in your e-signature, on the social media platforms you’re using, and in your newsletter and/or blog. People have short memories, so be sure to mention the contest fairly often. And remember that the whole reason you are giving something away is to attract new customers. You’ll want to capture their name, company name (if applicable), address, phone number, and/or email address so you can add them to your database.

I have shoes on my mind as I write this, so let’s say I own a children’s shoe store that specializes in high-quality European and American-made shoes. I am going to give away a different pair of shoes every month. Here’s what I’d do:

Set up microsite. I’d add a microsite to my website and use it as the contest page.

Follow me. From my microsite, I’d ask people to follow me on Twitter and Facebook, even though those badges are already on my website.

Subscribe to newsletter or blog. Right under the form that people fill out to enter the contest, I’d ask people if they’d like to receive my e-newsletter and/or blog.

Spread message to friends on FB or Twitter. Once people have submitted the contest form, a new page would open up and I’d ask them if they’d like to tell their friends on Facebook and Twitter about the contest. I’d provide links to both social media platforms that includes the link back to the contest microsite.

Link contest page to website. When people are done telling their friends about the contest, I’d add a “Finish” button to the page. When they click on it, they’d be automatically redirected to the home page of my website.

Publicize results of contest. Without revealing too much information about the winner (first name, city, and state at most), I’d publicize the results of the contest everywhere and include a quote from the winner. Great way to build community!

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Tags: Branding, Inbound Marketing, Marketing, social media, Website
Posted in Branding, Marketing, social media | No Comments »

How to Kill Your Business, Or Lead Generation Gone Awry

April 29th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

During this past month, we, the Network Solutions bloggers, have been relentlessly driving home the fact that inbound marketing is vital to any business. The whole point of inbound marketing is to continuously drive leads so that your sales funnel, and by extension, your back account, is always full.

So, I have to ask: Once you get those leads, what are you doing with them? This is where you say, “I’m talking to them via email, Facebook, and Twitter and answering their questions. I’m also gently feeding them our value proposition while finding out what their needs are. As a result, I’m converting them to new business.”

But if you’re not saying that, what’s going on? It can be easy to focus so intently on the needs of your current clients that you forget about cultivating potential clients. If you want to kill your business, here’s what to do:

Ignore comments and messages on social media. You already make time every day to reply to email, so set aside additional time to answer direct messages on Facebook and Twitter and reply to comments left on your blog.
Only market your business sporadically. To keep a steady flow of potential customers coming in the door, so to speak, you have to be consistent in your marketing efforts. That means setting up an online ad program, making sales calls and going to networking events even when you’re really busy, and so on.
Send out newsletters and blog posts randomly. As stated above, you have to be consistent. Publish your newsletter and blog at regular intervals. Your newsletter should go out at the same time every month and your blog posts should be published on the same day(s) every week.
Don’t bother with a mission statement. You need to know what problem(s) you solve for your clients, so potential clients will instantly understand why they need your product or service. You also need to have a concise elevator speech so you can quickly answer the oft-asked question, “What is it your company does?”
Confuse people once they’re on your website. Is your company’s mission statement front and center on your home page? Is your website easy to navigate? Do you make it easy for people to reach you by phone and email? Are the benefits of your product(s) and/or service(s) clearly stated? If people have to search for any of this information, kiss them goodbye. They’re busy, and they’re not going to bother.
Keep messaging inconsistent. Use the same language, industry terms, tone of voice, and style in all of your messaging, including on your website and in your marketing materials, newsletter, and blog.
Un-brand yourself. Not only does your messaging need to be consistent, so does your look. If your company looks sloppy and disorganized, potential clients might think your work is, too. Find a graphic designer you like, and use them for everything: logo, stationery, business cards, website, brochures, etc.

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Tags: Branding, elevator speech, graphic design, Inbound Marketing, lead generation, Marketing, messaging, mission statement, website content
Posted in Branding, Marketing, social media, Web Design | No Comments »

Social Media in Action Part One: How a Farm Cultivated Dedicated Fans via Facebook

April 26th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

If you live in northern Virginia and have kids, you have either heard of or been to Great Country Farms (GCF). It is a 200 acre working farm owned by the Zurschmeide family nestled at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in small, historic, rural, and beautiful Bluemont, VA. GCF is just part of the thriving tourism industry in Loudoun County, VA that is heavily promoted in and around the metro Washington, DC area and the Mid-Atlantic region. The undeveloped and scenic western part of the county is bursting with charming bed and breakfasts, numerous award-winning wineries, quaint, Revolutionary War-era towns and villages, and gracious, historic manor homes.

The Zurschmeides have done a great deal of work to promote their farm. Without even looking at their website, I can tell you that GCF offers us city-folk a chance to experience farming in a fun, innovative way. I can join their CSA (community supported agriculture) and receive farm shares from May through October, hold a wedding, corporate retreat, or birthday party at their facilities, or visit their farm and pick produce, let my kids climb and play on old tractor and farming equipment, go on a hayride, buy their produce and other delectable homemade goods at their farm market/store, pet and feed animals and sample wine at Bluemont Vineyard, which is directly across the street from GCF (and which the Zurschmeides co-own, too).

