Monthly Archives: August 2010

It’s hard to describe exactly why, but my schedule in New Orleans made each day like Groundhog Day, and each day I failed to take the time to post in this space. Continue reading →

Here at HubSpot we sing the praises of Inbound Marketing from the rooftops. Yes, it is an amazing way to see growth in your SEO goals, website traffic, leads and customers. It helps you develop a deeper engagement and establish yourself as a thought leader. But, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Proper inbound marketing can take a lot of hard work.

We asked the HubSpot Partners what they think the hardest part of inbound marketing is and how they work through these challenges.

Partner Teicko Hubert of Focus to Grow believes the hardest part is the understanding “of the cultural shift that has to happen to make inbound marketing work” and that “a website is merely fiction unless you understand how inbound marketing works.” That said, Teicko believes that this change can be overcome, but, “it takes diligence and a hyped focus on refining your story telling skills and probing skills.” This is a great point, just like learning any other skill, inbound marketing takes hard work and there’s an adjustment period.

Another successful partner, Phillip Johnson of Fatiguana Endeavors, says that he feels the biggest challenge is having the time to create content. However, by “creating both long and short term strategies for content creation and broader Inbound Marketing tactics” you can start to see benefits sooner and the reward of all the time you are investing. Seeing shorter term results often gives you a boost of confidence that you are on the right path and can help direct your long term strategy.

Of course once you get started with inbound marketing, you have to keep it up. Inbound Marketing Experts’ Andy Xhignesse reminds us that inbound marketing has to be an ongoing part of your daily routine. While positive results are great, you cannot stop as soon as you they occur. Instead, see them as a sign that you’re on the right track and keep going!

Finally, our always wise partner Dale Berkebile of Brandwise, chimed in to remark that inbound marketers always need to keep their priorities in order and remember “quality over quantity.” It’s great if you have a large reach but keep in mind, you also need to engage with them. As Dale says, “500+ Facebook fans + 9000 follower[s] + no interaction = disaster.”

So what do all of these partners’ suggestions have in common? Well first, don’t give up! Inbound Marketing can take time. Second, there’s no one “thing” that you can do to guarantee success. It’s not just followers, it’s not just content creation, it’s not just having a great website. It’s what happens when all of these pieces, and more, come together to form a unified inbound marketing strategy.

   

Free Download: 2010 Online Marketing Blueprint

   

       

   

   

Learn how to create an online marketing strategy for your business

    Download this free eBook for tutorials in website optimization, lead nurturing, social media marketing and more!   

   

   

Connect with HubSpot:

Continue reading →

What we’re following:

– Hurricane Earl, a major Category 4 storm, heads for the U.S. coast

– Suspicious luggage leads to terror arrests

– Alleged drug lord captured in Mexico

And did you see… Continue reading →

Twice a year Professor Christine Moorman at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business surveys hundreds of CMOs to get an overall measure of what is happening in marketing as part of a project aptly called The CMO Survey.  Below are a couple highlights from the latest report, released today.

Marketing Spending Should Increase

The CMOs reported that on average their budgets would increase 9.2%, a much larger increase than any of the other surveys done in the past 2 years.  Clearly companies are starting to invest in marketing as they see the economy improving.  Another factor might be that budgets that had been cut before during the recession might now be allowed to grow back to their previous size.

Internet Marketing Spending to Grow

The CMOs also reported that on average they were going to grow their spending on internet marketing by 13.6%, a much larger increase than in any other area.  Just like 6 months ago, CMOs are cutting spending on traditional advertising.  It seems that the better marketing ROI from internet marketing and inbound marketing is influencing the investment decisions CMOs are making.  I would personally love to know if this spending is still online advertising focused or if CMOs are starting to invest in more content generation and community management to leverage inbound marketing, but that was not included in the survey.

Social Media Marketing Spending Increasing

As part of that increase in spending on internet marketing, the survey reports that social media marketing spending is increasing over time.  Unfortunately it is not clear from the data if this is just more spending on advertising on social media websites like Facebook, or if companies are making an investment in inbound marketing by hiring people to create content and build relationships with their target market online.  This latter type of investment is the type of activity that can transform your marketing to be a lot more effective.  Merely advertising on Facebook instead of the local newspaper is not going to transform your marketing.

