Internet Marketing- It's Still Marketing

Using Inbound Marketing to Market Smarter Online - Part II

 

 

In my last Inbound Marketing blog I talked about Hubspot's State of Inbound Marketing Report, which had the following three key findings:

1. Organizations using Inbound marketing strategies to generate leads have a 60% lower cost per lead than organizations who use traditional outbound marketing strategies to generate leads
2. Social media and blogs are the most rapidly expanding category in the overall marketing budget
3. Businesses are generating real customers with social media and blogs

What you need to be doing to generate more leads and reduce your cost per lead.

1. The two most cost effective ways to generate leads are:
1. social media
2. blogs.
2. Inbound marketing budgets are increasing whilst outbound marketing budgets are decreasing.
1. Inbound marketing channels are defined collectively as: PPC, social media, seo and blogs.
2. Outbound marketing channels are defined collectively as: trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing.
3. Inbound marketing channels were identified as more important than outbound, and compared with 2009's report social media, blogs and seo were identified as more important in 2010 than 2009 as a marketing channel.
4. The one inbound marketing channel that decreased in importance is PPC.
5. Email marketing which can be either inbound or outbound was also rated as an important marketing channel for 2010.
6. The major factor for businesses increasing their inbound marketing budget in 2010 is because of past success with inbound marketing.
7. Small business is more likely to spend more of their budget on inbound marketing than medium or large firms. This is the same for both B2B and B2C
8. The top most important social media channels for business in 2010, in order are:
1. Company blog
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. Linked In
5. YouTube
9. On average 40% of companies reported getting a customer from; company blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
1. B2B was higher with LinkedIn at 45%
2. B2C was higher with Facebook at 68%
10. Frequency of blog is directly linked to customer acquisition.
1. 90% of companies that blog daily acquired a customer, compared with:
2. 38% of companies that blog monthly acquiring a customer
3. A weekly blog is the most common frequency and is up in 2010 compared to 2009.

The take away for business owners and marketers. 

If you're looking to increase leads, remain competitive and decrease your cost per lead you have to:

1. Get started with a company blog, LinkedIn (B2B), Facebook (B2C) and Twitter (B2C and B2B)
2. Blog as often as you can, at least weekly

If you don't have the time, or you haven't seen results spend some money and hire an inbound marketing consultant to help you.

If you're interested in learning more about this research: The State of Inbound Marketing

This was a guest post from Stacie Chalmers an Inbound Marketing Consultant and HubSpot  partner. She has been involved with marketing since the dinosaur and has graduated from the Inbound Marketing University as a Certified Inbound Marketer. You can read her blogs at Stacie's Inbound Marketing Blog.  Originally from Australia, Stacie spent 2 years living in Maine before recently moving to the warmer climate of Florida. However she still maintains her support for Red Sox, Patriots and Bruins !

 

 

Part 2 of 5: How to Harness the Dynamic Power of Internet Marketing

 

Step 2: The (Action, Conversion, Marketing) Plan

Putting the map together to navigate safely to your destination.

Anything worth doing is worth doing right, or so my mother always told me. Little did I know how then that advice would guide (almost) everything I would do later in life. My high school graduation, my wedding day, my children's birth to my college graduation- every major event involved some type of plan.

So when I began my first marketing jobs out of college, I was thrown off by the utter lack of a plan for anything that was done. Why did it seem that most marketing deptartments were just responding to the need to make noise for sales or some other fire drill type exercise? 

I knew there had to be a better way. And why was 'plan' such a 4 letter word anyway?

How to Put the Research to Work and Construct an Action Plan.

I stress the word action, because many seem to have the perspective that research and planning means delaying action and missing opportunities. What I have found is that those that research and plan find more opportunities.

Purpose of the Plan: The 3 W's

Who do you want as a customer? I was chatting with a smart marketer this past last week and she very astutely stated,"Not everyone is your customer, not every customer is profitable. Businesses should focus on customers that are the most profitable over their entire relationship. What is their lifetime value? Who is the easiest to deal with and not a draw on resources? Who comes back again and again? Where is the biggest opportunity?" Right-o Aileen-those are the customers we all want!

