Court's Internet Marketing School - Courtney Tuttle knows his stuff. So does Mark Butler, a contributor. They have a knack for breaking down fairly complex online marketing topics and explaining them pretty simply. And they do what they preach. Everything they're talking about comes from experience.
SEOBook - Aaron Wall charges a minimum of $20k/month for his search engine optimization consulting services. A lot different than HubSpot's $3,000/year fee. I don't know... maybe he knows a little more than we teach our clients. He did "write the book" on SEO. But, I can't imagine paying that much to anyone just for access to their brain. Especially, when his blog is free. You should read it. If you extrapolated the hours he puts into it, you're probably getting $100k worth of free advice every month.
Duct Tape Marketing - John Jansch wrote the book on online marketing for small businesses on a budget. He's built a mini-online-media empire serving small businesses with simple, yet solid, what we like to call "inbound" marketing tips and techniques. He specializes in helping small businesses generate referral business. Since the internet is the greatest word of mouth accelerator ever invented, you should probably tune into to learn how to leverage the web to increase your business's most important marketing channel.
Web Ink Now - David Meerman Scott's blog. David authored "The New Rules of PR & Marketing". His take on marketing is best said in his wikipedia entry: "He says that the rules of marketing and PR on the Web are completely different. Instead of buying or begging your way in, Scott says anybody can 'publish their way in' using the tools of social media such as, blogs, podcasts, online news releases, online video, viral marketing, and online media."
Marketing Pilgrim - Andy Beal covers industry news about online reputation management, SEO, SEM and "blogging for business". Following the news makers in the online marketing industry can be completely addictive. There's a lot of news and you could literally spend all day keeping track of it. Andy brings the stuff that's important while providing analysis of marketing trends.
Seth Godin - You call yourself an online marketer and you don't read Seth Godin's blog? What's wrong with you? Seth literally birthed permission marketing, and coined "being remarkable" as a marketing term - which really paved the way for the way we think about "inbound marketing".
Lip Sticking - Marketing to Women Online - 5 great female marketers blogging about how to market to women. If you market your product or service to women, you should quickly add these marketing gurus to your feedreader.
GroundSwell - GroundSwell is a new book by genius Forrester analysts, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. Through Forrester, they have access to the data about how people are using social media sites. As we learned from the amazing attendance at this week's social media webinar, a lot of people are trying to figure out how to engage in social media to promote their businesses. Social media sites are where your next customer is hanging out. And your next one. And your next one. You should be there too.
Small Business Trends - Simple no-nonsense advice for small business owners and marketing professionals from accomplished internet entrepreneur and small business owner, Anita Campbell.
ProBlogger - Darren Rowse writes about how to be a "pro blogger" or make money/generate income from blogging. I don't really read it for that. I read it because he's also a master at leveraging blogs to drive traffic, something all businesses should be doing, no matter what they're "pros" at.
Noah Brier - Of all the people I know, Noah is probably the deepest marketing/branding thinker who also really gets [and does] online marketing, online advertising, blogging, social media, etc. Big brands really pay attention to him too. If you aspire to be successful online, you should read Noah.
CopyBlogger - If there's one thing we pound into our clients head, it's "content, content, content". To win on the internet, you need to produce it regularly and it needs to be good. CopyBlogger blogs about how content is critical to succeed at leveraging social media to grow your blog's readership... and your business's revenue.
Common Craft - If you're trying to figure out how to use video to communicate to your market, you should probably hire Lee & Sachi LeFever to help you. If you can't afford them, you should learn by reading from their blog. If you're not using a feedreader to read blogs yet, you have to watch probably the most viral how to video ever made. Lee and Sachi are poster children for how to leverage unintended viral marketing to start and build a very good lifestyle business.
B2B Lead Generation Blog - Did you know that 1/2 of the small businesses in the US are businesses that sell to other businesses? Brian Carroll talks about how to leverage the web to generate leads for the complex b2b sale.
PR Squared - Todd Defren invented the Social Media Press Release. If you're doing Public Relations and want to bring your PR skills into the NOW, you should probably read Todd's blog.
What other online marketing blogs should we all be reading? Leave your suggestions with a link and 'why we should be reading them' in the comments.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Understanding RSS: A Quick Guide For The Insanely Busy Executive
around and forward it all the people you know that haven’t clued in to the value of RSS yet. It’ll save you the 10 minutes of conversation and arm-waving you would need to try and explain this to someone. Those are 10 minutes of your life you’ll never get back.
If you don’t know what RSS is, or are not using it yet, read on.
As an insanely busy guy myself, I’m always on the prowl for useful tools that make my life easier, save me time and give me an edge over my competition. Much like those early days after you discovered email, and now can’t even think about how you’d live without it, RSS will change your life. Unlike email, it won’t take you that long to get started and it won’t cost you anything.
I’ll tell you what RSS stands for (Really Simple Syndication), but it’s really not important to know that unless you’re looking to impress your friends and family.