What do you think?  Do these CMOs have it right?  How would you allocate your company’s marketing budget if you ran the show and could start with a blank slate?

Free Download: Marketing Data: 50+ Marketing Charts and Graphs

Connect with HubSpot:

Continue reading →

The view from the Nightly News workspace

Continue reading →

A few months ago, I did some research into visualizing how a story spreads across the Twitterverse and how that spread could be visualized.

Using a combination of the Twitter API, the TweetMeme API and the Processing visualization library, I was able to graph the spread of a handful of popular links.

In the TweetMaps below the circles represent each user who ReTweeted the link, they’re bigger or smaller based on the number of followers they have. People who are following accounts that Tweeted the link before they did have lines drawn to the accounts they’re following (and could have “caught” the link from).

The graphs show the first wave of Tweets of each link (generally the first few hours). When you see a number of circles extending horizontally across the graph that means that those accounts all Tweeted the link very close together in time.

The first example is a post on the HubSpot blog. You’ll notice there’s a line of accounts that posted the link at very similar times. This is because there are a number of automated Twitter accounts that post every link on the HubSpot blog RSS. You’ll see this pattern again in the examples below. You’ll also notice that there is a high amount of variance in the size of the circles, indicating that the people who Tweeted the link have varying amounts of followers, and there is a high amount of interconnectivity between them as well.

The next example is from celebrity gossip blog TheFABlife. The difference is striking, other than a single, highly followed account (which is probably the blog’s own official account) all of the other accounts have few followers. This is a good indication that this link’s audience is much more “mainstream.” Again notice the high level of interconnectedness visible.

Now let’s look at a TweetMap of a link from Seth Godin’s blog. You’ll notice there isn’t one big account that starts the chain (since there is no active, official Seth Godin Twitter account). There is a lower amount of interconnectivity present than in the previous examples, and most Tweeters have low numbers of followers.

The above example is from MSNBC’s site. There are very few connections between ReTweeters, and there are a few very large accounts amidst mostly low-follower accounts. The large accounts are probably official MSNBC accounts.

An example from FoxNews tells the story of a community with a high variation in follower counts and lots of inter-connections.

An example from Alternet.org shows a set of accounts with lots of followers and a moderate amount of connection.

The final example, from TechCrunch, shows the main Techcrunch account followed by a large number of low-follower accounts. It also displays lots of connections and a large automated Tweeting line.

Marketing Takeaway

The internet now gives marketers a way to map word-of-mouth that was previously impossible. Take the time to understand how your content as well as your competitors content spreads online. Look for opportunities to optimize the word-of-mouth spread of your content on Twitter and other social networks.

Free Download: Marketing Data: 50+ Marketing Charts and Graphs

Connect with HubSpot:

Continue reading →

What we’re following:

– Hurricane Earl could grow to a Category 4 storm

– Seven U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan on Monday

– ER visits for concussions soar among young athletes

And did you see… Continue reading →

In HubSpot-approved Grateful Dead parlance, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”  Just two years ago, Microsoft made a $45+ billion bid for Yahoo! but when the two business bemohoths couldn’t agree on a final price, the Redmond-based company withdrew their offer. 

Yet, last week Yahoo said it would begin transitioning to Bing on the back end for search, noting that search results pages would display the line “Powered by Bing” at the bottom for searches using Microsoft’s results.

To provide a bit of background on this endeavor, here is an overview of the Yahoo!/Bing deal from Search Alliance:

How Yahoo! and Microsoft will work together:

• Search ad inventory from Yahoo!, Microsoft and their respective partners will be combined into a new unified search marketplace.
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10-year license to certain Yahoo! search technologies.
• Microsoft will manage the technology platforms that deliver the algorithmic (powered by Bing) and paid (powered by adCenter) search results.
• Full implementation of the terms of the Search Alliance is expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory clearance.
• Yahoo!’s Sales team will exclusively support high volume advertisers, SEO and SEM agencies, and resellers and their clients, and Microsoft will support self-service advertisers. In addition, Microsoft adCenter will be the platform for all search campaigns.

How Yahoo! and Microsoft will compete:

• The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance does not include each company’s display advertising, web properties and products, email, instant messaging, or any other aspect of the companies’ businesses.
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.
• Yahoo! and Microsoft will innovate their own consumer search experiences to compete for search users and search queries.
• Yahoo! and Microsoft will service their respective publishers, also known as affiliate search partners.
• Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.

