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Inbound Marketing Overview and the Central Hub Strategy

August 17, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

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!

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Inbound Marketing: Laying the Groundwork for Page One Dominance

July 29, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

The Initial Inbound Marketing Consultation:

Discussing Inbound Marketing Strategies, AdWords,

Social Media, SEO Factors, and a Secret Ingredient

Whenever I meet with a prospective inbound marketing client for the first time the conversation invariably settles upon what the most effective marketing strategies, those required to build a significant Internet presence, what we at UII refer to as The Ultimate Internet image.

The most common advertising and inbound marketing related questions I am asked in the initial consultation have to do with getting to Google’s page one as soon as possible, and staying there.

AdWords: Many prospective clients invariably ask about paid advertising and, in particular, Google AdWords (PPC or pay-per-click) as a means of getting to page one quickly. My response is always the same:

“It depends on what your goals are, short term and long term, how deep your pockets are, and how thick your skin is.”

That is not always a popular answer…but it’s the truth!

There is no faster way to get to page one and stay there, guaranteed, than to pay for it. However, if a prospective client isn’t familiar with PPC advertising, the risks as well as the rewards, it is generally not a great place to start an inbound marketing consulting relationship. That being said, I do work with clients with sizable AdWords budgets from day one and they’ve done quite well.

However, you must have clearly defined parameters going in and there has to be a degree of comfort and confidence that usually takes time to build with a new inbound marketing consulting client.

OK! Back to organic inbound marketing strategies!

Social Media: Once we dispose of the AdWords question, the next question that comes up has to do with social media.

Social media is everywhere!

Social media is on Primetime TV with various NCIS characters checking their Facebook pages while solving crimes and being “friended” by employers and fellow employees. When I say social media is everywhere, I mean it’s everywhere! It is rare for the nightly news to run without some mention of Facebook or Twitter or YouTube. The problem is, many prospective inbound marketing clients have seen and heard the hype, they have been exposed to the sales pitch, but they understand very little about how it works or what it takes to pull off a successful social media management campaign.

Notice I didn’t say social media marketing campaign?

That’s because, if you have read any of my previous posts you already know this, social media marketing is an oxymoron. Why? Because, in every instance, attempting to market anything overtly via social media is not only ineffective…it is indeed moronic.

I probably lost a couple of readers with that statement…but so be it!

Advising a client to market anything other than a solid Internet image, an online presence via social media is playing Russian roulette with your client’s brand. Social media marketing puts your client at risk for Terms of Service (TOS) violations and having your client’s brand name permanently banned from the social media platform in question.

It is an unnecessary risk and it is a disservice to your client.

Enough said!

Finally, after we have gotten through paid advertising and social media, we get around to talking about websites, which we will cover in great detail in an upcoming blog post, and then to the best ways to get to Google’s page one organically.

The best ways to get to page one of any of the search engine results pages or SERPs, and stay there, are:

SEO: I am talking about a well designed program from the bottom up and that sometimes means dismantling the existing Internet image and starting over from square one with the proper foundation and the right architecture. This is a radical approach but if your client is nowhere to be found on the SERPs for the keywords necessary and their PR (page rank) is 0/10, what do you have to lose? Better to start fresh and do it right. If you do so, Google, Yahoo, and Bing will reward you, at least in the short term, and certainly long enough to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
Links: There are a number of different kinds of links and we will discuss them all in depth later. For now, all your new inbound marketing client needs to know is that links are the way the Internet confers authority on your site, on your Internet image. Links are the Internet’s way of saying: “This webiste offers something of value, it has something to offer!” Links from the right kind of sites, related sites with an equal or higher PR than your own, will enhance your Internet image and your authority online.
Pages: Pages alone are not enough. However, pages are generally a reflection of the time and attention paid to the site by the webmaster, owner of the business, inbound marketing consultancy, or whoever is responsible for its upkeep. After all, if a website is getting enough attention to build pages on a consistent basis, chances are also very good that the type of content offered on those pages is good. Usually…not always…but usually. Interestingly, if your site has a lot of pages the new ones will get indexed quickly. There are a number of advantages to developing a big site filled with quality content as quickly as possible and then continuing to build over time.
Content: Some say Video is King and others say Content is King. The fact is, both are so incredibly important you simply cannot have an effective inbound marketing campaign without both. Content affects your message and, without the proper message conveyed in just the right way, your blog posts, articles, descriptions, and so on will not be read. If your video does not offer quality content, it will not be watched. Video without great content is useless. Articles without quality content are useless. Blog posts without quality content are useless. Meta descriptions without….Well, you get the picture. Additionally, the more content you add, the more often you add it, and the more related pages it builds, the higher your ranking is going to be.
Longevity: Longevity is one of those things you just can’t push. The time your website has been around is pretty much set in stone. That being said, you can tweak it a bit. Interestingly, many webmasters and inbound marketing consultants fail to take advantage of these small adjustments that, cumulatively, make a big difference. One of the best things you can do in this regard is to purchase your domain name for at least two and, optimally, five years…up front. Domain age is a crucial factor and it has been noted by many SEO authorities that investing in your domain reflects well on your site and the search engines reward you for the investment. There are other factors and we will discuss them in our next post.
There are reportedly as many as 200 different SEO factors that affect your overall ranking. That’s right, 200! Some of the others include:
- Keyword in the URL
- Keyword in the Domain name
- Keyword in the title tag – close to the beginning (10 to 60 characters)
- Keywords in Description – It is said Google no longer relies on it but they do in fact still use it on occasion
- Keyword in the keyword meta tag – be careful with this one of you can be penalized for getting it wrong (see link in resources below)
- Keyword density in the body text – Careful! 5-20% of all keywords in total but watch for % threshold
- Keyword density for individual keywords – 1% to 6 %
- Keywords in Heading tags – H1, H2 & H3
- And so on! Like I said…200!