What it does: Let’s assume that you go to some number of websites on a semi-regular basis. Could be mainstream news sites, could be blogs like this one, could be any number of different places. The reason you go to these sites is usually to get information. Let’s say there are 20 or so of these sites. Some sites you may visit daily, others you visit “every now and then” just to see if there’s something new of interest. Now, imagine you had an assistant, we’ll call him Ralph. Here’s what Ralph does: He visits each of the sites you care about every 15 minutes. He checks to see if there’s anything new on those sites. If he finds something new, he retypes the relevant content from just the new stuff he found (ignoring all the other old stuff that you’ve already seen) and provides it to you in your email inbox – magically categorized by which site it came from. Boy this saves you a bunch of time! Instead of you having to manually go to the sites, Ralph does it for you. Instead of having to mentally “adjust” your reading habits based on the fonts, graphics and other layout of each individual website, Ralph makes it easy for you to scan the article you’re interested in – because they’re all in the same format. Most importantly, Ralph makes sure that you don’t waste a second reading the same content twice (which you may likely do if you visit the sites on your own, because you have to scan around and try to remember what stuff you’ve already read). So, RSS makes possible what Ralph does – only better.
Why You Should Care: Two primary reasons: It's a quick and reliable way to keep track of information on websites that you care about. Beats having to visit these sites sporadically. Second, since the information is formatted in a consistent manner, you end up spending less time "scanning" the information. Imagine if your newspaper was printed such that each article was in it's own font and had it's own layout. That's the way the web is for you withour RSS. Using RSS fixes that problem. Net result is that you're able to process information more efficiently than doing this manually. It's worth the 10 minutes time it takes to get started.
How It Works: Basically, you use an RSS reader application (either web-based or desktop-based) and add a list of "feeds" (basically websites) that you want to subscribe to. Once you do this, the RSS software goes out and visits your designated websites periodically. Whenever it finds something new, it pulls that information in for you to read. When it does this, it uses a special format to get the data (which is a form of XML). This is what makes it possible to visually show you the content in a consistent manner.
What You Need: The basic software you need is known as an RSS reader. This is the software that replaces Ralph. You basically tell the software all the different websites you want it to visit, it checks their “RSS feed” and determines if there’s anything new. There are lots of free RSS readers out there (I use OnFolio, which is now free as part of Microsoft’s Live Toolbar). But, if this is the first time you’re experimenting with RSS, no need to even download anything, you can use one of the existing web-based RSS readers for that. Google just came out with a free web-based RSS reader. You can signup for it here: http://www.google.com/reader . Another popular reader is BlogLines (http://www.bloglines.com) Either of these will take no more than a minute, and you’ll be subscribing to RSS feeds in no time.
How To Get Started: It’s easy. Once you have Google Reader (or your RSS software of choice) ready to go, you simple keep an eye-out for websites that have an orange icon that looks like this or this . These icons indicate that the site you are visiting supports RSS. At this point, you can click on these icons. The resulting page may give you a simple way to add the website to your RSS reader (for example, you may see an “Add To Google” button). If not, simply copy the URL from your browser into your clipboard. Then, click on the “Add Subscription” button on the left in Google reader and paste in the URL. That’s it.
If you don’t know what RSS is, or are not using it yet, read on.
As an insanely busy guy myself, I’m always on the prowl for useful tools that make my life easier, save me time and give me an edge over my competition. Much like those early days after you discovered email, and now can’t even think about how you’d live without it, RSS will change your life. Unlike email, it won’t take you that long to get started and it won’t cost you anything.
I’ll tell you what RSS stands for (Really Simple Syndication), but it’s really not important to know that unless you’re looking to impress your friends and family.
What it does: Let’s assume that you go to some number of websites on a semi-regular basis. Could be mainstream news sites, could be blogs like this one, could be any number of different places. The reason you go to these sites is usually to get information. Let’s say there are 20 or so of these sites. Some sites you may visit daily, others you visit “every now and then” just to see if there’s something new of interest. Now, imagine you had an assistant, we’ll call him Ralph. Here’s what Ralph does: He visits each of the sites you care about every 15 minutes. He checks to see if there’s anything new on those sites. If he finds something new, he retypes the relevant content from just the new stuff he found (ignoring all the other old stuff that you’ve already seen) and provides it to you in your email inbox – magically categorized by which site it came from. Boy this saves you a bunch of time! Instead of you having to manually go to the sites, Ralph does it for you. Instead of having to mentally “adjust” your reading habits based on the fonts, graphics and other layout of each individual website, Ralph makes it easy for you to scan the article you’re interested in – because they’re all in the same format. Most importantly, Ralph makes sure that you don’t waste a second reading the same content twice (which you may likely do if you visit the sites on your own, because you have to scan around and try to remember what stuff you’ve already read). So, RSS makes possible what Ralph does – only better.
