The Power of Inbound Marketing How changes in human behavior and the web landscape have led to a revolution in customer acquisition (and how marketers can take advantage!)
How Things Used to Be Sold
1921
1955
1983
1998
2011
The Process of Selling Hasn’t Changed…
The Process of Buying Has…
How People Buy Today
Realize a Need
Research Options
Ask Peers and Experts
Seek Out Experts
Leverage Q+A Sites & Forums
Dig Into Every Detail Available
Convert, Buy, Trial
Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing
Inbound MarketingOutbound Marketing Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter) Blogs + News Sites Links from Partners + Friends Forums + Discussion Sites Q+A Answers w/ a Link User Profiles + Comments Opt-In Newsletters Organic Search Rankings Inclusion in Universal Search Results Viral Content Display Advertising Buying Lists Site Sponsorships Demographic Targeting Affiliate Marketing Video Ads Paid Search Ads Contextual Ad Networks (AdSense) Facebook Ads
You Must Become a Go-To Resource Expert Sometimes, a single piece of content or just a few, can yield these results but, more often, it takes dozens to hundreds of attempts to become a resource hub. Site that offers: Unique Research Informed Opinions News/Trend Analysis Multimedia Content Authentic Expert Contributors Quality Discussion/Interaction Site that offers: Unique Research Informed Opinions News/Trend Analysis Multimedia Content Authentic Expert Contributors Quality Discussion/Interaction Referenced by industry blogs Mentioned in news publications Cited at conferences + events Liked/Shared on Facebook Links are Tweeted Answers on Q+A sites reference its resources Forum discussions link to its pages People links to each other
Tips, Strategies & Channels for Effective Marketing
Discover What People Want By Asking Them! Polls Q&A Surveys Contests
Maturate & Engage in Dialogues Pre Sales Process
For some great Facebook-focused marketing tactics, check out facebook-marketing-tactics-you-might-not-know-abouthttp:// facebook-marketing-tactics-you-might-not-know-about Facebook More fans = more people potentially exposed to your content. But… You also need to create posts that will show up in “top news” on your fans’ walls. That’s more challenging.
I highly recommend which helps show the correlation between activities on Twitter and your ability to have the message spread. Twitter It’s not just about the follower count. Your tweets have to count for something and drive actions/awareness.
Good advice on LinkedIn profiles here - profile-for-best-results-howto (also, don’t miss the comments which discuss how the links work). profile-for-best-results-howto LinkedIn Like Facebook, LinkedIn now has a wall that drives “likes” and comments (as well as traffic). LinkedIn’s “Groups” are a powerful way to grow your network and spread a message.
Every two years, we put out but leave the URL the same, so it continues to accrue great link/social/sharing signals. Evergreen Content
After producing what is, admittedly, an awesome graphic Paralegal.net rose to page one in Google (and got bjillions of drive-by visits, too). Infographics
The genius game-like badges, points and progress at has helped make it one of the most successful sites in the Q+A world. Gamification
Feeds aren’t just useful for subscribers. They “ping” search engines, enable easy syndication and can be used by lots of content aggregators that send traffic, too. Blog Content Feeds On average, this many people actually read a post via feed
Fostering Community
These ( emulate the success of places like LinkedIn, Quora, Stackoverflow and others. They’ve increased participation and traffic to the profiles dramatically. User Profiles Progress Bar Highly customizable profile details Custom Photo Links to other web profiles
Guest blogging (or contributing content to any type of publisher) is a great way to build your brand and earn links. Tools like can help make the process easier. Partner Blogging + Writing
Partner Generated Content
HARO ( is a popular service that lets you get contacted when relevant reporters/journalists need sources. Hrmarketer ( ). Direct Connections to Journalists
Presentations = Engagement
I did a brief, 4-minute presentation at the Seattle 2.0 Awards - ceo-rand-fishkin-googles-panda-update that promoted our hiring + growth (focused on that audience’s values rather than trying to sell to them) ceo-rand-fishkin-googles-panda-update Live Events
Our webinars attract 500-1,000 attendees and earn lots of tweets, blog posts and links. Hubspot’s get 10K+ attendees attract 500-1,000http:// Webinars
I put many of my presentation on where they earn thousands of additional views. Online Presentations
Video
YouTube actually ranks as the second largest “search property” in the US, behind only Google: uploaded-every-minute/ uploaded-every-minute/ YouTube Don’t be a honey badger. Care about YouTube’s potential!
The “Long Tail” of Video Sites Long tail of video sites get 50% of all online video traffic/views!
At SEOmoz, we use who submits our video XML sitemaps to Google for us - Self-Hosted Video Content
Step #1: Promote Step #2:Test Step #3: Repeat Find marketing communities that look promising. Invest a few days/hours building authentic value in that niche/sector. Throw out low ROI programs; repeat high ROI programs.