The Insider Scoop on Inbound Marketing

In 2011, Google had over 2 billion searches per day, making it the biggest powerhouse for search engines in the world. With numbers as glaring as that, marketers needed to find out how to harness the search engine giant. As the saying goes, “if you can’t beat them, join them”, innovative marketers began to see a trend in Google’s analytics; that activity on websites generated the biggest amount of top related search results.

The best way that you can gain Google’s recognition for your company is to create a daily blog, podcast, or webinars. While it is debated that this does not produce as much short-term, tangible results as traditional marketing (cold calls, advertising, trade shows, radio, spam, and direct paper mail) and is more of a long-term approach, a busy blog or podcast can have ample amounts of feedback and reblogs.

According to IMU, Inbound Marketing University, a training program provided by Hubspot.com to educate about inbound marketing, the best way to blog and promote your company is to indirectly talk about it. For example, Best Western uses an outsourced blogger who blogs about traveling.  Attached to the blog are links, packages deals, and different travel sites that promote Best Western as well as the entire travel industry.

Another way to build your credibility through Inbound Marketing is to utilize forums about your industry. Instead of posting ads in the comment boxes, answer questions or give advice to others. Even if the customer is asking about a different company or product, you can still give them helpful advice for the best way to solve the problem. Remember, building trust is the first step in any relationship.

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Inbound Marketing Compared to Outbound Marketing

Since the Internet boom and the creation of social media the word marketing has grown some new branches in the last past decade. One of these new growths is call Inbound Marketing. So, what is inbound marketing? Inbound Marketing is an internal way to make you and/ or your company be found and earning the attention of prospects on the World Wide Web. Compare to the traditional outbound marketing like billboards and newspaper advertisements, inbound marketing is a chance for you to be in control and way for to spend little to no money at all to get your company recognize.

Lets say you own a pool service company in Phoenix Arizona. One thing about Phoenix is that it is home to a lot of nice weather through out the year and very hot summers, so that means there is a lot of potential clients with pools that need to be service. With that said, there are a lot of people with the same business as you out there trying to find clients.  So, inbound marketing is a way for you to stand out from the other pool guys/gals to gain trust in your potential clients. You can do this by creating blogs, videos, and eBooks on your website and use social media like Facebook and Twitter to broadcast your services and your companies values.

Now, how is all this website publicizing going to help your business get more recognized? All of those blogs, YouTube videos and Twitter tweets will help gain attention to your website and it will improve your “SEO” which stands for Search Engine Optimization. So, the more traffic and hits you get on your website the higher your SEO goes, which means when someone goes on Google and types in “Pool Services” the pool guy/gal with the most activity on their website will be on the top of the search list.

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Are Tablets a Good Business Tool?

In the next year, we can probably expect tablets to become one of the most useful business tools for businesses.  Desktop computers will still hold their ground, but tablets are quickly replacing laptops in 2012 The iPad may still be the King of the Tablets, but when deciding on which tablet to invest in, here are a few specs to think about:

  • Function: Think about the main tasks that the tablet will be used for.  If you are going to be using it as more of a presentation tool, you may want to get a bigger screen.  If you’re using it out in the field, you may want something durable and light.
  • Size: Remember that the point of a tablet is portability.  You may want it to be able to fit in your briefcase or purse.  But, you don’t want it to be a bigger version of your smart phone, you want it to be a more compact version of a laptop.
  • Accessories:  Just like an outfit may not be complete without the right accessories, a tablet can be utilized to the fullest of its potential with the correct accessories.  If you are using the tablet to type out emails, blogs or code, you may want to invest in a keyboard.
  • Internal apps: Here at Phoenix Staff we have several small internal applications that we use to do quick calculations and
  • Ports: Speaking of battery life, the way you can charge your tablet is of utter importance when selecting a tablet to use as a business tool.  Remember that not only you will need to charge your tablet while at home or at work, but you also may need to charge it on the go.  Do you have a car charger for your phone already?  Think about getting a tablet that has that same charging port.
If you can’t find a tablet on the market right now that you don’t like, hang tight.  In the next couple of months you can expect there to be an overwhelming amount of tablets to choose from.
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Expand Your Business in a World Powered by Text