According to a recent report from comScore, a global leader of digital marketing intelligence, Google Sites accounted for 61.6 percent of total core search queries conducted in July, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 20.1 percent and Microsoft Sites with 12.6 percent. Ask Network captured 3.5 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL LLC with 2.2 percent.

Marketing Takeaway

Microsoft Inc. now owns 28.1% of the search market and even though it represents a bit less than half of Google’s 65.8% share, the new Bing/Yahoo! search entity offers marketers a valuable SEO opportunity.

 

Free Download: Learning SEO From The Expert

Use SEO to drive more visitors to your site!

Download this free eBook for tutorials on keyword research, on-page SEO, link-building, and tips for ongoing SEO improvement!

Connect with HubSpot:

Continue reading →

All businesses love receiving positive online reviews; they’re a great form of third party validation. Still, we all know that not everyone follows the social etiquette rule that states, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

In this week’s top inbound marketing article, John Jantsch discusses his best tips for generating positive and genuine online reviews and testimonials on a routine basis.

1. 5 Ways to Get Rockin Reviews

Author: John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing Blog

Local search directories such as Google Maps and Yelp have made reviews a factor for ranking well in local search, which makes it even more important for businesses to generate positive reviews from their customers. But fake or over-the-top review generation campaigns can actually cause negative results, so Jantsch offers some great ways to create genuine reviews on a consistent basis:

1. Take advantage of references.
2. Repurpose testimonials.
3. Teach the review process to your sales team and customers.
4. Give out your own reviews.
5. Hold a review party.

Marketing Takeaway: Don’t avoid review sites for fear of negative commentary. Instead, embrace them as a way to generate positive testimonials for your company.

2. How to Develop a Case Study 

Author: Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent

On a slightly related topic, Valeria Maltoni examines the value of the case study, which she thinks is a great medium for a B2B company to concretely show its problem solving abilities and success.

In addition to highlighting case studies’ benefits for businesses, Maltoni walks through the process of creating them, from gathering information and content to the variety of ways for structuring their flow.

Marketing Takeaway: Create case studies to showcase the successes your customers have had with your products and/or services.

3. 6 Ultimate On-Page Search Engine Optimization Tips

Author: John Britsios on Search Engine Journal

Are you making a conscious effort to improve your website’s on-page SEO? This article from Search Engine Journal offers six great tips to help make sure your pages are set up with the appropriate on-page search engine optimization attributes.

Specifically, the article advises how to appropriately set up a page’s title tag, description meta tag, keywords meta tag, heading tags, phrase elements, and alt attributes.

Marketing Takeaway: Don’t forget to optimize your website‘s on-page SEO for better visibility in search engines.

4. The Three Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines

Author: Brian Clark of Copyblogger

Despite recent buzz, email is not dead. Yet, we all know how much of a challenge it is to get your subscribers to actually open them in the first place. Therefore, Brian Clark’s article examines the art of creating subject lines that will entice readers to open your emails.

Clark discusses three key elements: the fundamentals (that they be useful, ultra-specific, unique, and urgent), the specifics, and the secret sauce (that you earn initial trust and grow it).

Marketing Takeaway: While there are a lot of elements that can make or break an email, remember that the subject line is the first thing people see.

5. Does Your Landing Page Say Trust Me?

Author: Cynthia Boris on Marketing Pilgrim

Converting site visitors to leads is no easy feat, and a lack of trust will make it even more difficult. Cynthia Boris’ article emphasizes Tim Ash’s “Four Pillars of Trust” that you need in order to make your landing pages convert:

1. Appearance
2. Transactional assurances
3. Authority
4. Consensus of peers

Marketing Takeaway: Verify that your landing pages conform to these four tenants by asking a few random people to visit your site and share their thoughts . Then adjust your landing pages as needed.

Photo Credit: Mike Baird

Free Download: Learning SEO From The Expert

Use SEO to drive more visitors to your site!

Download this free eBook for tutorials on keyword research, on-page SEO, link-building, and tips for ongoing SEO improvement!

Connect with HubSpot:

Continue reading →

Please pardon the raw footage — it’s really hard to hold still in the middle of one of these. (Note the Make it Right houses in the background, plus the bridge over the now-infamous Industrial Canal):
Sounds of a second line Continue reading →