Inbound Marketing and Social Media:

A Recipe for Success Online

Inbound marketing is successful when you view it in terms of a combination of permission marketing and search driven marketing. In other words, you want to be where your potential clients are….when your potential clients are searching for your services. If you are not, you will be ineffective and your inbound marketing strategy will fail.

Central  Hub: You must view your website in terms of a central hub. The idea is to drive as much traffic as possible to your hub by creating excitement, authority, and, above all, interesting content.

Video: We are in the video generation most online advertising and inbound marketing is driven by video. That is where the lion’s share of your clients will come from. An effective video campaign will send your business soaring, a lackluster video campaign will kill it!

Blogging for Business: Blogging is crucial! In fact, the static website of just a few pages is on its way out…if not dead already! The website that is primarily image-based, particularly when it comes to text, is worthless. You will derive ZERO SEO value from images alone. When a website full of images is crawled, it shows up as blank. A balance of text, images, and video is essential. Blogging also develops interest in your business and provides a line of communication between you and your clients that is invaluable. Blogging is essential for any business trying to grow and relate to their target market long term.

Viral Video and the Rest of the Online Guru Hocus Pocus: Forget about viral! Yes, that’s right…forget about it! If you intentionally set out to create a viral video or make some other sort of online media go viral, it will almost certainly fail! Focus on quality content that will interest your target market and get shared.

Note: I have videos and articles on websites around the world and very few, if any, would be considered viral. But they all get shared and it all translates into backlinks, subscribers, social media connections, clients, and friends.

Yes, friends!

Redirects: Redirects can be useful but if you are hoping to derive any SEO value from a super domain name that you are only using as a redirect to your not-so-great url, you are wasting your time, money…and a quality domain name too boot!

Articles: Articles accomplish several things at once. Articles establish you as an authority in your niche, they deliver backlinks to your main hub (although this is changing), and they drive traffic to your main hub. Even with the new shifts in Google’s algorithm, article marketing is still a crucial component of a solid inbound marketing strategy.

John Jones: Who is your target market? What does he look like? What are his interests? How does he dress? You must be able to SEE John Jones in order to relate to him…or Jane Jones for that matter!

Social Media: Social media is also essential! All of the components of an effective inbound marketing strategy must work together, in concert, if you are going to succeed. This is not an optional strategy, it is imperative if you want to compete in today’s market. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook (both personal and a fan/business page), YouTube, Dailymotion, Break, Viddler, Foursquare, and others are the key to social media success. Ping.fm is the best way to reach most of the core social media sites in one blast, Hellotxt is another, and XeeSM.com is the third. If you integrate these social media hubs into your overall strategy it will make your job much easier.

Warning: Do not use social media as a vehicle to spam your followers or you will kill any suucess you may have otherwise achieved! Additionally, if you spam, all you will have following you are fellow spammers…and they will eventually unfollow you as well!

Additional Blogs: Google’s Blogger, Squidoo, HubPages, and others are also useful and can be tied directly into your social media hubs for constant updating! These should be included, as they are virtually effortless to maintain and they do end up on page one!

Keyword Research: Most keywords are insignificant. Many businesses beginning to explore inbound marketing focus on keywords that drive ZERO traffic to your website. The key is to know not only what terms are searched for, something Google does well, it is crucial that you know which keywords get the most CLICKS! Click through rate is crucial.

Google Analytics: Metrics are also key! You must know who is visiting your website and where they are coming from if you are to develop and intelligent and effective, long term inbound marketing strategy.

Testing: A/B testing is probably the simplest and most effective, at least when starting out. Long term strategies can be added from there.

Consistency: An inbound marketing strategy must be applied daily if it to work! Social media can be time intensive at first. The longer you do it, the easier it will become. Blogging must be done at least 3 times per week for best results. A video blog with adequate text to introduce and provide a synopsis of the video can make all the difference in terms of SEO value.

SEO: SEO or search engine optimization is a long term strategy! Yes, there are certain tweaks and some people believe Google provides a bit of a nod to new entities on the web…but that is debatable. Google is King Kong on the Internet right now and they are changing their algorithms constantly. The best strategy is one that is keyword rich and delivers superior content.

Video, Article, and Social Media Delivery Software and Memberships: There are several delivery systems in the form of membership sites and software that can be used to make you job easier. It is crucial to use these systems in order to reduce the amount of time you must spend on tedious projects…or get your employees in on it and have them do it. In the long run, your labor costs will kill you. It is best to use the membership sites available to you. We will review many of these as we progress.

Video Creation: There are several video sharing and video creation sites online. Animoto is simple and effective for creating short, interesting videos. Vimeo, Viddler, YouTube, Dailymotion, and several other video sharing sites will allow you to add your own logo and message for a fee. It is well worth it long term. While placing YouTube videos on your blog and website may be cost effective short term, long term you want to create your own identity without relying on YouTube. I have integrated my Flip MinoHD videos through Camtasia to Screencast. Others use Amazon’s video platform and still others Brightcove. Whatever the platform, make sure you learn all the ins and outs, so it remains trouble-free and cost effective!

In the next article I will discuss several sites I recommend you set up profiles on and how to do it for next to nothing and with little effort. Your profile should be keyword rich and your image a professional and/or easily identifiable one. In addition to Google’s Keyword Tool, I sincerely feel that Market Samurai is the class online at this time. Check it out for free & then upgrade if you like it!

I love it!

Discussion: We will discuss any questions or comments you may have and raise here. I hope this helps you as you begin, at once, to create your new and Ultimate Internet Image…or help others to get there!

I look forward to sharing ideas and/or working with you and believe we can position you to do great things in your niche as a brick and mortar business, an online business, or as an Internet, inbound marketing consultancy!