There are many more issues covered during the initial inbound marketing consultation, particularly as we begin the process of building an inbound marketing strategy designed to get our client to page one.

The SERP page one ranking for the various keyword phrases determined to be of greatest significance for lead, appointment, and traffic generation, and ultimately converting the leads to sales, is crucial to our new client’s success.

Every factor must be addressed, all 200 SEO factors as well as the additional inbound marketing components mentioned above and others we have yet to discuss.

Ultimately, your inbound marketing client’s success is based on how well you communicate what you will be doing and how your new client can help. Significantly, there is one final component that is necessary, one characteristic that can make your job easy and your inbound marketing strategy a success.

Without it, your inbound marketing strategy will certainly fail!

And that secret ingredient is:

Patience!

All of the above will come together if patience is part of the overall marketing strategy. With the addition of quality video and articles (which we will discuss next), along with an ongoing blogging strategy, your inbound marketing strategy will surely succeed. However, if your client is not willing to invest the one ingredient that must come from them, you should part friends before you begin.

Without patience in the mix, there is no amount of money that will be worth the aggravation of attempting to deal with an impatient client.

Key Point: If you explain things clearly up front and do not make promises you have absolutely no control over, you will have a great relationship and your new inbound marketing client will allow you the time and the flexibility you need to deliver amazing results.

However, if you make outlandish claims in order to make a quick sale, it will come back to bite you (you know where) every time.

Ultimately, and I am certain this goes without saying for the vast majority of inbound marketing consultants out there: be honest; be realistic; and, do your homework. If you do those three things, you will have a client long term and you will be able to deliver results that will make you look like a super hero; and, you will make your client a lot of money!

How great is that?

Next we will cover video marketing and distribution followed by article marketing and distribution. Then, we will discuss various website options and why I do everything but stand on my head to get new clients off the idea of a static website on into something far more effective. Then, we will cover linking and how to get more sites to link to you.

An aside: Don’t always believe what Alexa tells you about links, or traffic for that matter. Use Google Analytics and Quantcast, as well as one or two others that we will discuss in the coming weeks, for a more accurate picture. Google and Yahoo also seem to keep better track of links and reflect a more accurate number of indexed pages. We will discuss how to use all of these measures, and more, very soon.

If you have questions, contact me anytime. Please leave comments or feedback…I would love to hear from you!