Improving the functionality of your business can be easily accomplished by using the most powerful resource available: text.  Check out these simple ways you can expand your business today:

Text Your Customers

If you have customers who use the text messaging capabilities of their cell phones, you should take advantage of this opportunity to get out information about your business.  This can be done tactfully and not very often.  However, you don’t want your customers to get annoyed with too many text messages to the point where they unsubscribe from your service, so keep it simple.  Text messages can be used to confirm appointments, alert clients of promotions and new products.  This doesn’t have to be a mandatory service, but there are many benefits.  You don’t have to waste your time calling them, perhaps having to leave a message with a call back number.  Text messages allow customers to respond to appointment confirmations with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when they have the time.

Blog, Blog, Blog

In a world driven by search engines, this is how your business will get found.  Search engines use the words searched to the website with the most matched results, so you should add as much relevant text to your website as possible.  This can be done by blogging weekly about topics that your customers will find interesting.  You want your blog to spark interest and start conversations among your reader.  This will initiate comments and personal dialogue between you and your current clients, as well as future clients.  Also, make sure to always respond to customers’ comments by using their first name.  This adds a personal touch that many customers are not accustomed to.  Also, making the text of your blog the boring old Arial or Times New Roman is not interesting for readers.  Find a font that represents your business, but that is also easy to read.  Adding subtle colors never hurt either.

Make Information Readily Available

Allow customers to find out everything they can about your business/service on your website.  This should include prices, phone numbers, fax numbers, address and services offered.  Including a personalized staff page will also entice customers to give you a call or send you an email.  Make this page personal with professional photographs as well.  Do not make any of this information hard to find because if customers have to blindly search for a few minutes around your page, they will simply leave. With technology playing such a large role in our lives these days, it is important to give your customers a technologically advanced experience such as providing the option of booking appointments online.  This is convenient for customers and will save you time every day.

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Still Not Convinced Inbound Marketing is the Way to Go?

In the past ten years, due to a dramatic increase in consumer technologies, VCR’s, busy signals and floppy disks have all been replaced with Tweeting, iPads and Wi-Fi.  Thanks to the concentrated internet age we live in, the last three words have concrete meaning, even to those who do not utilize them.  In turn, marketing companies have been slowly making the switch from time consuming, costly outbound marketing to effective, efficient inbound marketing.  This has allowed small businesses to get found by the customers who need them.

Outbound marketing takes the stance of getting your message “out” to the general public, whoever they may be.  This includes bombarding individuals with many different forms of advertising on a daily basis.  Television commercials are being done away with because there are many companies who now offer commercial free options (for a fee) through the use of TiVo and watching TV on the internet.  Radio commercials are infrequently effective as well because many people now pay for commercial free radio such as satellite radio or Pandora One.  These paying customers are not being reached by companies utilizing outbound marketing.

Billboards may attract buyers attention for a split second, but because there are hundreds of billboards that people see on a daily basis (think about your commute to work this morning), their effects have decreased.  Many people subscribe to online magazines these days, so magazine articles are being phased out as well.  Yes, make up ads are placed in teen girl/fashion/gossip magazines, but do girls in that target audience actually purchase the advertised products?  For years, this has been the way for businesses to do their marketing, but in this internet age it is time for a change.

Inbound marketing primarily allows your website to bring in current, present and future customers with the use of strategic website design, functionality and blogs.  When you want to find out information about a specific topic, where is the first place you are going to go?  Chances are it’s a search engine on the internet.  Then you will read the first few links and hopefully gain the exact information you are looking for.  Using this strategy, inbound marketing implies that companies should then improve their website, with the use of raw data, social media sites and blogging, to the point where they are one of the top links on that organic search.