Now, farms aren’t normally associated with social media, but GCF have embraced it. Because the Zurschmeides are so busy running a farm and managing special events, they were smart enough to quickly realize that they couldn’t keep up with social media and PR, too. Last summer they hired someone to do it for them. Christine Geno, President of Geno Communications (website under construction) and a Loudoun County-based PR, social media, and event planning expert in the hospitality and travel and tourism industry, stepped in and delivered incredible inbound marketing results with Facebook.

When Chris took over GCF’s Facebook page last summer, they had around 350 fans. In 8 ½ months, their fanbase grew by 580%. When you realize that GCF is basically closed for 4 ½ months (from mid-November to the end of March), those stats are even more impressive. Chris told me that a couple of weeks ago, they gained 139 fans in one week. Here’s what Chris does to cultivate such rapid Facebook fan growth:

Cross-promote GCF. Chris posts whatever she posts on GCF’s Facebook page to her page (she is very well connected), community and mom pages (of which they are apparently a lot), and a few really popular local pages, like the Northern Virginia Real Estate Times (who knew?).
Encourage dialogue. People are eager to share, and Chris encourages it. She asks people what their favorite feature of the farm is or if they have photos of a recent visit to share. And they do! They post photos, videos, questions, comments, and what they did while at GCF.
Build a community. When people ask questions, other fans are eager to jump in and answer. Chris will also do quite a bit of behind-the-scenes research to answer questions, too. As a result, GCF is becoming an important player in the sustainable, organic, and all-natural food movement.
Link to other social media networks. Chris has GCF’s Facebook page linked to GCF’s Twitter account, and she has her personal LinkedIn and Twitter account linked to her personal Facebook profile, so GCF posts get automatically reposted to 2 other networks, too, increasing each post’s reach. (Chris uses HootSuite to manage all of these accounts.) Other FB users and Twitter followers then repost or retweet, which broadens the outreach even more. The FB posts also help with GCF’s ranking on Google.
Links to media: Chris’s Facebook posts are followed by a wide range of local, regional, national, and international print and online travel and news media, thus enabling her to reach them with news of events and updates from GCF.
Promote Facebook constantly. “Become a fan” is prominently featured on all press releases Chris sends out, and the FB and Twitter buttons are right on the GCF website’s home page.

GCF’s numerous promotional efforts don’t begin and end with Facebook, though. In my next post, I’ll share their other highly successful marketing efforts.

All photos courtesy of Great Country Farms.

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Tags: Branding, Inbound Marketing, Marketing, social media
Posted in Branding, Marketing, social media | No Comments »

5 Tools to Make Managing Inbound Marketing Easier

April 22nd, 2010 :: Thursday Bram

For most business owners, the problem with inbound marketing isn’t that we don’t want to do it. Instead, it’s an issue that there are only so many hours in the day. Without the right tools, it seems impossible to get the job done. There are tools out there, though, that can help make managing your inbound marketing efforts.

Website Grader: Not sure how your website ranks in terms of social media? This tool from Hubspot will tell you how you’re doing on optimization, content and other criteria. The analysis it offers provides you with actionable information that you can use to decide how to improve upon your website. Hubspot also offers Blog Grader and Twitter Grader, as well as numerous resources on how you can create an in-depth inbound marketing plan.
Cotweet: Twitter can be difficult to manage if you’re trying to use it to connect with potential customers. However, Cotweet offers a set of tools you can use to interact with Twitter, such as posting tweets in advance, managing multiple accounts and maintaining standing searches for certain keywords. There are a variety of similar tools out there, including HootSuite.
WordPress: A blog is considered a necessity by many inbound marketing experts and there are plenty of reasons to use WordPress to set up a blog. There are a variety of plugins that make it much easier to implement your strategies, such as the All in One SEO Pack, which allows you to optimize your posts for search engines as you write them.
Facebook Ads: Even if you aren’t ready to start advertising on Facebook, it’s worthwhile to try out the advertising tool on the site. That’s because you can take a very close look at your target demographics. You can see numbers on how many male 20-to-24-year-olds that live in your area list paintball in their interests, along with other, equally specific groups. Not everyone is on Facebook, of course, but taking a look at how the 400 hundred million users of the site break down can offer some insight that you can use locally.
Google Alerts: Getting an immediate email whenever someone mentions your company’s name online can come in handy. Google Alerts can provide you with that capability, but you can also use it for a variety of other automatic research. Setting up alerts on your competition can give you up to date information on what they’re up to. You can also set up alerts that will bring you industry news, which you can immediately turn around and use in your own marketing efforts. There are also a variety of tools that can give you alerts if your name is mentioned within a specific social networking site. Cotweet, for instance, can provide you with that information for Twitter.

These tools are just a starting point. Depending on the specifics of your marketing strategy, there are thousands of other tools out there that can help you make sure that prospective customers can find you online.

Image by Flickr user Fran Pregernik

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Tags: blogging, Inbound Marketing, social media
Posted in social media | 3 Comments »