Why You Should Care: Two primary reasons: It's a quick and reliable way to keep track of information on websites that you care about. Beats having to visit these sites sporadically. Second, since the information is formatted in a consistent manner, you end up spending less time "scanning" the information. Imagine if your newspaper was printed such that each article was in it's own font and had it's own layout. That's the way the web is for you withour RSS. Using RSS fixes that problem. Net result is that you're able to process information more efficiently than doing this manually. It's worth the 10 minutes time it takes to get started.
How It Works: Basically, you use an RSS reader application (either web-based or desktop-based) and add a list of "feeds" (basically websites) that you want to subscribe to. Once you do this, the RSS software goes out and visits your designated websites periodically. Whenever it finds something new, it pulls that information in for you to read. When it does this, it uses a special format to get the data (which is a form of XML). This is what makes it possible to visually show you the content in a consistent manner.
What You Need: The basic software you need is known as an RSS reader. This is the software that replaces Ralph. You basically tell the software all the different websites you want it to visit, it checks their “RSS feed” and determines if there’s anything new. There are lots of free RSS readers out there (I use OnFolio, which is now free as part of Microsoft’s Live Toolbar). But, if this is the first time you’re experimenting with RSS, no need to even download anything, you can use one of the existing web-based RSS readers for that. Google just came out with a free web-based RSS reader. You can signup for it here: http://www.google.com/reader . Another popular reader is BlogLines (http://www.bloglines.com) Either of these will take no more than a minute, and you’ll be subscribing to RSS feeds in no time.
How To Get Started: It’s easy. Once you have Google Reader (or your RSS software of choice) ready to go, you simple keep an eye-out for websites that have an orange icon that looks like this or this . These icons indicate that the site you are visiting supports RSS. At this point, you can click on these icons. The resulting page may give you a simple way to add the website to your RSS reader (for example, you may see an “Add To Google” button). If not, simply copy the URL from your browser into your clipboard. Then, click on the “Add Subscription” button on the left in Google reader and paste in the URL. That’s it.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Internet Marketing Solutions
Looking to gain more quality traffic to your website?Our vast SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and Web Analytics experience allows us to offer a web solution that will increase traffic and ultimately conversion to your website. According to Forrester Research Inc 81% of Internet consumers find Web sites by using the Search Engines and Directories. 85% of all Internet user sessions involve someone browsing at a search engine and people finding your site via search engines are more qualified targets for your products and services because they have actively sought out your site by typing a search phrase directly related to your site content. There's no doubting that search engines play a massive role in helping proactive consumers get the information they need that will influence their buying decisions. Forresters Research Search engines: 81% Link from another site: 59% Viral marketing (word of mouth): 56% TV: 48% Guessed URL: 41% Online advertising: 20% Radio: 19% Direct mail: 10% Your website is generally your major consumer facing brand element and it can communicate to more people than your sales team ever could. We have heard countless stories from customers who already have a website but it never seems to attract any new business. Many have spent big on web sites that look good but the main problem is that they never receive any traffic through search or they don't convert by not effectively marketing their pages and addressing the visitors needs. You need to look at a well-rounded Internet strategy and IMC can provide a thorough service that maximises the potential of the Internet for your business. Your website can be at the heart of your new campaign to pull your targeted visitors looking for your service or product. Why not talk to us and see what we can do for you? Give us a call today, or let us contact you and we'll call you and talk through your options.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Why Marketing Should Determine Sales Hiring
At most companies, when you want to increase sales, you hire more sales people. It makes sense... at first. But if you think about it more critically, you might see that it can be a big mistake to think this way.
Every Business is an Integrated System or Process
Every business is an integrated system of activities - lead generation, sales, customer implementation and support, product development, finance, human resources, operations, etc. When your business is growing, you need to be careful that each of these functions grows its capacity at about the same rate. Because if one area grows capacity much faster than the others, than you are either wasting money in that function, or worse, you are providing a bad experience to customers and setting yourself up for failure. Especially today, when opinions about products and services spread so fast in through blogs and social media.
Lead Generation is the Start of the Growth Process
Marketing (more specifically, the lead generation function within marketing) is the start of the process of growth. If you are adding capacity to sales before you have the added capacity in lead generation you are making a mistake.
If there are not enough quality inbound leads flowing into your business through your website, then what are all those sales people going to do? Sure, they could do some cold calling. But then they are engaging in an activity that is less productive than your other sales people, because your other sales people are just working the higher quality inbound leads, not calling people that have never heard of your company and don't need what you sell. Sales people will start missing quota. They will become unhappy. A couple might leave. Then it will be harder to hire sales people in the future.
The right way to think about growing your business is growing the whole process. You need to generate more leads, hire more sales people, and then also hire
Did Your VP of Sales Ask Marketing If It's OK to Hire More Sales People?
The VP of Sales should have, for their own good. One of the things that works really well here at HubSpot is that I have a great relationship with Mark Roberge, or VP of Sales. We are always talking about the marketing and sales process as a single entity, and we analyze our funnel constantly and make changes to optimize it and grow it.