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

Resources:

Check out Vaughn’s Summaries for all 200 SEO Factors

Google Analytics

Quantcast

Alexa

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Filed Under: AdWords, How to Prepare an Inbound Marketing Consultation & Competitive Analysis, Inbound Marketing, Inbound Marketing and AdWords, Inbound Marketing and Patience, Inbound Marketing and SEO, Inbound Marketing and Social Media, Inbound Marketing and Video, Inbound Marketing Consulting, Inbound Marketing Strategies, Internet Marketing and SEO, Internet Marketing and Social Media, Organic Listings and Inbound Marketing, SEO, Social Media and Business, Social Media and New Media Marketing, The Ultimate Internet Image, Ultimate Internet Image, Ultimate Internet Image and Inbound Marketing, Ultimate Internet Image and SEO, Ultimate Internet Image Consultation, Ultimate Internet Image Consulting, Video Marketing and Social Media Tagged With: How to Prepare an Inbound Marketing Consultation & Competitive Analysis, Inbound Marketing, Inbound Marketing and SEO, Inbound Marketing and Social Media, Inbound Marketing Consulting, Organic Listings and Inbound Marketing, SEO

The Website is Dead, Long Live the Website! Understanding Inbound Marketing

January 24, 2010 By admin 1 Comment

How Can a Traditional Brick and Mortar Business Thrive in Today’s Economy?

Before I explain the title, and the subtitle, let me take you back to another recession, the recession of the early 1980s. The mid to late 1970s was a transitional period, there was much going on in the world:

• The Vietnam War had just ended.

• President Richard Milhous Nixon had resigned from office in disgrace.

• President “Gerry” Ford did his time…”Go Wolverines!” I’m a Buckeye fan myself!

• Then we had a peanut farmer in the White House who promised never to lie to us. Interestingly, many of us believed him, and still do! Knowing the man, it is not hard to believe he was, in fact, telling us the truth…even about that!

• The Cleveland Plain Dealer announced $1 per gallon gas prices and by the following Monday morning every small car in the tri-state area had been sold off of dealers’ lots!

• The workers at The American Ship Building Company, Lorain, Ohio, also known as AmShip, went on strike. George Steinbrenner said go back to work “Or else!” and, when the workers refused, George closed the Lorain yard down after an 82 year history of building ships. People knew to take George seriously after that…even Billy Martin!

• The Midwest became known as The Rust Belt.

• The domestic automobile industry was traumatized, reshaped, and rebuilt.

• Interest rates for cars went to 22%, the prime was through the roof!

• US Steel was sold to the Japanese, and guys making steel and $80,000 to $100,000 a year in the mill were on the streets. Republic Steel was resurrected as LTV Steel before eventually going the way of many US steel companies.

• The manufacturing base shifted and we made the first steps to an information-based, service economy.

• Millions were outsourced, put out to pasture, either by layoff or by means of early retirement, and faced unemployment, re-training, re-education, and a much different working and personal life than the lifestyle they had experienced just a few years before

• Some businesses went under and others flourished, much as we see today!

I could go on indefinitely but you get the idea, I hope…we have faced this sort of thing before, and, we will undoubtedly face tough times again.

Interestingly, each and every time we go through a down economy, regardless of what we end up calling it (i.e., recession, mini-depression, “the worst downturn since The Great Depression,” etc.), we come out the other end stronger and more vibrant, a “leaner, meaner fighting machine!”

Are the transitions difficult?

To be sure!

Are their casualties, business and personal?

Absolutely!

However, difficulties and casualties aside, the strong survive…if they are also flexible and open to new ideas, concepts, and technologies.

Likewise, the business owner who is unable (read: unwilling) to change will go the way of the Dodo and the Wholly Mammoth!

In order to survive, flexibility and adaptability are essential.

So, what does the above have to do with websites and the survival of traditional brick and mortar businesses?

What does all this have to do with the Internet and what is now being referred to as new media, inbound marketing?

Well, to be perfectly frank, if you aren’t on the Internet or thinking about getting there soon…R…E…A…L…S…O…O…N…your traditional brick and mortar business may not make it!

There is in fact a transition underway and, interestingly, there is a transition within the transition occurring as we “speak!”

What the heck am I talking about?

OK!

Enter the Internet and Online Marketing: E-commerce and the Emergence of the Website

In the early 1990s the Internet was emerging as the place to be, people were making a lot of money, many doing nothing more than throwing up a website with a few products on it and collecting the money.

That may be an oversimplification…but just barely!

In retrospect, the first websites were something akin to the Model T, particularly by today’s standards; and, most businesses did little more than Marketing 101 kind of “stuff,” stuff being a technical term, to drive traffic to their online presence, their website.

Google, YouTube, Blogging, and Email

Fast forward a few years. Enter Yahoo, then Google, YouTube, blogs, and email marketing. By the mid 2000s, online marketing is in full swing and the Internet begins to affect and impact traditional brick and mortar businesses in a big way. Online and offline businesses begin competing for the attention of consumers and websites appear in offline advertising, what is now referred to as outbound advertising.

