Wondering whether it's time to embrace inbound marketing? Inbound marketing is about creating marketing that prospective customers love because it helps educate them and answers their questions. Rather than interrupt the way outbound (as in traditional) marketing does, inbound attracts. (See 21 Inbound Marketing Definitions vs. Outbound.) It sets the stage for developing a relationship with prospects and makes it more likely that they become customers.
Read MoreTopics: inbound marketing, How Do I Get Started?
I've just completed an inbound website redesign with my own website and thought I'd share with you some highlights. Unlike many client projects I've worked on, this is more of an inbound evolution than a radical inbound makeover. However, it reflects many of the deliberate inbound decisions that I regularly discuss with clients.
Read MoreTopics: inbound marketing, About Us, website redesign
Have you set up SMART marketing goals for your business?
SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. SMART goals are possibly the most effective way of focusing attention and making things happen in your business.
When combined with inbound marketing principles, SMART goals are a sure way of delivering on ROI. They force you to think deliberately about your actions and how they relate to the results you're trying to achieve. SMART goals help banish delusion-driven marketing.
>> See The State of Inbound Marketing 2014: Banish Delusion-Driven Marketing!
Let's explore why SMART marketing goals are so effective and why you need them.
Read MoreTopics: inbound marketing
Do you agree that marketing needs to shift from delusion-driven to data-driven? That's what inbound marketing offers businesses. Based on the State of Inbound Marketing 2014, I'm not the only one embracing this transformation.
If you haven't yet made the conversion, it's time to do so. That data-driven approach gets you started on the road to measuring ROI, which in turn gets you much closer to achieving it. To inspire you, here are highlights from the 2014 State of Inbound.
Read MoreTopics: inbound marketing
What's the worst advice you've come across about inbound marketing?
Per HubSpot, the number of marketers using inbound went up 25% between 2013 and 2014. Furthermore, inbound marketing can generate twice as many leads as outbound.
With more businesses recognizing inbound as an effective methodology for generating leads, it's no wonder that there's bad advice circulating.
In the spirit of addressing that bad inbound advice head-on, I'm detailing the four worst offenders and what to do instead.
Read MoreTopics: inbound marketing
HubSpot, the company behind inbound marketing and integrated marketing automation software which simplifies and focuses a business' ability to get found online, convert visitors into leads and make decisions based on data, has just launched its new sales tools at INBOUND 2014.
The sales tools - which consist of a robust CRM (aka Customer Relationship Management) tool and CRM-integrated email management tool called Sidekick - mean that HubSpot now enables its customers to fully integrate sales and marketing within one platform.
In other words, using HubSpot allows you to deliver Smarketing within one easy-to-use software solution!
Read MoreTopics: inbound marketing, HubSpot
I'm headed to Boston for the yearly inbound marketing conference sponsored by HubSpot. This is my 4th INBOUND Conference and each year it gets bigger and better and the challenge becomes how to share it all! (Here I am At INBOUND 12: Ready to Absorb Inbound Marketing Insights!)
From past INBOUNDs, I can absolutely guarantee you intense marketing inspiration, HubSpot product announcements, valuable marketing best practices and the opportunity to connect with savvy marketing friends.
Read MoreTopics: inbound marketing
Although social media and business make for strange bedfellows, social matters intensely to business.
Social matters for getting found online, for connecting with customers, and for building strong networks or communities.
On one hand, social media and business belong together. After all, we're in business to connect with customers and develop relationships. Which means that we recognize the value of learning more about our prospects and customers, so we can be responsive and relevant based on what they need. Great salespeople know how important being social is: it enables them to actively listen and observe for insights. (Think How to Win Friends and Influence People.) They do so using all the tools available - from the telephone to networks such as LinkedIn.
Topics: inbound marketing, B2B Social Media, content marketing, Digital Marketing
What's resonating with your readers? If you're creating content online and publishing blog articles, it's important to review results regularly - monthly as well as yearly. The following 9 articles were the top read 2013 articles on Content Talks Business. If you've not read them, they are a good introduction.
Topics: inbound marketing, B2B Social Media, content marketing, Digital Marketing
I have an offer for you that has to do with marketing campaigns. It's a new guide titled "How to Create Effective Inbound Marketing Campaigns."
I'm excited about it because it puts into context how to make a marketing campaign effective for converting website visitors into leads and eventually customers.
It also has nothing to do with traditional marketing campaigns.
Topics: inbound marketing, Get Found, content marketing
