Inbound Marketing: You’re Not Doing it Right

Sep 26 2011

My Internet’s Not Working…

Almost every day, we talk to people about their Internet marketing efforts.

Most of the conversations start off something like this:

“We have a Facebook page but it’s done nothing for our business”

“We started a company blog last year but haven’t seen more visitors to our site”

“We spent a lot of money on Google Ads and got very little return out of it”

The DIY Web Marketing Myth

Today, putting up a web site and getting a Facebook account is so easy your grandma could do it. 

But setting up your marketing tools is just the beginning.  

Now the hard part begins – establishing a presence on the Internet, driving traffic, converting traffic to leads and ultimately increasing revenue. 

And trying out social media with a couple of interns and a tiny budget just doesn’t cut it anymore.  

The bar continues to be raised every day. 

To make matters worse, the easy accessibility of free tools like WordPress, Facebook, Twitter etc. give people the false impression that the tool is the solution.

All they have to do is set up their free Twitter account and their marketing woes are gone forever. 

This is just plain false. 

Yes, in the hands of skilled technicians, tools are indispensible.  But in the wrong hands, they can be disastrous or at the very least ineffective. 

Would you trust your 5 year old with a chainsaw? I hope not. 

It’s the same idea with web marketing. 

Google’s own Avinash Kaushik even says that you should invest 10% of your budget in tools and 90% of your budget in people. 

It’s that important. 

Web Marketing Has Grown Up

Most companies tend to be good at some parts of web marketing, but not others. 

For example, some are great at creating content but aren’t good at generating traffic from it.

Others are great drivers of traffic but don’t know how to convert all those new visitors to leads.  

This common problem is often why their web marketing efforts fail. 

And it’s not easy to get right. It takes skills, perseverance and a willingness to try and fail until you get it right. 

These days, if you wish your web marketing efforts to succeed, you need access to: 

  • Marketing strategy talent
  • Top notch design and user experience talent
  • Keyword and expertise
  • Writing ability (hired an out-of-work journalist yet?)
  • Editorial and publishing experience
  • Video production capability
  • Conversion optimization experience
  • A/B testing experience
  • Analytics interpretation experience
  • Lots of time and energy

Inbound Marketing Methodology

Regardless of whether you hire those skill sets in-house or you partner with an agency, make sure they have the skills and methodology that covers all the bases of inbound marketing. 

Not doing so, can result in less than stellar results in your web marketing program. 

 

Spark Inbound Marketing Methodology

Here at Spark, we think about inbound marketing all day long. If you’d like to chat with us about our Inbound Marketing Methodology, drop us line. 

Posted by SparkMarketing on September 26, 2011 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips in 30 Days: Tip #6 – Write a Blog Post

Dec 6 2010

Marketing Tip #6: Write a Blog Post – Today!

Remember Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote: “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

Your goal should be to publish a blog post at least once a week.  If you haven’t done so this week, do it today!  The best way to attract new customers to your website is through fresh, relevant content that addresses the needs, wants, and desires of your prospects.  Make it fun, interesting, unique, and above all – make it happen.

Having trouble keeping up?  Ask about our blog writing service.

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 6, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

30 Marketing Tips in 30 Days: Tip #4 – Commit to Content

Dec 4 2010

Marketing Tip #4: Commit to Content Marketing

There’s a reason we here at Spark Marketing spend our days, nights, and weekends writing content for our clients.  The reason is, it works!  The role of content in marketing your business online cannot be understated.  It is the magnet that makes inbound marketing work for so many companies.

The thing is, we’re not talking about content for content sake.  We’re not talking about producing meaningless content and publishing it all over the web in the hopes that something will happen.  The type of content your business needs requires a commitment to producing truly remarkable content that attracts the right prospects and converts them into leads and sales.

Blog posts, whitepapers, downloadable guides, videos, presentations, articles, press releases — there are endless formats your content can take.  When you produce such content with quality and uniqueness in mind, optimize it, and promote it online — you’ve got a recipe for success.

Learn more about the role of content by downloading our free marketing guide, “Power of In: Inbound Marketing to Attract Results.“

Posted by CristiSpahr on December 4, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

What’s Wrong With Your Website Lead Generation?

Jun 10 2010

You designed your website to generate leads and sales for your products or services.  You spent several thousand dollars to build a great looking website and now there it is — out on the web for all to see. But wait a minute…where are all those leads??

The culprit can be any number of issues and we’ve outlined the most common issues below. But don’t be discouraged because the good news is, they’re all fixable!

Here are the most common problems we find with websites that are not generating the expected volume of leads:

1. Your website isn’t being found.

First things first: can your target market find your website? And we mean easily, without knowing the name of your company, and without having to go through 4 pages of search results on Google (because really, don’t you usually stop on the first page of results?). This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play.

