Inbound Marketing From a Maui Beach by FatIguana

Many business owners understand they should blog for business Internet marketing success! The marketing and tech industry press media have done a good job of proclaiming the benefits of blogging and data shows web sites that include an active blog receive more traffic and leads than web sites without a connected blog. Unfortunately, the hype has left a void for many small business owners who simply don't understand why a blog will benefit them, how to correctly setup a blog, or how to utilize their blog to drive traffic as a component of their overall Internet marketing strategy.

Would you like more ROI and improved results from your business Internet marketing efforts? The following 5 tips are intended to quickly improve your business Internet marketing success with only minimal effort and time:

Incease Leads and Sales From Your Website!

One guestion we are often asked is "How Does Inbound Marketing Produce New Leads and New Sales for My Business?" So, we present the three key benefits your business will receive as a result of implementing and practicing Inbound Marketing for your business:

I'm frequently asked to explain the best practices for blog and web site image preparation. Or, I get asked for the techniques I use when I perform search engine optimization for images. I've compiled four suggestions with examples intended to help you gain the most SEO benefit from your web site pages or business blog. The techniques are NOT difficult to adapt or implement. Like many SEO techniques, more a tedious implementation detail to be performed only after establishing a solid keyword strategy and understanding why specific keywords are being used. Here are my image optimization tips:

I recently participated in an interesting sales call. The vendor was attempting to include my business in their 2011 who's who listing. In a matter of minutes, the sales person quickly discounted pricing from $799 annual to $9.95 monthly. The offer price went lower and lower with merely the slightest objection and (more surprising) without asking me single question. Is this a worthwhile tactic? Does it make sense for a business to spend the amount of time this sales person invested attempting to gain a $9.95 a month customer?

If you watch or have heard of Mixed Martial Arts, you are probably aware of the term ‘win by submission’. The term describes an opponent who has ‘tapped out’ or otherwise lost because of submission by a choke hold or other debilitating tactic. Do you think your web site visitors want to 'submit'?

You thought you felt an earthquake? What do you do?

1. Constantly create new relevant worthwhile valuable content your audience is seeking. Content is still ‘King'! As a marketer, we have more opportunities to provide quality content your future customers will ask for. The use of Content Curation is growing and eases the burden of creating unique high quality content your community will cherish.
2. Social Media Crisis - It is Not ‘Will it Happen’ - It is ‘When it Happens’! Be prepared with a Social Media ‘Crisis Management Plan’ so you’ll be prepared to act to bad and good situations. I attended a case study demonstrating the importance of planning for and managing a social media crisis. “Any business needs a Social Media Crisis Plan"including specific steps to manage how your business will react in real time when situations manifest. In our viral world of Word of Mouse, the case study included examples of large well-known brands such as Nike, the NRA, Obama, and The Yankees to demonstrate the importance of having a plan to manage crisis when a business encounters negativity. It is not enough to count on your audience to come to your aid! Often, it is best to engage with your audience, understand the reasons behind or causing the issue, and demonstrate that you and the business care about the person and the issues. You don’t have to apologize, accept blame or devalue your business.  You need to have a plan to manage the situation, usually with thoughtful commentary responding directly to the issue.
3. Marketing and Sales continue to meld into one common goal oriented model providing increased ROI. Business advisors versed in ‘SMarketing’ and capable of creating strategies to strengthen and encourage common goals for Sales and Marketing are leading the ‘New Agencies’.
4. Data going through mobile is doubling every 30 days! Just having a web site that looks OK on a mobile device does NOT mean your business is mobile enabled or taking advantage of the mobile opportunities to reach new audience for your business. Supplying a useful application to your audience is one example of using mobile devices for business.
5. Video adaptation is growing at amazingly rapid rates! It takes two years to watch the amount of video posted to the Internet every 2 seconds!! Video production and distribution capabilities have already shifted from the traditionally expensive large studio model to a model where nearly ‘everyone’ is capable of producing high quality video and making it available for ‘their’ audience to enjoy. The recent live broadcasts of the Inbound Marketing Summit on ThePulseNetwork.comare one example. My business partner watched live from Maui, Hawaii while I attended the sessions in person. Though she didn’t gain the invaluable networking benefits, she was able to enjoy the presentations and benefit from the learning opportunities as if she was there at Foxboro Stadium, MIT and Hubspot in Boston. As the Internet and television convergence continues, the traditional expensive model where advertisers force viewers to watch their ads is already mostly obsolete. Instead, viewers already watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it. Combine the flexibility of choices based on recommendations from friends and community with ease of distribution, and it is clear to see the shift in advertising opportunities. Smart advertisers will use opportunities created when viewers’ friends and community recommend a brand, service or product. For that to occur willingly and without coercion (forcing ads at people who don’t want them), business must be engaged. Video is a form of content proven to engage audiences.

I’ll be exploring many of these Inbound Marketing topics with greater depth over the coming weeks. Are you ready to earn money from your web site? Give us a call at 808.6815. If you enjoyed the article above or have contrasting opinions, I welcome your comments below.

I've completed my 5K mile journey to Boston from my home in Maui, Hawaii. You're probably thinking, 'most travel from the mainland to Maui, NOT the direction he traveled!' What could have been compelling enough to make anyone embark on this sojourn? I'm in Boston to attend the HubSpot User Group, the Inbound Marketing Summit and Future M (What's Next in Marketing) events this week. What a week to be an Inbound Marketer and in Boston!!

Last week I wrote a blog article on how my husband, Philip Johnson, has transitioned from reading the newspaper everyday to using a RSS reader to get all the latest world news and technology articles related to his Inbound Marketing business. While he was reviewing my article, he noted that I used the term 'cell phone' and reminded me that this was not the correct terminology. He got me thinking "You're right! It is no longer just a 'cellular phone', it's a 'portable device'".