A few months back we had an excess lead flow, and instead of hiring the one sales rep we had in the plan, we hired two, because we talked about it. That worked pretty well, and our growth rate increased. Then Mark's awesome sales reps caught up to me and the marketing team the next month and we had to step things up a bit. We've done a couple things to increase lead generation and we've got excess lead flow again. So, we're hiring sales people.
Is your company hiring sales people? What is your plan to generate more leads to support them? What is your relationship like with the sales team?
Every Business is an Integrated System or Process
Every business is an integrated system of activities - lead generation, sales, customer implementation and support, product development, finance, human resources, operations, etc. When your business is growing, you need to be careful that each of these functions grows its capacity at about the same rate. Because if one area grows capacity much faster than the others, than you are either wasting money in that function, or worse, you are providing a bad experience to customers and setting yourself up for failure. Especially today, when opinions about products and services spread so fast in through blogs and social media.
Lead Generation is the Start of the Growth Process
Marketing (more specifically, the lead generation function within marketing) is the start of the process of growth. If you are adding capacity to sales before you have the added capacity in lead generation you are making a mistake.
If there are not enough quality inbound leads flowing into your business through your website, then what are all those sales people going to do? Sure, they could do some cold calling. But then they are engaging in an activity that is less productive than your other sales people, because your other sales people are just working the higher quality inbound leads, not calling people that have never heard of your company and don't need what you sell. Sales people will start missing quota. They will become unhappy. A couple might leave. Then it will be harder to hire sales people in the future.
The right way to think about growing your business is growing the whole process. You need to generate more leads, hire more sales people, and then also hire
Did Your VP of Sales Ask Marketing If It's OK to Hire More Sales People?
The VP of Sales should have, for their own good. One of the things that works really well here at HubSpot is that I have a great relationship with Mark Roberge, or VP of Sales. We are always talking about the marketing and sales process as a single entity, and we analyze our funnel constantly and make changes to optimize it and grow it.
A few months back we had an excess lead flow, and instead of hiring the one sales rep we had in the plan, we hired two, because we talked about it. That worked pretty well, and our growth rate increased. Then Mark's awesome sales reps caught up to me and the marketing team the next month and we had to step things up a bit. We've done a couple things to increase lead generation and we've got excess lead flow again. So, we're hiring sales people.
Is your company hiring sales people? What is your plan to generate more leads to support them? What is your relationship like with the sales team?
How to Use Google Alerts to Monitor Your Company's Online Presence
Google offers a free service called "Google Alerts" that marketing professionals can use to monitor the presence of their company online. The services emails you when new web pages are published that are relevant to the search you enter for the alert. It will not catch every single new web page, but it does catch a lot of them, especially the ones from better known websites. For a huge company with a global brand, this service might not work well, since there is probably a lot of content created using your company or brand name. But for a smaller company with fewer mentions or coverage, it works great.
How to Use Google Alerts for Marketing
1. Visit Google Alerts and Complete the Form. At http://www.google.com/alerts there is a simple form you can fill out to get alerts emailed to you about new results for different search terms. Start by putting in your company name, selecting "Comprehensive", "as-it-happens" and your email.
2. Confirm Your Email. Google will send an email to the address you used for the alert. Click on the link in the email to confirm you want the alert.
3. Repeat for More Alerts. You can repeat this process to set up additional alerts. See below for some ideas for different alerts to set up.
4. Create a Google Account to Manage Your Alerts. This step is optional, but recommended. By creating a Google Account you can see all of your alerts on one screen, and can add more alerts, edit your alerts or delete them easily.
Now that you know how to set it up, here are some tips to use Google Alerts like an Expert.
How to Use Google Alerts for Marketing
1. Visit Google Alerts and Complete the Form. At http://www.google.com/alerts there is a simple form you can fill out to get alerts emailed to you about new results for different search terms. Start by putting in your company name, selecting "Comprehensive", "as-it-happens" and your email.
2. Confirm Your Email. Google will send an email to the address you used for the alert. Click on the link in the email to confirm you want the alert.
3. Repeat for More Alerts. You can repeat this process to set up additional alerts. See below for some ideas for different alerts to set up.
4. Create a Google Account to Manage Your Alerts. This step is optional, but recommended. By creating a Google Account you can see all of your alerts on one screen, and can add more alerts, edit your alerts or delete them easily.
Now that you know how to set it up, here are some tips to use Google Alerts like an Expert.
Plan Your Internet Marketing Strategy Before Launching Your Website
As regular readers know, we believe that internet marketing enables small and mid-sized businesses to compete on a level playing field against much larger competitors. How? The internet makes it possible for small businesses to practice inexpensive inbound marketing techniques to attract qualified visitors to their website and convert them into leads.
But, it's still not easy.
The problem is that so many small businesses are doing it wrong. They build their website and then they try to figure out how to generate leads online.
I ran a small business for 3 years. We provided online event registration and event marketing services in Central MA. We used the internet and email and a network of event sponsors to help public event producers market their local events.