Outbound advertising being anything intrusive:

• Television

• Radio

• Newspapers and magazines

• Phone directories

• Direct mail

• You know the drill

With the transition to online marketing, and the need for a well-established Internet presence in high gear, consumers begin to initiate the search for products using the Internet and “Googling” becomes a verb! Inbound marketing emerged as a consequence of search-driven consumer inquiries and behaviors.

Search-Driven, New-Media, Inbound Marketing is Born

Significantly, as the transition from an emphasis on outbound advertising to inbound marketing has taken place, the transition from the simple, “slap five pages together for free” website to a complete Internet image, an online marketing presence, has occurred.

In fact, those days are gone!

More to the point, some of the websites being offered up today won’t even last the time it takes to “Blink!” If you are unsure what I am talking about, read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005); and then, look at your website from the perspective of a first-time visitor.

The Death of the Website

In 2010, it is not enough to throw up a website and sit back and wait for people to find it. If you wait for the money to begin to pour in, you may be waiting a long, long time!

It’s like an old mentor of mine used to say:

“Don’t hold your breath waiting for a response…unless you tell them to ask for Blue Boy!”

The “If you build it, they will come!” mentality must be changed, the transition recognized, and the proper strategies implemented. If the proper marketing strategies are not applied, the traditional brick and mortar business, and many online businesses, will simply go the way of Lucy, the Dodo, and the T-Rex.

Yes, even the rock group T-Rex. I know I just dated myself with that one!

As we enter the final year of the first decade of the 21st Century, and yes, we have one more year; the days of the free website are gone. The era of search-driven, customer initiated search is in full swing.

The Ultimate Internet Image is now a requirement if you are to compete and make it, online and offline, in today’s economy!

The Emergence of the Blog, Video, and the Landing Page

A few years ago I heard the term blog and quite frankly I had no idea what people were talking about. Now, I wouldn’t be without one…for every online and offline business I am involved with, and as the central feature of every online marketing strategy I develop.

Blogging for Business: The Central Hub & Linchpin of the Ultimate Internet Image

The blog has taken the place of the website as the center piece for many forward thinking businesses, the hub or linchpin for not only relationship building but as an e-commerce vehicle, as well. The premium blog theme of today has built-in capabilities to service virtually every need of the online and traditional brick and mortar business. The blog offers a video and article distribution platform, as well as a complete shopping cart for merchandise marketing and distribution. In other words, the blog can be set up to be a fully functional relationship marketing and e-commerce solution for both online and offline, brick and mortar businesses.

Video and Article Marketing

Video is the rage, online and offline. If you are not using video to promote your business, both using the Internet and the latest podcast technology, you are leaving vast sums of money on the table.

Both in terms of keeping in touch with and marketing to your current clientele, ten times more profitable than marketing to the “cold” market, and as a vehicle to promote your merchandise and service(s) to prospective clients, video is not simply an option, it is essential.

The use of articles, also essential, enhances your authority, both online and offline, enabling you to reach your current client base with your message, as well as establishing your authority with those considering your merchandise or services.

Additionally, articles are an excellent vehicle for building links and traffic to your blog or website. Links and longevity, along with traffic, will enhance your page rank, still important. By this I mean the search engines will validate your Internet real estate by moving you ahead of your competitors and on to “page one” much sooner.

The Landing Page

The landing page is a central feature online and should be an integral part of your marketing strategy, even for offline, traditional brick and mortar businesses. The landing page, also referred to as a “squeeze page,” is a very important component in any effective online marketing strategy.

The idea behind the landing page is to offer the client or prospective client an enhancement for providing you with their name and email address.

There are as many techniques for securing a “lead,” a prospect’s name and/or email address, as there are businesses online but only a few work and only a few of them are strategies I would recommend for my clients.

Ultimately, it is about providing something of value, something the client wants, usually in the form of information, and providing it free of charge. Significantly, you must make sure it is something of value, something you could charge for!

That is the key, providing valuable information in return for the understanding that in the future you will only “bother” them, and because of the spam most marketers send out today, you will only send them items of value (i.e., information, coupons designed for your email recipients alone, a newsletter, or some other enhancement).

By only sending quality content to your prospective clients, you have a better chance that they will want to open your mail, click your links, and continue to subscribe to your messages.