What do you want them to do? Sounds simple enough, we want them to buy right? As I heard the infamous Chris Brogan say once, you wouldn't walk up to someone in a bar, say hello, stick your tongue down their throat and then ask them to marry you right? It works the same way online, depending on where someone is in their buying cycle, asking them to hand over their private info (or worse- hand over their hard earned cash!) before they are comfortable and confident giving that out is like trying to make out with strangers. (ok, maybe an extreme example, but one that will stick I bet!)

Having a plan that has a content and/or touchpoint strategy will gently guide your prospects to conversion, at their pace.

What do they want? This means understanding their buying motivation, their real motivation. To do this personas are a key element. In the book 'Waiting for Your Cat to Bark', Jeffrey & Bryan Eisenberg (2 really smart and funny guys! As said in my best SNL impression) define personas as"...representative stand-ins for the modes in which it is possible for individuals to interact with you and your business." This goes far beyond segmentation of demographics or likes and dislikes.

But this is another blog post altogether.

Process to Create the Plan: AIDAS (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction)

This is really the whole point to having the plan, to know what to do and when to do it. Right place, right message, right time. And the sexy part? You can measure it and test to make improvements on results.

Attention- How will they find you?

Things to Measure: SEO ranking, traffic sources, CTR, social media reach, new unique visitors, top entry pages

Interest- This is where your customers are going to seek more information- about you, your product, your industry, your competitors.

Things to Measure: Top Content pages, blog post visits and subscriptions, RTs, entrance path, product views, product review, returning visitors

Desire: They want a solution, you've given them reason to want yours, now give them a clear and easy way to take action.

Things to Measure: Trial downloads, whitepaper downloads, request for proposals, add to cart

Action: The decision is made.

Things to Measure: lead to closed business ratio, conversion rate, average order value

Satisfaction: A repeat customer is a happy customer (is a profitable customer).

Things to Measure: customer lifetime value, customer retention rate, repeat order value

Of course there are many more things that can be measured. A big part of your plan should include what you will measure and what action you will take on it.

As you can tell by the length of my post here, I love this topic. I could go on and on. If you would like even more information on thsi subject, download the 5 step Internet Marketing Process presentation and learn how you can use it harness the internet.

 

 

Part 1: 5 Steps to Harnessing the Dynamic Power of Internet Marketing

 

Step 1- Internet Marketing Research

"A Dream is Just a Dream. A Goal is a Dream With a Plan and a Deadline " ~Harvey Mackay

Learn everything you can about the landscape you need to navigate.

Seems so blah doesn't it? Research- oooh how exciting. Not.

But it really is a critical first step, and being a closet science geek- I think research is really more like a CSI episode. Or like a cowboy deciding his route through the landscape.

I will even go so far as to say research is sexy, like detective work to find the killer and save the day.

And with so much information available to us on the Internet, the opportunities are endless.

Which is really the problem isn't it? There is too much information! How do you not become buried and overwhelmed?  Like with all new ventures, have a purpose and a process.

Purpose(s) of Internet Marketing Research

• See Your Business and Industry Through Your Customer's Eyes. Your customer's are not experts, so don't assume they know what you know. That is why they are looking to you.
• Understand Your Customer's Buying Modes and Motivations. Your customers really don't care how great you say you are. They do care about solving their problem, in their time frame and finding information easily.
• Differentiate from Your Competition. More than just the next guy who does what you do,but what other options do your customers have other than you to solve their problem? (Remember, doing nothing is always an option, so you will always have competition.)

• Develop Relevant Content. Recent surveys found that buyers only find relevant content 42% of the time. A lack of relevant content reduces your

  chance of closing the sale by 45%. When you understand your customer's perspectives, it is that much easier to develop a relevant and compelling content strategy and schedule.