Believe it or not, even though we were an internet based business, we didn't use the internet like we could have. Knowing what I know now after just a few months working at HubSpot, I'm confident I could have taken my startup much further if I had hired the right internet marketers to help us, and had the right tools in place.
So if I, an above average internet marketer, didn't know how to effectively do it, how is the average small business owner or marketing manager going to be able to do it?
They need to find help. The problem is answering the question, "Where do I turn?".
Most small businesses turn to other local small businesses for solutions. Most marketing managers at mid sized companies get 3 quotes and pick the best alternative. Most of these businesses choose a small web design and web development firm (< 20 employees) to help them launch their website, set up some adwords campaigns, do some email marketing, maybe launch a blog.
Here's the problem. Web design firms are generally not experts at online marketing.
They might charge $5,000. They might charge $50k.
If you're a 10 person small business or a solopreneur, $5k might sound like the right number. If you're a 200 employee business with some complex content management or custom application development required, $50k might sound like the right number. Usually, the firms that do the $5k sites don't do the $50k sites because they can't afford to have their team cost effectively build those sites. Usually, the firms that build the $5k sites never get to quote on the $50k sites because they don't have the requisite skills, portfolio or business development experience required to get an opportunity at a 200 employee company.
No matter what a business paid to "build" their website, chances are that they still need to figure out "how to increase website traffic" and "how to convert more visitors into leads" once they launch it.
That's the problem. Most web design firms are like car manufacturers. All they're really providing is a warranty that it'll function as specified. They're pretty much done once the website rolls off the factory floor.
Believe it or not, even $500k websites designed by top ad agencies aren't that much better.
The main problem endemic in the web design business is the structure of the business model: once they finish one website, they need to go and get their next $5k or $50k job. They need $50k checks to make payroll. Most firms are not set up to make $1,000/month from 50 clients by providing ongoing online marketing services.
As a result, these firms can't afford to train and dedicate resources to doing the ongoing things necessary to help their clients increase traffic and leads generated each month. They are set up to build websites and move on to the next one. They aren't set up to do ongoing keyword research and SEO, increase conversion rates for PPC campaigns, guide client's blogging and content creation efforts, help build links, test new landing pages, and measure what online marketing activities are working and what's not working for continuous improvement.
Internet marketing services require a true collaborative partnership between an internet marketing firm and their client, a different set of tools, and a broader set of marketing skills. Most web design firms don't have experience with these tools, don't have these skills and aren't equipped to truly collaborate regularly with their clients.
To compound this problem further, web design and site architecture affects a site's ability to attract traffic and capture leads in so many ways. Yet, the average web design firm doesn't understand the connection between site design/site architecture and internet marketing techniques such as SEO, PPC landing pages, blogging and social media. And if a web design firm isn't rewarded [with continued business] for helping their clients generate leads online, what's their incentive to build the website so that it is capable of managing and tracking the success of all of these online marketing techniques?If a firm isn't an expert at both website development and internet marketing, they shouldn't really call themselves an expert at either.
With this background, is it obvious why you need to plan your internet marketing strategy before you build your website?
I hope so. Fortunately, there are many web design firms that are starting to get smarter about building their own business by delivering value to their clients on an ongoing basis. And there are certainly firms that are experts at both web design, development and online marketing. They build websites as well as provide monthly online marketing service offerings. These firms are recognizing that they can even out cash flow and make their business a lot less sales intensive if they provide services that help their clients generate leads via their website month after month. And they have clients that are much happier and refer them more business too.
The problem is that these firms are few and far between. And they may be experimenting on their clients' dimes.
So, the lesson is: before you build your website, create your online marketing plan first. Don't hire the wrong company to build your website just because their portfolio looks nice. Learn how your internet marketing strategy affects the web design, site architecture and site capability requirements. And don't make the mistake of thinking you'll figure out how your website is going to generate new business after you launch it.
But, it's still not easy.
The problem is that so many small businesses are doing it wrong. They build their website and then they try to figure out how to generate leads online.
I ran a small business for 3 years. We provided online event registration and event marketing services in Central MA. We used the internet and email and a network of event sponsors to help public event producers market their local events.
Believe it or not, even though we were an internet based business, we didn't use the internet like we could have. Knowing what I know now after just a few months working at HubSpot, I'm confident I could have taken my startup much further if I had hired the right internet marketers to help us, and had the right tools in place.
So if I, an above average internet marketer, didn't know how to effectively do it, how is the average small business owner or marketing manager going to be able to do it?
They need to find help. The problem is answering the question, "Where do I turn?".
Most small businesses turn to other local small businesses for solutions. Most marketing managers at mid sized companies get 3 quotes and pick the best alternative. Most of these businesses choose a small web design and web development firm (< 20 employees) to help them launch their website, set up some adwords campaigns, do some email marketing, maybe launch a blog.
Here's the problem. Web design firms are generally not experts at online marketing.