John Zajaros (Jack)
The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
440-821-7018 (cell)
johnzajaros@gmail.com

Note: Just assume links are affiliate links and that way there can be no misunderstandings!

Inbound Marketing, the Central Hub (spot), and The Ultimate Internet Image

The focus of recent blog posts here at The Ultimate Internet Image (UII) has been on the initial inbound marketing consultation and competitive assessment with prospective clients. However, while discussing much of what we cover with new UII clients, we left out a critical concept, perhaps the most important component of all:

The inbound marketing concept I left out is the one that pulls the entire strategy together, providing its emphasis and its focus.

I refer to the above mentioned inbound marketing component as the central hub strategy or, in its complete form:

The Ultimate Internet Image’s Central Hub Strategy!

For those of you serving small to medium-sized, traditional brick and mortar businesses, service organizations, service-oriented businesses, associations (non-profit and for profit), and professional practices; and, in particular, for those of you plying your trade in the inbound marketing consulting field, the name probably sets off bells and whistles. However, the name for the strategy was developed independently of, and before I personally knew anything about, the King Kong of inbound marketing – software – firms:

Hubspot!

Great ideas spring to mind everywhere and at once…or simultaneously. It has happened throughout history in business, science, manufacturing, inventing, and myriad other pursuits. The Theory of Evolution, the telephone, the telegraph, and many other theories, ideas, and inventions were independently developed because, whatever it was that was created, it was the next, logical step in science, manufacturing, academia or whatever; and, it was obvious to many individuals separately, and at once.

In other words, great minds think alike!

The idea of an inbound marketing central hub, a hub spot, is also the logical, next-step in a line of thinking that was at first revolutionary and has now taken hold and become accepted across the Internet and around much of the developed and developing world when we discuss and apply marketing strategies.

You have, no-doubt, viewed several of the central hub spot models various inbound marketing consultants and inbound marketing consulting firms have developed for social media, specifically, and the various segments of inbound marketing, generally.

Here are a few variations on the inbound marketing central hub model:

This is one of the better images for illustrating the inbound marketing central hub strategy model. This image, from FredCavazza.net, shows the arrows pointing out from the center. They need to point in with the attention, focus, and traffic being driven inward towards the center hub.

This social media landscape image is one of the better ones I have found. There are a myriad of images, as many images as artists and the inbound marketing consulting firms hiring them to create them. This image can also be found at East One Marketing.

Unfortunately, the inbound marketing central hub model images are still all over the place when it comes to focus and message! I am certain this will change in time but for now we have to take the good with the bad. Hopefully, distinguishing between the former and the latter and choosing wisely.

The inbound marketing central hub strategy seems to be heading in the right direction with the starfish imagery. Simple, attractive, and easy to understand, this is a much better visual representation of the central hub model.

This image, an interesting take on the central hub model and visually attractive, has also made the rounds. I am acknowledging both although provenance appears to belong to WebGuild.org with permission to use the image being granted to Cyberconsulting.com

I suggest that the inbound marketing central hub image directly above is on the right track and is visually attractive…while simple and easy to follow. Some key ingredients are missing but it is effective and closer to the idea of an inbound marketing central hub than many others being offered today.

This image can be found at CyberNet Consulting Inc: Innovative Technology Solutions, as well as at WebGuild.org.

The Inbound Marketing Central Hub Strategy Meets NYC Transit. Source is Intersection Consulting's Flickr photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/intersectionconsulting

This image is attributed to Mark Smiciklas, MBA of Vancouver, BC. Mark is a Vancouver Marketing Consultant. Mark has several very interesting images added to his Flickr photostream, noted above, and he invites visitors to his marketing consultancy’s site to find him on Facebook and to view is LinkedIn profile. I would also recommend Mark’s slideshare Social Media Strategy, it is quite good.

This image appears to belong to David W. Crompton, Special Brands, Amsterdam, Netherlands http://specialbrands.net/2009/02/26/friendfeed/

The trouble with attribution is provenance. The LocalGoogleGuru has offered this by way of his Flickr photostream. He appears to have been granted use of (rights to) the image by Daniel Crompton (Technorati profile) and his General Musing blog, mentioned above. I want to make sure both men get credit for the work. Their links are embedded here.

The flowchart has been around since Christ left Chicago, to put it bluntly. The flowchart has it uses and has been around for a long time because people learn linearly, from A to Z. Consequently, the flowchart has remained a mainstay of many marketing presentations. I would argue that for our purposes, for inbound marketing consulting presentations, the flowchart may not be as effective as the inbound marketing central hub model.

I would love to hear your thoughts!

The Social Media Process: Can you follow this? Will a client be able to? Unfortunately, we see a lot of this being offered. I have doubts as to whether or not Damien Basile was serious or kidding around with us but this kind of thing shows up...a lot! http://www.flickr.com/photos/damienbasile/3629544077/sizes/z/in/photostream

As you can see, I hope, we are heading in the wrong direction. The image above is what I call Social Media Flow Chart Run Riot! Based on one of the comments under this image on Flickr, this may have been offered in jest (?). This sort of thing shows up a lot in inbound marketing and social media presentations.

Who can follow this?

If you were making a presentation to a client who is attempting to make head or tails of the Internet, will they know what this all means?

Probably not!

The Mind Map is an interesting adaptation and it often looks more like art then a marketing tool. This image came from http://www.flickr.com/photos/zipckr/4688416205/sizes/z/in/photostream

The Mind Map is an interesting phenomenon. In many ways it reminds me of Where’s Waldo? I have received mind maps so intricate I actually had to use a magnifying glass to see everything because when I tried to enlarge it, it grayed out on me.

Some are very cool, like this one.