This gets deeper into email marketing than I had wanted to but it is important. We will cover email and the proper use of it in an upcoming article and post. For now, suffice it to say, if you have people visiting your website and you are not actively attempting to collect their name and email address, you are losing business with each and every visitor who leaves your website and does not bookmark it or tag it in some other way.

Bottom line?

If you are unsure of whether to send an email message to your subscriber-base?

Don’t!

The fastest way to be unsubscribed en mass is to fill the inboxes of your list with junk!

It’s like every one of our online grandmothers would say if given the opportunity:

“If you don’t have something of quality of send, don’t send anything at all!”

Poetic license and all!

If you are not collecting names and email addresses actively, and you have a lackluster website, 99.999% will not be back!

Get current and get active!

The Tip of the Inbound Marketing Iceberg

There is a lot more to cover, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to developing an online presence, The Ultimate Internet Image.

Blogging for business is essential. Continuing to lose business with a static, often stale and outdated website is costing you money and may eventually cost you much more.

Video marketing is not only effective, it’s where the clients are; and, it is where you need to be!

Article marketing enhances your presence both online and offline, creating interest and links back to your site…crucial in today’s world of links and longevity.

Email marketing, if done properly, and using the right sort of landing page and enhancement will develop and/or improve your relationship with current and future clients by providing useful information in a timely manner.

Metrics, tracking your visitors, not only to your online real estate by means of analytics, but tracking and developing a relationship with clients and prospective clients who visit or call on your business in person via your blog and email is crucial and should be integrated into your current marketing strategy.

Helping People versus Providing Value

Ultimately, it is about helping people and providing value. Interestingly, when an interviewee goes to a medical school interview the first question they often face is:

“Why do you want to be a doctor?”

I would ask the same thing of an inbound or Internet marketing consultant competing for your business:

“Why do you think you are the person to help me with my online presence?”

And, more importantly:

“What separates you from every Tom, Dick, and Julie competing for my business?”

The answer the prospective med student provides usually goes something like this:

“I want to help people!”

This is the response heard day in and day out by interviewers at medical schools across the country…and it is not enough!

The answer from an inbound or Internet marketing consultant, and it should be the former and not the latter, if they do not understand the nuances and the profound differences keep searching, should go like this:

“I love what I do, enjoy people, and take your success personally. You get me with every transaction and for the life of the relationship and, most importantly, I will provide real and lasting value!”

You see, anyone can say they can “help” you with your Internet marketing strategy. All a consultant has to do is throw up another static, stale, and dated website and they will help you all right…help you out of your money and help you right out of business!

The true master of his or her craft, an inbound marketing consultant, one in business for himself or herself, will be able to offer real and lasting value…because it is there name and reputation on the line too!

Additionally, someone in business for themselves as an inbound marketing consultant, using that designation…inbound marketing consultant…will take very personally your success, and failures, on the way to a long term relationship and The Ultimate Internet Image. An inbound marketing consultant will understand the dynamics of inbound marketing versus outbound advertising; and, how to use that understanding, and both strategies, to your advantage.

Once again, there is so much more and we will cover it in future videos, articles, and blog posts.

We will discuss in depth “moving the free-line,” the idea of providing an information product or some other enhancement, something you could easily sell but are providing at no charge in order to build authority, credibility, a relationship, and your list.

In order for a traditional brick and mortar business to survive and thrive, in fact for any business to survive the current economic downturn, an understanding of and providing for all of the above must part of your marketing strategy.

Inbound marketing must be applied to and be an integral aspect of your business model.

In other words, the transition must include you!

The use of blogs, video, articles, landing pages with free offers, email marketing strategies, viral marketing, and more must be an integral part of your marketing strategy.

Enhance your authority online and in your community, have people from Tampa to Timbuktu saying your name and promoting your business! It must be designed and implemented properly and, if done so, the viral effect will occur all day, every day…it is amazing! It happens to me each and every day. It can happen for you too!

Build wide, build deep, and above all…build based on inbound marketing!

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
216-539-7412
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

PS, For a free consultation and assessment of your current marketing strategy, as well as a localized competitive analysis, contact me at 216-712-6526 or email me excellencepaidforward@gmail.com

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Understanding Outbound Advertising versus Inbound Marketing

December 19, 2009 By admin 2 Comments

Inbound Marketing and The Ultimate Internet Image:
Traditional Brick and Mortar Business and Inbound Marketing Consulting

Recently, there has been a great deal of discussion about inbound marketing, search driven advertising, local search, consulting with local brick and mortar businesses; and, helping business people transition from traditional, outbound advertising to the new media, inbound marketing approach to lead generation, traffic building, and new customer and client acquisition. This seems like a tall order and it is…and it isn’t! I will explain below.