A Process for Internet Marketing Research

• Business Uncovery. Based on the Johari Window of disclosure, business uncovery is a process that 'uncovers' what information you and your customers know about each other, or don't know about each other. This will change over time as your customer relationship is established.
• Business Topology. I first heard this coined by the Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg, two really smart guys. Business topology is just what it sounds like, the landscape. This includes your competitor analysis, your perceived business value, and other similar business models.
• Key Word Analysis. I know, it seems like I am beating that same drum over and over. And I will continue to do so until people stop typing their questions and needs into a search engine. Not likely to happen anytime soon. So use their key words, not your office lingo. 

Keep the Internet Manageable. Give Yourself a Research Deadline.

This part is totally up to you. Personally I limit research to a set number of sites, keywords, and/or key personnel.  You might want to set a timeline, or actual date. The goal here is to not to allow yourself to be overwhelmed with the volume of information, but keep in mind your purpose for researching. If what you are looking at does not suit the purpose, move on. Want to learn more about how to effectively incorporate this process into your internet marketing? Download the 5 Step Process Presentation to learn more.

 

Using Inbound Marketing to Market Smarter Online - Part I

 

The term "inbound marketing" is the process of attracting prospects to your company.  In relation to today's technology this means using the search engines and social media to drive traffic to your website. 

Examples of inbound marketing:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media
• Blogging
• Email marketing - opt in lists
• PPC

The comparison is ‘outbound marketing' which is the process of pushing your message to consumers.

Examples of outbound marketing:

• Trade Shows
• Telemarketing
• Direct mail

Hubspot recently conducted a report on The State of Inbound Marketing. The purpose of the report was to understand the current usage and results of inbound marketing to help business owners and marketers. Three of the key findings were:

1. Organizations using Inbound marketing strategies to generate leads, have a 60% lower cost per lead than organizations who use traditional outbound marketing strategies to generate leads.
2. Social Media and Blogs Are the Most Rapidly Expanding Category in the Overall Marketing Budget
3. Businesses Are Generating Real Customers With Social Media and blogs

In my next blog I'm going to summarize the findings and simplify what business owners and marketers need to be doing to generate more leads and reduce their cost per lead. To make sure you don't miss out subscribe to this blog today!

This was a guest post from Stacie Chalmers an Inbound Marketing Consultant and HubSpot partner. She has been involved with marketing since the dinosaur and has graduated from the Inbound Marketing University as a Certified Inbound Marketer. You can read her blogs at Stacie's Inbound Marketing Blog.  Originally from Australia, Stacie spent 2 years living in Maine before recently moving to the warmer climate of Florida. However she still maintains her support for Red Sox, Patriots and Bruins !

 

Why is Internet Marketing like Science?

 

Ready or not- it has been here for a while and if you are just coming around to this realization you may have some catching up to do.

But you are here, so you are looking at the right map to drive your marketing towards measurable growth for your business.

So what is this so called new age of marketing? Is it social media, is it SEO, is it email, is it web analytics?

Yes....and more.

In this new age of marketing, your customer is in more control of your message than your own marketing department. How you measure and understand that message is just one part of internet marketing. Don't believe me? See how fast a bad review of your product or service spreads on Twitter and that is all the evidence needed.

Having just returned from training at Omniture University, I will sum it up with this- the new age of marketing is when you start using data to make marketing decisions, not ego or guesswork. Scientific marketing is the new age marketing where you:

 

• Ask a Question (what is the offer and what is it's value, who is the target audience,   what do we define as success , how will we measure it and what action will we take from those measurements?)
• Do Background Research (who is the competition, what other options do customers have, what information do they need to make a purchase decision, how do they want that information presented to them and when?)
• Construct a Hypothesis (design and develop your campaign)
• Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment ( launch your campaign and track pre-determined measurements)
• Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion (what are the numbers telling us, what worked, what didn't, and why? What action is to be taken from the data?)
• Communicate Your Results (share and celebrate success, learn from and optimize failures)

 

Sounds like a lot of work? Well, I suppose it is much easier simply throw your marketing dollars into an inferno and hope for the best, but I would not recommend it.

It is time to move beyond the thought of recession marketing and into scientific marketing where you can actually plan for success.