This image came from the Flickr photostream of Zipckr. From Zipckr’s photostream I ended up at a very cool mind map site with mind maps that truly seem more like art.

Check out the How to Twitter and How to StumbleUpon Mind Maps!

As you can see, when it comes to imagery, we are still all over the place with hard to grasp charts, graphs, maps, etc.

There are many more social media and inbound marketing graphs, tables, flow charts, and the like.

Check them out by “Googling” the search phrase:

Social Media Images

The main problem is that, not unlike many of the inbound marketing strategies I have come across and/or heard discussed in the past year or two, inbound marketing strategies and the methods used to communicate those strategies are indeed all over the place.

Why?

I think has to do with the following:

• Miscommunication between the client and the inbound marketing consultant. This goes back to communicating the message, verbally and visually!
• Fear of loss! Rather than stand up to the new client and tell them a new direction is required, that to simply add the new media on an old idea is folly and will result in a Meatball Sundae, many inbound marketing consultants will take the line of least resistance and go along with what the client wants, even if it is wrong, rather than lose a client. In most cases, you will lose the client anyway, particularly if you can’t stand up to them and convey your message. So, it is much wiser to stick to your guns early than to flee a sinking ship later and be blamed for it.
• An unqualified inbound marketing consultant. While this is becoming increasingly rare as the incompetent are weeded out by a sort of natural selection, incompetence does exist and it gives the entire inbound marketing consulting industry a black-eye.
• An inadequate budget to get the job done properly. Yes, organic listings are free…but a solid and effective inbound strategy is not. Do not make a sale just to make a sale…it will come back and bite you. And, there is a very good chance you won’t get paid.
• A client unwilling or unable to see the big picture and move beyond an outbound marketing mindset to take advantage of the new media and effective, search-based inbound marketing strategies…including the inbound marketing central hub model.

The fact is, an inbound marketing central hub strategy makes sense, it is easy to understand, and it works!

Inbound marketing is about targeting the proper audience or target market and then creating interest through an interesting and effective USP (unique selling proposition), developing quality content, and increasing brand awareness in the marketplace.

The new media is one of the most effective ways to get your client’s message out. An inbound marketing central hub strategy will focus the attention inward, towards the principal Internet real estate or, to put it bluntly, the money page. Then, it is about conversion strategies and metrics.

If an inbound marketing strategy is ultimately developed in such a way as to focus traffic, leads, and so on in towards the center, the center being the central hub where the call to action can be found, again, the money page, then it is all about creating a landing page that converts.

And that means an integral compenent is the inbound marketing strategy is testing.

Metrics!

Test! Test! Test!

As stated, The Ultimate Internet Image Central Hub Strategy entails developing a central hub, first in the form of a central site, and then driving traffic to the hub from various points online (also hubs and we will develop this over time) to the money site and the to the traditional brick and mortar business, association, organization, or professional practice.

Once the business has acquired the client’s information, either as a result of some of enticement or as part of the sales process, the final stage in the inbound marketing strategy begins:

Short term and long term relationship building!

The chief aim is to get the prospect to opt-in to a lead capture system of some sort or drop them straight onto a sales page of some sort (depending on the type of client you are dealing with). In every instance, the idea is to convert the inbound marketing prospect into a client and then develop a client for life, some say “customer for life,” by attending to the relationship building process after the sale.

In effect, the relationship begins with the initial transaction and a relationship builds from there.

The entire process is a step by step relationship building one that:

• Delivers a client from somewhere online
• Places them in a sales funnel that makes it easy to track, measure, and convert
• Produces an initial transaction
• Builds on the initial transaction creating a client for life

Once we are able to do all of that, we have an inbound marketing central hub strategy that works.

Drop them into the funnel, direct them toward the central hub, convert them from new prospects into clients, and then build a relationship that created life-long clients, patients, donors, and friends.

We will discuss how to take a prospective client through the sales funnel in an upcoming post. We will also discuss how to tap into the greatest resource your inbound marketing client owns, their database of current clients, clients who have trusted them in the past and, even if sorely neglected, will do so in the future if they are contacted and developed properly.

An aside: Many of these articles, blog posts, and videos are just the tip of the iceberg, as I have noted before. If you are an inbound marketing consultant or someone considering the sales and inbound marketing services of The Ultimate Internet Image, please feel free to contact us anytime. We will be happy to discuss any of these topics at length and in much greater depth.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and please leave a comment.

Your feedback is appreciated!

Contact UII anytime!

John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
Skype: johnzajaros1
216-712-7004
440-821-7018 (cell)

Note: I have made every attempt to provide proper attribution for source materials and images. I have actually added links I didn’t have to in an attempt to be fair. The links are to sites claiming to own the rights to and/or have permission to use the images below. I have taken every precaution and have not used some images I would have liked to because I could not get in touch with the individuals or companies I needed to in order to obtain permission. If you know of better images or would like to have me post your images here in a subsequent post, I would be happy to do so. Just leave a comment and I will get back to you quickly. Thank you!

Marketing Myopia: Inbound Marketing, Hybrid Marketing, and the Offline World

While a recent blog post published on the Hubspot blog entitled Survey: 0% of Internet Users Would Pay for Twitter, written by Kip Bodnar, grabbed my attention for a number of reasons, including the title, there were several significant online advertising and Internet marketing takeaways to be derived from the post and the  original resource used for the post, The Digital Future Project 2010: Surveying The Digital Future YEAR NINE (see resources below).

The title took me back for about half a second because as an inbound marketing consultant I look at Twitter as a resource with multiple applications, a tool, a vehicle, and a means to an end.

Significantly, the majority of people do not view Twitter in those terms, they view Twitter as an end in-and-of-itself. Interestingly, most users look at Twitter as a way to communicate with the world 140 characters at a time, and they have no way to monetize it…nor do they want to.