They might charge $5,000. They might charge $50k.
If you're a 10 person small business or a solopreneur, $5k might sound like the right number. If you're a 200 employee business with some complex content management or custom application development required, $50k might sound like the right number. Usually, the firms that do the $5k sites don't do the $50k sites because they can't afford to have their team cost effectively build those sites. Usually, the firms that build the $5k sites never get to quote on the $50k sites because they don't have the requisite skills, portfolio or business development experience required to get an opportunity at a 200 employee company.
No matter what a business paid to "build" their website, chances are that they still need to figure out "how to increase website traffic" and "how to convert more visitors into leads" once they launch it.
That's the problem. Most web design firms are like car manufacturers. All they're really providing is a warranty that it'll function as specified. They're pretty much done once the website rolls off the factory floor.
Believe it or not, even $500k websites designed by top ad agencies aren't that much better.
The main problem endemic in the web design business is the structure of the business model: once they finish one website, they need to go and get their next $5k or $50k job. They need $50k checks to make payroll. Most firms are not set up to make $1,000/month from 50 clients by providing ongoing online marketing services.
As a result, these firms can't afford to train and dedicate resources to doing the ongoing things necessary to help their clients increase traffic and leads generated each month. They are set up to build websites and move on to the next one. They aren't set up to do ongoing keyword research and SEO, increase conversion rates for PPC campaigns, guide client's blogging and content creation efforts, help build links, test new landing pages, and measure what online marketing activities are working and what's not working for continuous improvement.
Internet marketing services require a true collaborative partnership between an internet marketing firm and their client, a different set of tools, and a broader set of marketing skills. Most web design firms don't have experience with these tools, don't have these skills and aren't equipped to truly collaborate regularly with their clients.
To compound this problem further, web design and site architecture affects a site's ability to attract traffic and capture leads in so many ways. Yet, the average web design firm doesn't understand the connection between site design/site architecture and internet marketing techniques such as SEO, PPC landing pages, blogging and social media. And if a web design firm isn't rewarded [with continued business] for helping their clients generate leads online, what's their incentive to build the website so that it is capable of managing and tracking the success of all of these online marketing techniques?If a firm isn't an expert at both website development and internet marketing, they shouldn't really call themselves an expert at either.
With this background, is it obvious why you need to plan your internet marketing strategy before you build your website?
I hope so. Fortunately, there are many web design firms that are starting to get smarter about building their own business by delivering value to their clients on an ongoing basis. And there are certainly firms that are experts at both web design, development and online marketing. They build websites as well as provide monthly online marketing service offerings. These firms are recognizing that they can even out cash flow and make their business a lot less sales intensive if they provide services that help their clients generate leads via their website month after month. And they have clients that are much happier and refer them more business too.
The problem is that these firms are few and far between. And they may be experimenting on their clients' dimes.
So, the lesson is: before you build your website, create your online marketing plan first. Don't hire the wrong company to build your website just because their portfolio looks nice. Learn how your internet marketing strategy affects the web design, site architecture and site capability requirements. And don't make the mistake of thinking you'll figure out how your website is going to generate new business after you launch it.
The Single Most Important Ingredient in Your Internet Marketing Strategy
What do you think the most important ingredient to a successful internet marketing strategy is?
It's going to sound a bit silly and basic, but you'd be surprised how many business owners and marketing professionals don't really think through what's necessary to successfully market a business online - so that their website actually generates new business.
So, what is this absolutely critical factor? Drumroll, please: YOUR TIME!
Surprised? Did you think I'd say advanced keyword research, SEO copywriting, multivariate landing page testing or viral video production?
In a previous post I argued why it was important to plan your internet marketing strategy before launching or relaunching your site, and how very few web design firms are equipped to build a website so it's capable of generating business for their clients.
If you want to avoid spending a lot of money designing or redesigning a website that won't help you generate much more business than your existing one, you should ask a series of questions when interviewing potential employees or firms who you might hire to help you.
If you're a small or mid-sized business and you truly want to turn your website into a lead generation machine, there's basically 3 techniques available to you:
Search Engine Optimization
Pay Per Click Advertising
Blogging & Social Media Marketing
It's almost impossible to completely outsource these activities to a firm that does not know your business, market, customer and products intimately. In other words, people within your company are going to need to be intimately involved in the process of online marketing. So, the first question that I'd ask any prospective internet marketing firm is, "What will you need from me in order to successfully increase the number of leads our website generates month over month?"
A website design and development firm is typically going to just say, "We need content, colors and artwork." Wrong! Don't hire these guys.
Here's the right answer: YOUR TIME!
Why time? The internet isn't like traditional advertising where you hire a designer to produce an ad and you pay a media company to get the ad in front of eyeballs.
"But, what will I be spending time doing?", you ask. Let's take a look at each of the internet marketing techniques above.
Search Engine Optimization Requires Your Time!