Not to go into all the details of SEO, you can read more about our SEO services, but the point is that your prospects need to find you so it’s your job (or a company you hire) to make sure your company shows up in search engine result pages (SERPs) for the terms that your target audience is using to find the solutions you provide.

The way you’ll show up on these pages is by having a site that is well structured with relevant content that can be easily indexed by Google (or any other engine) as well as by having high quality inbound links. You need to be mindful of the content on your site because remember, it’s the content on your site that helps improve your rankings. The better and more relevant the content, the better your rankings will be on the SERPs.

2. Your website is too darn difficult to navigate.

Next up, once someone has found you and has landed on your site, can they quickly and easily find what they’re looking for? Part of a great website design is not only that it looks good, but that it’s also easy to navigate. Do your website visitors need a GPS system to navigate through your website? Or can they find what they’re looking for with a simple click of the mouse? Are your subpages easy to find via drop downs? Do you give users crucial information right up front on the homepage?

Part of the whole web 2.0 craze is about making your website user-focused. Having a flash movie that opens up when someone lands on your website is not helping them find the information they want and need in a timely manner.

Figure out what your core offerings are, the reasons people are coming to your site, and put them right there on the homepage so it’s easy for the user to find it, use it, and eventually convert. The fewer clicks it takes someone to get to the right information, the better. If a user is left to click and click, and click some more…chances are they’re going to leave your site out of sheer frustration.

3. Your content is sorely lacking.

Assuming your visitor has been able to locate the information they’re looking for on your website, the question becomes, what do you have to say? Is your website content compelling them to stay and read on, watch on, or look on? Or is it boring, self-centered, and poorly developed?

People need a reason to care. On your website, you need to give them one (or several). Make sure your content is accurate, informative, and try to be exciting. Use lists, bullet points, and images to break up the text, and don’t put too much information on each page – think about 350 words per page – that’s it.  Use video and other content appropriately.

You want your visitor to be able to quickly grasp the idea and be convinced that you have what they’re looking for, and then make it easy for them to convert. If writing is not your strong point, then think about hiring someone to help you write better content – it’s not very expensive, but it is very important. Check out our content writing services to get help.

4. You’re not HELPING your visitors become leads.

What do you want a prospect to do when they visit your website? Helping people to convert largely means making it easy and obvious for them to do what you want them to do. Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? Request a quote or a meeting? Purchase directly from your website? Whatever the goal is, and it can be different based on where they are in your website, it needs to be obvious.

Create large and/or noticeable calls to action that stand out, tell them to “request pricing” or “download our free guide” or “request a proposal”. Also remember that your visitors will be in different stages of their buying cycle when they arrive at your website. Your site should be responsive to this fact by offering a variety of ways for visitors to “raise their hands” and tell you who they are.

Some people want to pick up the phone and call you, some people want to schedule a meeting, some people just want you to email them the information they’re looking for – you need to be mindful of the different personality types and offer calls to action that are appealing to a variety of personas.

And oh by the way, since we’re talking about leads – don’t forget those feedback forms. Make it easy for prospects to become leads by having response forms built into your website.

Get the help you need to generate more leads on your website:

At Spark Inbound Marketing, we spend all day every day enacting lead generation strategies for our clients. Let us do the same for you by requesting a complimentary website assessment for your business.

Posted by CristiSpahr on June 10, 2010 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |

Where is Content Development on Your Priority List?

Dec 1 2009

Too many companies underestimate the power of content as it relates to attracting more business online. They fail to put the necessary resources toward content development on the web and instead spend all of their time and effort (and money!) on cool designs and flashy features.  Don’t get me wrong, great design is essential but content is the single most important ingredient in a recipe that attract prospects to your website.

If you want your website to work as it should, anticipate the needs and wants of your prospects and produce content that delivers answers and solutions to their most pressing concerns.  Content can take the shape of a blog post, an article, a guide, a webinar, a video, or any number of other variations.  Produce your content in a variety of formats and cover the most popular topics that relate to your company’s offerings.

Tip: When thinking about content for your site or blog, always put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Think about how your customers will find you, what their interests are, and what will be entertaining and appealing to them.

In the end, the content you create should be useful, trustworthy, and relevant to the buyer’s place in their purchase process.  Understand how your customer buys then think about the type of content you can create to help move your prospect along their buying cycle toward your product or service — all the while creating content that is completely focused on the user (not you).  This approach will result in more leads and sales for your company and prospects that keep on coming.

Need help with content development?  Check out our content development services or request a meeting to discuss your needs with us.

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Posted by CristiSpahr on December 1, 2009 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks | | | Post to Twitter | Subscribe to Feed |