That being said, a significant minority do engage in buying and selling behavior:

• 42% of Twitter users use Twitter to find out about products and services
• 41% provide opinions about products and services
• 31% ask for opinions about products and services
• 28% look for discounts
• 21% purchase products and services
• 19% seek customer support

These numbers are based on  Twitter Usage In America: 2010 – The Edison Research/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Study by Tom Webster, VP of Strategy and Marketing for Edison Research. For more on this study , see the link to the video below under resources.

In fact, and here’s the kicker, most Twitter users look at marketing and the monetization of Twitter as an intrusion and an interruption. Incredibly, everything we mainatin as being wrong with outbound marketing (intrusion, interruption, etc), many Internet marketing “gurus” and inbound marketers (many in name only) are pulling the same shenanigans online.

Yup! Intrusion and interruption!

So, here is the million dollar question:

Where is the balance?

And, more to the point, how can we achieve a balance so we don’t alienate the prospective clients we are trying to attract while still getting our message out?

This is the typical marketing strategy on Twitter:

Throw up a Twitter page, throw up some links, Seth Godin calls it yodeling, I call it shouting (or something else) into the wind, tie into Twitter search for the keywords being targeted, watch for what is trending, and then:

Spam! Spam! Spam!

The same is now being done with Facebook Fan Pages, complete with lead capture systems, glitzy graphics, and giveaways.

All for the elusive…or not-so-elusive:

“Like!”

We have indeed taken the old stuff, thrown some whipped cream and sprinkles on it and created a very ugly and nasty tasting concoction…

A Meatball Sundae!

As I moved through the Hubspot post several questions popped into my head. That shouldn’t be surprising if you’ve read any of my previous work…or if you read the post critically, as I am ceratin many of you have. It wasn’t so much what was written in the Hubspot post as what was written in their resource material; and, what had been left out.

Whenever I see a quote, I always check the source for the “rest of the story.” I guess it is the scientist in me?

So, the Hubspot post lead me to the resource document and that really opened my eyes! Then, the resource document led me to an additional worldwide report (see link below) and a number of additional issues, questions, and challenges surfaced.

Ultimately, the Hubspot post turned out to be the tip of a virtual Mount Everest-sized inbound marketing iceberg!

I was going in several different directions by then.

I will explore several of the issues below but the main takeaway from the Hubspot post had to do with something I have been writing and talking about for some time now:

I call it marketing myopia but it may also be referred to as inbound marketing myopia!

This is a huge marketing takeaway!

Marketing myopia has to do with bias. Because inbound marketing consultants work with the Internet each and every day, we tend to think everyone else does…and they do not!

While an increasingly large number of households have Internet access and approximately 82-84% of all Americans use the Internet to some degree (numbers vary with source), the degree of usage is a crucial factor…as is the age cohort, the demographic group of the individual or individuals and how they fit into your marketing.

In other words, are they part of your target market?

I will attempt to explain how marketing myopia, and in particular inbound marketing myopia, relates to what we do as inbound marketing consultants. And, I will also attempt to explain how our perspective, and our approach to marketing our client’s message, their USP (unique selling proposition) and their brand, have a direct impact on our results and, consequently, on our marketing client’s Internet image and their brand.

While marketing myopia isn’t mentioned in the Hubspot post per se, what is mentioned are some of the findings of a University of Southern Califiornia (USC) study conducted by Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center for Digital Future at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Dr. Cole has been at the forefront of media and communications research for decades and is recognized internationally as one of the authories in the field.

Interestingly, the findings of the USC study point to what I have been referring to for some time and seem to validate my point that unless a balanced approach to advertising across channels is applied to a client’s marketing strategy, we are doing them a grave disservice.

In other words, marketing has less to do with us versus them, this versus that, inbound versus outbound.

Marketing is about what works. Marketing is about what effectively develops our client’s overall image and their Internet image over time. Marketing is about brand awareness. And, of course, marketing is about sales over time leading to an ongoing relationship and a healthy bottom line.

Marketing is a balancing act and marketing is about reaching your client’s target audience with a message they will be receptive to and will act upon.

In other words:

• Views
• Clicks
• Comments
• Feedback
• Leads
• Appointments
• Traffic
• Conversions
• Sales
• Upsells
• Downsells
• Referrals
• Ongoing Relationship
• Profitability

Yes, it is true that we have witnessed a paradigm shift and many are now fully invested in what has been referred to as the new media and permission marketing. We have witnessed the rapid evolution of permission marketing. We have also witnessed several offshoots and now we have:

• Permission Marketing
• Relationship Marketing
• New Media Marketing
• Inbound Marketing
• Web 2.0
• And  so on!

While we have witnessed all of this and more, and this is significant, there remains another world out there, an offline world, and it would be folley, particularly as marketers, to ignore it.

The challenge is, as it has always been:

How to do effectively reach ALL of our clients’ target markets?

The Good Ole Days and Outbound Marketing

I remember the good ole days, and Seth Godin alludes to them right off the bat in his book Meatball Sundae, it was 1964 and all you had to do was throw enough money at an average product and you were set. In fact, the same was true in 1974 and even in 1984…down turns, oil embargos, and recessions aside.

Publish a full page spread in the Sunday Plain Dealer or the Chicago Tribune or the New York Times (if you had really deep pockets) and you were set. In fact, all you had to do was sit back and wait for the traffic because it was pretty much a done deal!

There were “Invitation Only Sunday Sales” at car dealerships, all done by direct mail. Invitees stood in lines, many times for 2 or 3 hours, for a $500 savings and free steak knives!

Better still?

If you got your commercial on Bonanza or the FBI, “Starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr.,” on Sunday nights?