Inbound marketing allows companies to get found by the people who are looking for their specific service.  In order to increase the traffic of a website, a blog should be added.  When a search engine is used to look up your business, all it sees are a bunch of words on a site.  The more unique words you can add to the site, the more like that site will be found.  Update this blog at least two times per week because you don’t want to give your website a bad first impression by having your last blog post be from six months ago.

While outbound marketing was an effective tool in the business world ten years ago, times have changed and more business is now being conducted online.  Inbound marketing allows companies to take advantage of this economical entity since maintaining a website and blog is not only far less expensive than running a commercial in the super bowl, but it targets the exact consumers the company is looking for.  With the great speed that technology is progressing at, with new upgrades and versions available every time you turn around, it is about time that small businesses utilize the unlimited techniques that inbound marketing has to offer.

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Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing

Key elements to Inbound MarketingMost companies still use the old-fashioned marketing method of Outbound Marketing. Outbound Marketing, essentially, is when companies constantly throw money at mass emails, cold calls, trade shows, and different forms of advertising. They assume that because they are putting “good” in, they will get “good” out; which more and more enlightened companies are finding out, is not always true. In a world where thousands of advertisements are thrown at us on a daily basis, our eyes begin to blend it all together though.

So how can companies grab the attention of potential customers? The most effective and cost-efficient way is through Inbound Marketing. This relatively new form of Marketing is all around us and just because the name is unfamiliar, it does not mean you have never seen or used it. Inbound Marketing consists of different types of blogs, podcasts, webinars, and videos posted all over the web to generate SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on sites like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. These techniques are used to promote the company’s content to the masses without shoving it down their throats. The famous movie quote from Field of Dreams can be tweaked to apply directly to this theory, “If you blog it, they will come.”

Brian Halligan, a blogger from Hubspot.com, made a well put analogy comparing the two, saying that outbound marketers looking to gain interest from customers are like lions hunting in the jungle for elephants. A couple of decades ago the jungle was full of elephants, but now the elephants have started moving towards watering holes (the internet). Instead of continuing to hunt for the last remaining elephants in the jungle, why not set up shop next to where the elephants are going, the watering holes.

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Mysterious Pinterest “MikeLike” Button & How to Remove It

As a marketing and media company, we are all about being honest in our marketing ways and tactics.  This past week, I’ve noticed that a mysterious “MikeLike” button has creeped into my favorite Chrome browser.  It appears when I right click on an image, as shown:

how to remove mikelike from pinterest and chrome louve notes media group

It also appears when I’m using a Chrome extension called Pinterest Button:

mikelike mike like button louve notes media group

Now, when an extension is given the name “Pinterest Button,” you would think it should be the official Pinterest button extension for Chrome.  But boy did I assume incorrectly.  Apparently the developer of this specific Chrome extension decided to market their work with another Pinterest-wanna-be company called MikeLike.  The “Pinterest Button” is not designed by Pinterest, so it can technically make any changes it wants to, even if it is just one guy who built an app once upon a time.

This sneaky way of marketing an unknown website is a major violation of internet etiquette rules.  The brand was inconsistent and not even named the same thing as the Pinterest Button extension, and there was no way for most people to stumble upon the answer as to who MikeLike is.  MikeLike may be useful for some, as it offers private pin boards, but through no fault of Pinterest, a rogue extension downloaded to Chrome led to a great deal of confusion.

The Lesson

When installing Chrome Extensions or any sort of browser tool, try to use the official extension from the source if you can, even if the functionality lacks.   This is a major violation of my Chrome and Internet privacy, and also any others who have downloaded this specific extension.  I’ve since deleted the “Pinterest Button” with no hesitation.  Since there is no official Pinterest button extension for Chrome, I have found a reliable substitute called “Pinterest Pin It” (by Shareaholic).   It has all of the same functionality and it doesn’t force users to Like someone named Mike.

