It just seems to be human nature that even if someone isn’t engaged by the content of an email, they will often scroll down to the signature block to see who it is from. They’re just looking for a name and title, but while you have their attention, it’s a great time to take a second shot at connecting with them. By adding a little teaser to your signature area, you may just get them to click.
The marketing automation system you implement can have a pronounced impact on everything from lead generation to website conversion rate. Needless to say, this is an important decision. However, it doesn’t have to be a difficult one. As you evaluate your options, you just need to keep some key considerations in mind. Then, the right solution for you will reveal itself pretty readily.
Lead nurturing is the process of repeatedly reaching out to a prospect as they make their way into and through the sales funnel. The goal is to provide helpful content that answers the questions the prospect has at each point along their buyer's journey. Lead nurturing creates confidence in your prospect that your solution is what they need. That’s a little different than the old-school approach to marketing, which was to send a list of product features and functions to a prospect, and if they were interested, great—and if not, so be it. While that sort of “one and done” approach didn’t require a lot of time and effort, it was not, as you can imagine, very effective.
Oh, how time flies! I can’t believe I’m saying that fall has officially arrived, but it has. And before you know it, we’ll be handing out candy, eating turkey, wrapping presents, and ringing in a new year! I suppose as marketers we're especially sensitive to the passage of time, as we’re constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve.
Social media marketing is a powerful strategy for getting more name recognition and increasing your market share. One of the beauties of this medium is how easy it is to publish a post or an update. However, for that reason many organizations figure they can connect with their audience whenever they can carve out a few minutes to draft a post. The truth is, it not only matters what you say to your audience, but when you say it.
Blogs are a little like humans: they start small, but if properly cared for, they grow quickly. Then they reach digital “adulthood” and are strong and vigorous. But, alas, over time they tend to weaken a bit and are susceptible to all manner of illnesses. But, the good news is, unlike people, who must inevitably succumb, your blog doesn’t have to. By identifying and treating what ails this very important appendage of your inbound marketing strategy, you can keep it cruising along in the “prime of life.”
As I’ve stated many times in the past, we’re huge fans of the HubSpot marketing automation platform at 30dps. And… full disclosure here… we’ve taken that love for HubSpot to the point of becoming a Certified Agency Partner. One of the reasons we’ve done that is that the system has a ton of powerful tools that are all available from a single interface. When it comes to social media marketing, HubSpot’s Social Monitoring tool is one of our favorites.
One of the many great features of a marketing automation tool like HubSpot is the ability to set up email workflows that deftly and automatically nurture prospects by delivering the right marketing content in the right sequence. However, as one of the top HubSpot agencies in Colorado, we advise the clients we work with nationwide that in order to make the most of email workflows, you have to use them wisely. “Automated” should never be equated with “mindless” or “robotic.”
When it comes to distributing, promoting, tracking, and optimizing marketing content for an inbound marketing program, HubSpot is head and shoulders above other platforms, in my estimation. That’s why we are a HubSpot Certified Agency Partner, and one of the top HubSpot agencies in Colorado. But the company is about more than just managing content—they have some great strategies for creating it. Their Content Marketing Hacks guide includes insights from content experts within and outside the company. I share some of the ones that we have found most useful at 30dps below. If your team isn’t using these hacks, and others in the guide, you should be!
We frequently talk about how producing and promoting compelling marketing content can be a game-changer for companies looking to get the attention of the their target personas and gain more market share. But how, specifically, does content influence the purchasing process? A new report from the Content Marketing Institute and SmartBrief sheds a little light on the subject.
As one of the top HubSpot agencies in Colorado, we know that if there’s one eternal truth about the best ways to get website visitors to convert, it’s that there’s no eternal truth about the best ways to get website visitors to convert! As a marketer, what you must do is revisit the constantly evolving best practices and review your website regularly in light of them to ensure you’re maximizing your chances of turning visitors into leads—and ultimately into customers. Interestingly, this “never rest” approach falls right in line with the growth-driven design (GDD) concept that we're such fans of.
Consistent blogging has proven to help companies grow their audience and achieve better ranking on the SERPs (search engine results pages). If you want your content marketing efforts to be effective (and who doesn’t?), it just makes sense to blog on a regular basis. That said, you may at times be at a loss for what to write about next. Don’t let that stress you out! As one of the top boutique inbound marketing agencies in Missouri, Colorado, and Washington, we know that there are a number of data-driven ways to determine what interests your audience.
As you may have guessed from our many blog posts on the topic of content marketing, we’re huge proponents. Not only has it delivered tremendous results for our clients, it has done the same for us. That said, it would be wrong to portray content marketing as all “unicorns and rainbows.” As one of the top inbound marketing agencies in Colorado, Missouri, and Washington, we are always honest with our clients nationwide about the fact that there are things about inbound that may make you uncomfortable at first.
Most companies today have some form of social media strategy. For your organization, social media might be a key component of your marketing plan (as it should be!), or you might simply write a blog post every few months and tweet once a week. In either case, there are always ways to improve the depth of the connection you have with your prospects and customers. As one of the top HubSpot agencies in Colorado, the first piece of advice we give to our clients is to use HubSpot to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their social media strategy. From there, there are a number of ways to fine-tune your use of social media.
At first blush, inbound marketing seems to be as exceptionally simple as it is effective. You just create and promote great content on a regular basis and soon you’ll have a consistent flow of solid leads that turn into closed deals. However, as people new to the strategy soon learn, there are a number of potential problems you can encounter. Knowing what they are and how to avoid them can make the difference between budget well spent and wasted.
It goes without saying that social media marketing can provide tremendous benefits for any organization, but I’ll say it anyway! As one of the top HubSpot agencies in Colorado, we advise our clients nationwide to take advantage of the sales-boosting prospect engagement that you can derive from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms. And when they do, we point out that the social media reports in HubSpot are a great way to analyze the effectiveness of your social media outreach so you can continually evolve your strategy for ever-better results.
Hopefully you’re taking a comprehensive approach to content marketing and inbound marketing: creating and promoting great marketing content, connecting with your target audience through a variety of social media channels, continually fine-tuning your website copy and landing pages, and coordinating all your efforts through a marketing automation tool like HubSpot. If you are, your blog posts are just one element of your strategy. Consequently, you may simply be “cranking them out” to keep the content flowing. However, failing to give these important communiques the attention they deserve means you may be missing out on the tremendous awareness and engagement benefits they can produce.
I don’t know if this is one of those business axioms that has already been stated, but if it’s not, it should be: The best customers you’ll ever acquire are the ones you already have. What do I mean by that? Well, simply that the cost of attracting, nurturing, and ultimately converting prospects to customers will always be higher than the cost of selling existing customers more of your products or services. There’s even a term for this concept: customer lifetime value. And while companies tend to associate content marketing with generating leads and closing new deals, it is equally powerful when it comes to retaining existing customers.
While they might take offense at the comparison, your prospects are a little like fish. We all are. We swim around the internet having a quick taste of some of the trillion pieces of marketing content out there to consume. In the vast majority of cases, we immediately let go and keep swimming. But every now and again there’s something we just can’t release. We’ve been hooked. This doesn’t happen by accident. The content marketing angler at the other end of that line knew exactly how to get your attention. And now, having engaged, you’re much, much more likely to become a customer.
In the final analysis, content marketing isn’t really about content—it’s about trust. OK, it’s about content too, but in order for your inbound marketing program to be effective, you’ve got to earn the confidence and respect of your target personas. They have to believe you are who you say you are and that you can deliver what you say you can deliver. So, while we talk a lot at 30dps about creating content that is “engaging” and “informative,” it’s also critical that your content “generates trust.”