You could make book that Monday morning you would be busy taking orders, a lot of orders. Those two shows, and others like them, were family institutions and the equivalent of a Super Bowl ad playing once a week.

The world was different and those days are gone!

Or are they?

***I would argue there are a lot of people who still sit down and watch American Idol and Criminal Minds, there are still people who sit down on Sunday morning with a cup of coffee or a can of Diet Coke and read the New York Times, there are people who still listen to their favorite radio station, and there are still people who get home from work and the first thing out of their mouth is:

Yup!

“Did we get any mail?”

There are people who have a computer but rarely turn it on, there are people who can’t set up an email account and have no inclination to learn now, and there are people that will never use a cell phone, will never send an Instant Message, have no idea what Skype is, have no idea what a tweet is, and they still think MySpace is a website for kids!

OK! Back to the future!

The 1950s through the early 1970s were the Wild Wild West for many advertising, marketing, and PR firms, particularly the 50s and 60s. Things remained good through the late 1980s, with the exception of a few hiccups in the economy.

Embargoes, Recessions, and Carter…Oh my!

In the old days, advertisers had a captive audience and, as long as we (advertising firms) put our clients’ products in front of viewers enough times, we looked like heroes.

Radio stations synced their ads at specific times, so there was no running away from them, you could flip stations but just got more of the same, more commercials. Television shows all had their commercial breaks at the same moments so, other than a bathroom break, you weren’t likely to stray to another channel, at least until cable came along and ruined the party…and the monopoly on your time.

As a result, we lived with the intrusions, we lived with the commercials. Some people bought 8-track tapes, cassettes, and then CDs. Or they bought VHS tapes, then DVDs, and finally Blue Ray and HDDVDs…and so on.

I would suggest there is a very large segment of our population that still lives in the offline world and avoids intrusions in the old fashioned way.

Is it shrinking? To be sure!

But it is still there and they can only be reached by effectively marketing to them in addition to your inbound marketing strategies.

Heresy?

Perhaps. But it is also reality.

There are two worlds and you must market to both!

Enter the Internet, New Media, and Inbound Marketing

The Digital Future Report 2010

• Americans: Over the 80% barrier. 82% of all Americans use the Internet in some way.
• 19 Hours Weekly: While the average time per week is 19 hours and 66% of all Americans report having used the Internet for more than a decade, the most significant gains have been the year-to-year gains over the past 2 years.
• Internet Usage and Age-Related Trends: Interestingly, 100% of individuals under 24 years of age report Internet usage (saturation due to expose in schools?). The report notes that a surprisingly high number of individuals from age 36 through 55 are not Internet users. In the age bracket from 36 to 45 years of age 15% are non-users. The age bracket from 46 to 55 shows 19% of all Americans in that age cohort are non-users.
• Incredibly, while the youngest age cohort, the under 24 years of age grouping, has accepted and uses the new media, the majority of the remaining groups go not (and this too goes along with what I’ve been saying about marketing myopia and two worlds):
  • 24 years of age and older: 50% do not use Instant Messaging (IM)
  • 24 years of age and older: 79% do not work on a blog
  • 24 years of age and older: 80% do not participate bin cat rooms
  • 24 years of age and older: 85% do not make or receive phone calls online

Marketing Myopia

One can only guess what the numbers look like for other forms of new media. Once again, this makes my point about their being in fact two worlds and focusing on one (inbound marketing) to the exclusion of the other (through other effective forms of advertising) is folly and leaves a huge gap in your market strategy. You will fail to reach a large portion of your client’s target audience…particularly if they are older.

• Technophobe versus Technophile: The techophobes are gaining ground! The longstanding debate has taken an interesting turn and, of the individuals 16 years of age and older who thought that communication technology made the world a better place in 2002 (66%), now only 56% believe we are better for the communication technology we share. Interestingly, the gains made in the eight year period from 2002 through 2010, when the study was released, are disproportionately vast when viewed against the gains of the previous decade…and yet we seem to be going backwards. Are we in for a technological backlash? And, what sort of implications would that have for inbound marketing?
• Politics and the Internet: The most interesting case of Internet usage for political gain is the last Presidential election in the United States.  Perry Marshall offers an interesting recording of a discussion he had with David Bullock. Bullock de-constructed the Obama campaign one slice at a time and the results are interesting, to put it mildly.
  • Interestingly, The Digital Future Project 2010 report states that while 70% of all users agree that the Internet is an important component in political campaigns, significantly less than half (29%) believe it will give people more say in government and less still (27%) believe politicians will be any more responsive or will care more about what people think.

The Internet and Buying Behavior

• Buying Online: 65% of all adult Internet users make purchases online. Interestingly, this number has not increased since 2008. That means that of an estimated population of 310,232,863 (CIA July 2010 est) with 15 years of age and over population of 247,852,853, adjusting for those individuals between 15 and 18, approximately 97,500,000 adults make an average of 35.2 purchases per year online, up from 34.1% in 2008. That’s a staggering 3,432,000,000 purchases per year in the United States alone! That’s 3 and one-half billion, with a “B,” purchases annually. Not dollars…purchases. The dollar amounts are mind-boggling!
  • What goes to my argument about marketing myopia is that 35% of the adult buying population is not being accounted for. Think about those buying numbers, particularly in light of the fact that they are likely to be generated by the older and more-affluent portion of the age cohorts from 36 to 45, 46 to 55, and 56 to 65. These are the age cohorts using the Internet less and yet they are a huge part of the economy. Marketing myopia?
  • And this is huge, the buying behavior of teens is not adequately accounted for in this study. This oversight may be a major flaw in this research. Teen buying behavior, given a 100% penetration as far as usage goes, cannot be overlooked.
• Internet Sales Impact on Traditional Brick and Mortar Retail Business: If 82% of all Americans use the Internet and 61% have said they purchase less through traditional retail stores as a result of their online buying (down from 69% in 2008, interesting, perhaps the novelty has worn off for some?), what does this trend suggest even if reversed slightly of late? Depending on what set of figures you use, 124,000,000 people (being conservative) are buying less “at the store.” In this instance, the numbers      suggest that if traditional brick and mortar businesses do not make the shift and create an Internet image many will be extinct in less than 5 years, probably less than 3. Well, the picture is not rosy, is it?
• Purchases Online – Top 10 Internet: If you are an inbound marketing consultant and you are working with brick and mortar retail clients in these niches? Get them online yesterday!
  • 59% Books and Clothing
  • 55% Misc Gifts
  • 53% Travel
  • 47% Electronics and Appliances
  • 46% Videos
  • 41% Computers and Peripherals
  • 40% Software or Games
  • 40% CDs
  • 38% Hobby Supplies