Most people still think SEO is something their web designer does once. Companies that committ to doing ongoing SEO reap ongoing rewards. To do SEO successfully, you should continuously do 3 things: 1) find more keywords that will bring you relevant traffic 2) create more content focussed on those keywords 3) build links that support ranking higher for those keywords in search results. Who knows your business, your customers, your market, the problems you solve, the solutions you provide - better than anyone else? Hopefully you.
Aren't you the best one to find the keywords your prospects would type at google? Aren't you the best one to produce content that's relevant to your prospects?
If you haven't done link building beyond directory submissions, you won't understand this. But doing link building well requires your time too. Trust me. If anyone says that they'll get you 100 new links per month and they don't ask you for press release ideas, article ideas and a list of the leading bloggers, forums and trade publications in your industry, do not hire them.
Pay per Click Advertising Requires Your Time Too!
This one doesn't take a lot of time. But, the time you spend managing your search engine pay per click advertising campaigns is critical if you want the best possible ROI. PPC advertising is probably the most efficient form of advertising ever created. But, it's not efficient unless you spend time constantly improving its efficiency. If you're new to this, you should read this primer on running ppc campaigns. Suffice to say, I probably speak to atleast one prospective HubSpot client each week who has no idea what the ROI on their ppc spend is. Some of them even spend 10s of thousands of dollars per month.
Would you hire a salesperon and not monitor how much profitable revenue they produce? Would you not tell them what an ideal prospect looks like before they start making calls? Would you let them guess what a good positioning statement should be when they get in front of a prospect? Would you not train them on what problems your product solves and what questions to ask? Would you not help them devise a presentation to a prospect? If all these things sound silly, why isn't it silly to let someone who doesn't know your product, service or market as intimately as you do... pick keywords to bid on, write ad copy, design landing pages, monitor conversion rates and measure ROI?
Blogging and Social Media Marketing Requires A Lot of Your Time!
This should be obvious. In fact, the most common reason businesses don't start a blog is because they "don't have the time" to regularly write on it.
If you do make the really really really smart decision to start a business blog, you should find a company to help you that truly has experience writing their own successful blog. Blogging for business isn't really something you can advise someone to do without doing it yourself first. Too many marketing professionals think blogging is the same as writing press releases or articles. It's not. It's about hosting a dynamic conversation with your market. It requires a mix of writing, sales, networking and marketing skills if it's going to be done successfully. Not to mention the importance of knowing a lot about your business and the challenges that your customers face.
As far as social media marketing goes, I'm not sure how you'd even begin to outsource that completely. The value of sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and Twitter is that you can connect and interact with prospects and clients. All of your sales people and marketing people - heck.. all of your employees - should be actively engaging with the market through these sites. Outsourcing this would be like outsourcing sales.
Measuring Results and Improving ROI Requires Your Time!
We haven't even talked about how blogging and social media marketing can support search engine optimization. We haven't talked about how you can use PPC advertising to refine your SEO keyword strategy in order to maximize conversion rates from both.
There's a lot to internet marketing that requires your time. If you want to do it successfully, you should seek professional help to get you focussed on the right stuff first and make sure you don't make mistakes and waste your time.
But it should be obvious now, I hope, that it'll also be a fairly significant investment of your time to pull off successfully.
If that's the case, it's only natural that you should ask your potential help, "How are we going to measure internet marketing success?"
Answer: You'll need the right online marketing analytics tools to measure what marketing activities, keywords, social media activities, ppc campaigns - actually generate new business. You'll, of course, need some time to evalute your success periodically, so you can constantly improve your internet marketing results.
"So, How Much Time Will I Need?"
That'd be the appropriate question for you to ask after the company you're interviewing tells you that "time" is the most important criteria to your soon-to-be-realized internet marketing success.
If they answer right away, don't hire them.
Unfortunately, there's no standard answer to "how much time you'll need".
To generate leads from the internet marketing techniques listed above, there's a lot of factors that go into figuring "how hard" it'll be. Anyone that actually has experience doing these things successfully would do keyword and competitive research to determine how much time investment and time lapse will be necessary before any amount of success is achieved.
A safe is answer is, "The more time you put it into, the more business you'll get from it."
It's going to sound a bit silly and basic, but you'd be surprised how many business owners and marketing professionals don't really think through what's necessary to successfully market a business online - so that their website actually generates new business.
So, what is this absolutely critical factor? Drumroll, please: YOUR TIME!
Surprised? Did you think I'd say advanced keyword research, SEO copywriting, multivariate landing page testing or viral video production?
In a previous post I argued why it was important to plan your internet marketing strategy before launching or relaunching your site, and how very few web design firms are equipped to build a website so it's capable of generating business for their clients.
If you want to avoid spending a lot of money designing or redesigning a website that won't help you generate much more business than your existing one, you should ask a series of questions when interviewing potential employees or firms who you might hire to help you.