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Quick and Dirty Marketing Tips for Busy People

quick and dirty marketing tips for busy people

As a media and marketing company, we have heard every excuse in the book for why people don’t implement an online marketing strategy for their small business.  But the one excuse heard most is “I don’t have the time.”  If this sounds like something you’ve uttered in the past six months, there is a cure!

Believe it or not, everyone is busy.  Not just with their business, but with life: school, kids, home, chores, and family.  Read on for some quick and dirty marketing tips for busy people just like you:

  1. 5 Minute Follow-Backs – Go to your Twitter page right now and see how many people have followed you, but who you haven’t followed back.  Good online business etiquette tells us that we should always follow back.  Not only will you be respectful of those who have followed you, oftentimes you will get more followers that very same day.  You will show up on their “Following” list.  This is a genuine form of recommendation for your potential customers.
  2. 10 Minute Twitter Transformation – Change up your background to mimic a campaign you are currently running.  Upload a new Twitter icon that reflects the season or time of year.  Make sure your Bio is up to date.  After you make these simple changes, tweet about it!  Ask your followers what they think.
  3. 15 Minute Facebook Fixes – You do know what Timeline is, right?  If not, check out our Facebook page to see it in action properly.  Add a relevant cover photo to your Facebook business page.  Feature a new product or campaign you are running.  Also edit your profile picture thumbnail so that it is viewed correctly when forced to be square (as opposed to a rectangle).  To do this, go to your Facebook’s business page and hover over your profile picture.  Click “Edit Profile Picture”, then “Edit Thumbnail”.  Drag the photo to select the portion of the profile image you want as the thumbnail or select “scale to fit” to use the entire image.
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Leap Day Calls to Action

At the end of this month, we will actually be observing February 29, a day usually not in our yearly calendars.  But do you know the reasoning behind leap year?  Basically, it takes the Earth 365 days and 6 hours to complete an entire revolution around the sun.  Therefore, leap day occurs every 4 years to account for the 6 hour difference (6×4=24).  Fun fact: people born on leap day are known as “leaplings”.  But enough of a  lesson for today…

Leap Day calls to action - Louve Notes Media GroupSince this day only occurs every 4 years, you should run a promotion that celebrate the rare occurrence of this day.  Here are a few marketing ideas for to gather traffic to your website on Leap Day:

  • The 29th person to subscribe to your blog will win a free e-book
  • 29% discount sales
  • Customers born on 2/29 will receive a complimentary facial
  • Host a “Leaping Competition” at your gym to see who can jump the highest/farthest
  • Donate 2.9% of your profits for the day to a local charity
  • Give out freebies to your customers at 2:29pm
  • Give every customer a “Leap coupon” that will allow them to come back on 3/1 for a 29% discount on any product or service
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Show Your Blog Some Louve

Love your blogThis Valentine’s Day, show your blog some Love by following these simple steps:

  1. Love your blog by updating on a weekly basis – if you don’t, who else will?
  2. Answer and respond to the comments left by your loving readers
  3. Make sure your sharing buttons are up to date with the latest social media sites (Google+ and Tumblr)
  4. If you have a reader comment on your blog, comment on their too!
  5. Ask a trusted blogger to write a guest blog for your site – maybe they’ll ask you to do the same
  6. Change your background, but keep with your company’s colors and theme
  7. Write about what your customers want to read about
  8. Include current events and some pop culture references to engage your current readers and collect new readers
  9. Make sure to have multiple bloggers contributing to your blog – everyone blogs differently, so this will appeal to a wide range of audiences
  10. Don’t shamelessly promote your business every chance you get – social media etiquette is key
  11. No one is going to read 4 pages of solid text – make your posts 200-400 words and break up the text with relevant images
  12. Get your own domain name – don’t use a subdomain from a hosting website:www.YourAwesomeSite.wordpress.com vs. www.YourAwesomeSite.com This tells your readers that you are serious and professional about your site
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