The Center for the Digital Future study noted above and entitled The Digital Future Project 2010 has 203 pages of useful data. The research in the study can be used to better inform your marketing clients. The highlights of this report are available free but the full report or reports, there is also the World Internet Project 2010 report, are only available in complete form as part of a license purchase running anywhere from $500 for an Individual License of a single report to $2000 for a Corporate License for both reports.

The report is worth the investment, both in terms of time and dollars. The Digital Future Project is the most important and longest running longitudinal study focusing on Internet usage and the impact of usage behavior, trust, trends, advertising, and marketing online.

In other words, this is a must for anyone engaged in advertising and marketing consulting…and particularly for inbound marketing consultants.

Ultimately, the Hubspot post, the other resources they used, and the reports I added here to bring you this overview are all suggestive.

Marketing is still in a transitional period and the ultimate reality may be very different from the one we are experiencing today.

How will it differ?

I would suggest a hybrid marketing approach will emerge. I believe the hybrid marketing strategy will offset the current Internet marketing – inbound marketing mania or craze we are currently in. The love affair with the new media and Web 2.0!

Why? Because it is the nature of the beast!

We have a tendency, particularly in the United States to:

• Adopt something wholeheartedly, often to an extreme.
• Then, after a period of time there is a knee-jerk reaction, a tendency to sway back in the opposite direction, almost as a correction for going overboard to begin with.
• Finally, we achieve a balance, something we would have created to begin with if we hadn’t been so darned excited about the new stuff….the new toppings…the new media.

Much of what we see will be gone in 5 years, in 10 years we will laugh at ourselves for our foolishness.

Doubt me? Think about some of the trends we have jumped in on with both feet and lived to regret…or at least laugh about.

In the meantime we have to figure out how best to serve our clients with the resources we have. As marketing consultants our responsibility isn’t to the communication vehicle, it isn’t to the media, it’s to the client!

If it takes jumping upside down on green bananas to get the job done you have a choice…don’t you?

Right now the green bananas are Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and Vimeo and EzineArticles and so many more for the inbound marketing consultant. And, they remain well-designed and well-thought out direct mail pieces and campaigns, follow up thank you cards, asking for referrals and then following up on them, tracking traffic onsite and engaging walk-in traffic so you can track them whether they make a purchase on the first visit or not, and a myriad of other tried-and-true marketing methods that work. and that cannot be considered inbound, and are perhaps not strictly outbound, although some are, and they work!

Actually, there is enough here for several books on marketing. In fact, there have been several very good ones written on inbound marketing. There is also a lot of other “stuff” out there, “stuff” (the four letter kind) that is a complete waste of your time and mine. And that is the topic of another blog post, a post on trust and the quality of online material. Many people are losing faith, they simply do not trust what they read online to be useful and accurate.

Everything I have written here can be verified and I have posted the links below, something I rarely do. However, this material is important and it is very dense. So, it may be helpful to walk in my shoes and discover, as I have, that there is another picture out there and it hasn’t fully developed yet.

One thing is for sure…it will be interesting. Marketing is never dull!

I hope you will comment on what you have read here…if you are still reading! If you are, thank you…it is appreciated! Please, provide your own insight. It will greatly enhance ever reader’s time here.

Thanks for stopping, for reading, and, hopefully, for commenting!

John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
Skype: johnzajaros1
216-712-7004

Inbound Marketing and Communication Media Resources

The Ultimate Internet Image, Inbound Marketing: Twitter Usage 2010 Video by Edison Research

Main Page of The Center for the Digital Future

The Digital Future Project 2010 (link to highlights and full report)

Ericsson’s 2020 Shaping Ideas (Very Useful and Insightful)

The World Internet Project International Report 2010 (303 pgs, 463 Graphs, 9 Major Areas of Study, 87 Specific Subjects and Detailed Responses)

Hubspot: 0% of Internet Users Would pay for Twitter

Dave Bullock’s Report on the Obama Campaign and the De-Construction of Social Media

Perry Marshall’s Interview of Dave Bullock Re: Obama’s Social Media Campaign

CIA Population Statistics

Blogging for Business: Web 2.0 and Relationship Marketing

Blogging and offline businesses are becoming more in sync, and with good reason. Statistics show that blogging for business, offline and online, is an effective marketing strategy. Blogs can be added to an existing company website, or exist on their own.

Blogs Versus Websites

A blog actually is a website; it is set up in a different manner. Blog is short for the word weblog. As you post entries on your blog, they are displayed in reverse order. The last piece you wrote is the first thing you see upon entering the blog. It is much easier to get a blog up and running than a website. A website template cannot be functional until all the pages are complete. The frequent updating on blogs also leads to higher search results than a website that just sits there and is rarely updated.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a phrase that was first used in 1999 by Darcy DiNucci. She wrote, “The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop.” Today we think of Web 2.0 as referencing the ability to interact with others on the internet. Blogging is the perfect example of Web 2.0; readers are encouraged to comment on the blogger’s perspective. The blogger can react in kind.