If you're a small or mid-sized business and you truly want to turn your website into a lead generation machine, there's basically 3 techniques available to you:
Search Engine Optimization
Pay Per Click Advertising
Blogging & Social Media Marketing
It's almost impossible to completely outsource these activities to a firm that does not know your business, market, customer and products intimately. In other words, people within your company are going to need to be intimately involved in the process of online marketing. So, the first question that I'd ask any prospective internet marketing firm is, "What will you need from me in order to successfully increase the number of leads our website generates month over month?"
A website design and development firm is typically going to just say, "We need content, colors and artwork." Wrong! Don't hire these guys.
Here's the right answer: YOUR TIME!
Why time? The internet isn't like traditional advertising where you hire a designer to produce an ad and you pay a media company to get the ad in front of eyeballs.
"But, what will I be spending time doing?", you ask. Let's take a look at each of the internet marketing techniques above.
Search Engine Optimization Requires Your Time!
Most people still think SEO is something their web designer does once. Companies that committ to doing ongoing SEO reap ongoing rewards. To do SEO successfully, you should continuously do 3 things: 1) find more keywords that will bring you relevant traffic 2) create more content focussed on those keywords 3) build links that support ranking higher for those keywords in search results. Who knows your business, your customers, your market, the problems you solve, the solutions you provide - better than anyone else? Hopefully you.
Aren't you the best one to find the keywords your prospects would type at google? Aren't you the best one to produce content that's relevant to your prospects?
If you haven't done link building beyond directory submissions, you won't understand this. But doing link building well requires your time too. Trust me. If anyone says that they'll get you 100 new links per month and they don't ask you for press release ideas, article ideas and a list of the leading bloggers, forums and trade publications in your industry, do not hire them.
Pay per Click Advertising Requires Your Time Too!
This one doesn't take a lot of time. But, the time you spend managing your search engine pay per click advertising campaigns is critical if you want the best possible ROI. PPC advertising is probably the most efficient form of advertising ever created. But, it's not efficient unless you spend time constantly improving its efficiency. If you're new to this, you should read this primer on running ppc campaigns. Suffice to say, I probably speak to atleast one prospective HubSpot client each week who has no idea what the ROI on their ppc spend is. Some of them even spend 10s of thousands of dollars per month.
Would you hire a salesperon and not monitor how much profitable revenue they produce? Would you not tell them what an ideal prospect looks like before they start making calls? Would you let them guess what a good positioning statement should be when they get in front of a prospect? Would you not train them on what problems your product solves and what questions to ask? Would you not help them devise a presentation to a prospect? If all these things sound silly, why isn't it silly to let someone who doesn't know your product, service or market as intimately as you do... pick keywords to bid on, write ad copy, design landing pages, monitor conversion rates and measure ROI?
Blogging and Social Media Marketing Requires A Lot of Your Time!
This should be obvious. In fact, the most common reason businesses don't start a blog is because they "don't have the time" to regularly write on it.
If you do make the really really really smart decision to start a business blog, you should find a company to help you that truly has experience writing their own successful blog. Blogging for business isn't really something you can advise someone to do without doing it yourself first. Too many marketing professionals think blogging is the same as writing press releases or articles. It's not. It's about hosting a dynamic conversation with your market. It requires a mix of writing, sales, networking and marketing skills if it's going to be done successfully. Not to mention the importance of knowing a lot about your business and the challenges that your customers face.
As far as social media marketing goes, I'm not sure how you'd even begin to outsource that completely. The value of sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and Twitter is that you can connect and interact with prospects and clients. All of your sales people and marketing people - heck.. all of your employees - should be actively engaging with the market through these sites. Outsourcing this would be like outsourcing sales.
Measuring Results and Improving ROI Requires Your Time!
We haven't even talked about how blogging and social media marketing can support search engine optimization. We haven't talked about how you can use PPC advertising to refine your SEO keyword strategy in order to maximize conversion rates from both.
There's a lot to internet marketing that requires your time. If you want to do it successfully, you should seek professional help to get you focussed on the right stuff first and make sure you don't make mistakes and waste your time.
But it should be obvious now, I hope, that it'll also be a fairly significant investment of your time to pull off successfully.
If that's the case, it's only natural that you should ask your potential help, "How are we going to measure internet marketing success?"
Answer: You'll need the right online marketing analytics tools to measure what marketing activities, keywords, social media activities, ppc campaigns - actually generate new business. You'll, of course, need some time to evalute your success periodically, so you can constantly improve your internet marketing results.
"So, How Much Time Will I Need?"
That'd be the appropriate question for you to ask after the company you're interviewing tells you that "time" is the most important criteria to your soon-to-be-realized internet marketing success.
If they answer right away, don't hire them.
Unfortunately, there's no standard answer to "how much time you'll need".
To generate leads from the internet marketing techniques listed above, there's a lot of factors that go into figuring "how hard" it'll be. Anyone that actually has experience doing these things successfully would do keyword and competitive research to determine how much time investment and time lapse will be necessary before any amount of success is achieved.
A safe is answer is, "The more time you put it into, the more business you'll get from it."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