Blogging and Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing refers to marketing that is created by direct response campaigns. The focus is on pleasing and retaining the customer, instead of just looking for sales. The rise of inbound marketing and blogging is the next step for relationship marketing. Blogging and relationship marketing are intrinsically linked.

The goals of relationship marketing include using technology to keep current customers, as well as to attract new ones. Another goal of this type of marketing is to do all of this while cutting costs. Blogging for business definitely fits in this mold. Blogs are an effective way to attract searchers to your website and possibly turn them into customers.

Benefits of Blogging for Business

Blogging improves your website. Google sees frequent updates and eventually awards you a higher ranking on searches via search engine results pages or SERPs. Blogs also provide visibility for you and your business. This is especially useful for offline businesses to establish an online presence. Do recent news events tie in to your business? React to them in your blog.

A company can establish communication with customers through a blog. Comments on the blog can lead to future customers, as well as provide feedback on performance. Use keywords in the blog to improve search results for your business. By keeping your blog from being too sales-oriented, you can gain other valuable links from other bloggers and websites.

A recent poll by Hubspot of their customers found that in the businesses that blogged:

• Fifty-five percent had more visits to their web page
• Ninety-seven percent had more inbound links
• Four hundred thirty-four percent had more indexed pages

These numbers are difficult to refute. More visits to a website leads to more sales. Increased links and indexed pages means that your business will turn up more often during Google searches and lead more consumers to you.

Online and offline businesses should realize the benefits of blogging. It is a simple and affordable way to increase your sales and bottom line. Make your blog interesting and informative, have fun with it and your readings will respond. Business blogs are an excellent way to build new relationships and to maintain existing ones! Do not miss this opportunity to connect with your target audience, it will pay dividends for years to come.

Contact UII today for a free, in depth inbound marketing consultation!

John Zajaros

The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004
440-821-7018
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

An Understanding of New Media, Inbound Marketing is
Crucial When Attempting to Create The Ultimate Internet Image!

New Media Marketing and/or Inbound Marketing

New Media Marketing is a fairly new label for a well-established concept, relationship/referral marketing.

New media marketing is simply relationship and referral marketing with a Web 2.0, viral twist.

New media marketing is engaged in by online and offline businesses attempting to develop an online community, a following, a congregation, an aggregation of loyal, even raving fans!

The business following, the congregation, thus allows for and even encourages loyal customers, or raving fans, to come together, share experiences, tell stories, and offer anecdotes about their relationship and experiences with the Internet business or traditional brick and mortar concern in question.

The sharing of information enhances the company’s brand and solidifies the relationship between client and business, thus providing the business with a steady stream of repeat customers. I like the label “clients” much better…for a myriad of reasons.

The Warm Market

The most expensive client to develop is the cold one, the client with no precious experience with the business engaged in a marketing campaign.

Interestingly, while the previous statement has been proven time and again, many businesses, in fact most businesses, pursue the cold call, the cold lead, instead of developing a relationship with and marketing to their warm market, the clients they have developed over the weeks, months, and even years leading up to the present advertising and marketing campaign…often at great cost, both in dollars and resources (also dollars).

The new media experience often includes blogs, forums, podcasts (a rapidly emerging and very exciting area for expression), social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), and even certain extended mastermind groups (e.g., StomperNet, Infusionsoft, and others).

All of the aforementioned platforms, and a myriad of others, contribute to the viral effect created by the client’s positive experience and passed on….as they tell two people, and those two tell two people, and so on, and so on, and so on!

Just like the hair commercial: the viral effect of new media marketing!

Significantly, hundreds and often thousands will sing the praises of a business plugged in to and fully engaged in the new media, Web 2.0 experience. The new media marketing strategy, and the viral effect of such a marketing campaign, enhances the brand and creates opportunities for multiple sales over many weeks, months, and, again, years.

One of the best arguments for a business to engage in and develop a new media marketing strategy is the idea that outbound advertising, meaning intrusive, in-your-face, traditional advertising, has lost its influence on consumers. If in fact, it ever had much of one to begin with.

Evidence demonstrates conclusively that there has been a shift away from consumers simply accepting outbound advertising (i.e., newspaper, radio, Yellow Pages, junk mail, etc.) as something they must endure in order to make an intelligent purchasing decision.

Again, the data suggests that consumers are engaged in search driven buying behavior, they are taking an active role from beginning to end. Google has become a verb.

As in:

“To Google” or “I ‘Googled’ it the other day and then went out and bought the car I found online.”

Consumers are making buying decisions based on Internet research, “Googling,” and on referrals provided by followers, friends, and connections they have met online.

Interestingly, it has also been demonstrated rather conclusively that consumers are more inclined to take the word of a like-minded peer online, even if they have never actually met them, than to buy into the corporate-doublespeak, the outbound advertising spiel launched at them, often in invasive fashion, by traditional television ads (restroom breaks and trips to the fridge), radio (I change the channel, that’s why we have so many buttons! Right?), direct mail (making a comeback when done effectively but most is cat box filler), and newspaper advertising (expensive and impossible to track, also for the cats and even the bird cages). I hear newspapers are also good for cleaning windows.

New Media Marketing has a myriad of advantages over traditional, outbound advertising!

This trend will only continue over time, as millions find the Internet daily, hand-held connectivity is increasing exponentially, and the following trend continues:

*The Yellow Pages grows mold in the closet! (see the video)

*iPods, MP3 players, and CDs replace music on the radio!

*People get their news via the Internet…never to open a paper again! (except as liners and for windows!)

The fact is, there is still a place for outbound advertising but it will never be what it once was…the consumer would probably never allow it anyway!

To succeed offline, in a traditional brick and mortar business, or online as an affiliate, in an e-commerce “store” or in any number of other ways, new media marketing must be understood and implemented, particularly in this economy and with consumers growing wiser by the minute.

The combination of a down economy and an educated consumer means if a business, any business, isn’t fully committed and equally engaged in the new media marketing process…they may not make it! Or at the very least, the business will lose a lot of money, money they could have been making and spending to make more money.

The choice is an obvious one…or so one would think. Interestingly, people resist change, even business people, and even when the advice and service is quite affordable. It is human nature to resist change. It is also in the nature of most businesses to fail in the first 10 years…the decision seems a simple one…or is it?!

It is certainly the profitable one:

New Media Marketing works!

Contact me anytime for comments and questions…or just leave them here!

Prof John P J Zajaros Sr
216-712-6526
216-539-7412
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

PS, For a no obligation inbound marketing consultation, including a new media strategy assessment and a complete competitive analysis, call me at either number above. Or email me for more information. Call 24/7 the machine is always on.

The Ultimate Internet Image Begins with The Ultimate Real World Relationship

I have been in business in one way or another for almost my entire adult life, since the age of 19. The power of relationship building, regardless of the setting, from the army to academia, has been the reason for my success and has defined who I am today.

Several wise men and women have all echoed the same sentiment:

Your Business Defines and is Defined by Who You Are as An Individual!

I would agree with the above and expand upon it:

We Are Defined By Our Commitments to Each Other and By How Well We Honor Them!

Interestingly, as a salesperson, I never worked well with others, my peers I mean.

Why?

To be perfectly frank about it, I was never a very good salesman!

What I have always been is a very good people-person!

I have never made a sale in my life, and yet I have made tens of thousands in a single month selling.

Why?

Because I do not sell anything, ever, I build a relationship and the sale takes care of itself!

The thing most salespeople miss, the quality I built a reputation and several businesses on, is the relationship!

The sale is the beginning of the relationship, not the end. In fact, everything flows from that initial transaction…the sale comes later.

Let me explain!

At times a sale is made because someone has a specific and immediate need.

The Process!

However, very often the sale is preceded by a process. The process is initiated by a connection of some sort, a feeling out process, if you will.

The Connection!

The connection is made and, if comfortable and determined to be mutually beneficial, it leads to a relationship.

The Relationship!

The relationship is built upon a connection, if the connection is found to be a good one, mutually beneficial to both parties, a relationship is formed.

Trust!

Trusting someone is a big step, difficult for many, impossible for some…and for good reason!

However, without trust, there will be no transaction…of any kind! The relationship is the first test in the process of developing trust.

Interestingly, the Internet has brought forth an amazing transformation, the world is indeed a smaller place. Social media is a window into our thirst for connections, for relationship building, and for friendship…but it entails trust!

Social media marketing, when misunderstood, is often a perversion of the relationship building process.

Social media marketing attempts to capitalize on the longing for connection and relationship building.

Interestingly, most fail to get the nuances of the milieu and pervert the relationship building process, failing miserably and claiming that social media marketing doesn’t work!

Social media marketing fails because the marketer is focused on the marketing and not on the relationship…the center, the linchpin of it all!

Social media is a mirror into the psyche of modern humans; and, it has yielded an interesting challenge:

Who can we trust? In fact, can we trust anyone?

It is a sad commentary on life when the most common phrase most people think of when they think of trust is:

“Don’t trust anyone!”

So, how do we develop trust? How do we break through the defenses in place?

Time and Effort = Results and Experience!

With time, patience, and effort, baby steps if you will, we achieve noticeable results and that experience allows trust to grow. The more time, the more effort, the more results…and our experience with an individual or company builds.

The Bond of Friendship!

With time and effort trust allows a bond to form and the bond builds and friendship is born!

Friendship may have many different forms but the process and the basis are the same:

Connection…Relationship…Time….Effort….Bond…Friendship…Sacred Trust!

To be perfectly honest with you, I’ve had very few clients in my life, fewer customers…I have had a lot of friends who I do business with!

You see, if a friend trusts you with their livelihood, you will honor that relationship with the best you have to offer!

If you provide the best, and take every relationship, marketing or otherwise, to heart, you will never fail.

If a friend trusts you with his or her business, they are demonstrating the ultimate form of trust.

Why?

Because their livelihood, in fact their well-being, and that of their loved ones, is in your hands!

Sacred Trust!

Ultimately, if you take this approach and internalize the mindset, you will never fail! In fact, you will have more business than you can possibly handle!

If you view every relationship as a sale, part of the marketing process and nothing more, you are doomed to repeated
failure.

Success and/or Failure is a Consequence of Mindset!

If you treat your customers as clients, your clients as friends, your friends with the same trust they place in you, and honor it, you will never go hungry for business or the real nourishment we all crave…

…the connection, built into a relationship, yielding trust, solidified by a bond, resulting in a lifelong friendship made stronger by the sacred trust conferred upon those we value enough to call…friend!

The money will take care of itself…always!

In fact, money will become an afterthought!

The real value, what defines us, will be the number of friendships we have forged over a lifetime.

Time and Effort

The satisfaction of helping others, the effort, combined with time, yielding a friendship and building into a sacred trust will yield success beyond measure:

Financial – Personal – Spiritual!

Treat your customers as clients, your clients as friends, and your friends as family…you will never know lasting failure!

Contact me anytime!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526 (24/7)
216-539-7412 (24/7)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com
excellencepaidforward@gmail.com (for a personal response)

PS, For a free in depth consultation and competitive analysis contact me at the numbers above, I will return the request personally!