The Failure of Outbound Advertising

Traditional brick and mortar businesses have used what is now referred to as outbound advertising. Outbound marketing and/or advertising is intrusive (TV, Yellow Pages, radio, junk mail, etc.), driven by the business with the focus being customer acquisition by any means necessary. While this may seem like a bit of an exaggeration or at the very least a stretch, it’s quite accurate.

Businesses have been resorting to a “take no prisoners” approach to sales and marketing for decades and, until the dawn of the Internet, and particularly with the emergence of SEM or search engine marketing, things started to change…drastically and rapidly!

As businesses moved to the online business environment, they discovered several things almost immediately:

1) Prospective clients and/or customers were defining the search.

2) Traditional brick and mortar businesses seeking to engage their prospective target audience, their target market, had to adapt to this new and dynamic environment
or perish.

3) The companies able to adapt and get in front of their target market flourished.

4) Inbound marketing consulting emerged.

5) Inbound marketing consultancies serving traditional brick and mortar businesses with their online image, the Ultimate Internet Image if you will, offered a dynamic new form of advertising and marketing.

6) There was a huge disparity in competence among these inbound marketing consultancies, particularly those claiming to be SEO or search engine optimization specialists.

Enter the Inbound Marketing Consultant

In order to answer the need for Internet savvy, inbound marketing specialists many companies settled for less than qualified consultants, rather than taking the time to develop competence in house. The niche was there and if XYZ Inbound Marketing Consultancy didn’t fill it, ABG Internet Marketing and New Media Specialists would. Both companies are, of course, fictitious but you get the point, hope?

Consequently, in the rush to fill an ever expanding niche, a few inbound marketing consultancies failed to deliver. This failure gave an entire industry a black-eye. Sadly, a few unscrupulous SEO consultants simultaneously gouged their unsuspecting brick and mortar clients attempting to create a better online image of hundreds, often thousands of dollars in order to reap the short term windfall; the long term consequences be damned.

Fortunately, two things occurred:

1) The inbound marketing consulting landscape changed, it adapted and, consequently, flourished…exposing and pushing out most of the hacks and replacing them with competent and professional Internet and inbound marketing consultancies, companies in it for the long-term.

2) As with most things Internet, the consumers, in this case the traditional brick and mortar companies seeking the Ultimate Internet Image, and all the profits that go with such an online presence, got smart. With the emergence of greater competition, the consumer, the traditional brick and mortar business benefited in a big way!

Hiring Competent Consultants: Growing Pains

One of the greatest challenges facing new Internet companies focusing on inbound marketing was and remains to be how to hire and/or develop competent staff, marketing specialists capable of speaking the Internet/inbound marketing language. Additionally, these specialists need to have a working knowledge of the outbound strategies the companies and clients are engaged in.

Once again, the inbound marketing consultant needs to have a working knowledge of the traditional brick and mortar business environment, and the outbound advertising arena, as well.

I use arena for a reason, it has degenerated into something of a 3-ring circus, with no clear focus and little hope of competing in the new world of the Internet.

The Birth of an Inbound Marketing Consultant and Consultancy

One of the most common questions I receive from people considering a career as either an entrepreneur in a consultative role or as a sales and marketing specialist in the inbound marketing field is:

“How? How do I do it?”

Of course, the next statement is generally something like:

“I am not a salesman, never have been, and really can’t imagine myself being one. I hate selling!”

Interestingly but not surprisingly, the response is typical…and that’s a good thing!

What is crucial in inbound marketing is an understanding of consumer driven behavior, accessing target markets through an understanding of this behavior, an understanding of how the Internet works, and the ability to listen to prospective clients as they explain their motivation and their goals. Once the prospective client is understood, it then becomes a research driven task to build the Ultimate Internet Image for that client.

The No-Selling Sale!

Significantly, once a client understands that you have their interests at heart, and that you are competent, the sale takes care of itself. In fact, there is little selling to be done! The consultant presents and the traditional brick and mortar client accepts the vision of the consultant based on a relationship developed while engaged in the interview process.

There is much more to this and we will cover it is subsequent videos and articles but for now it is crucial to understand one thing:

It is impossible to fake competence long term!

The charlatan will be found out in short order and the inbound marketing firm that is focused on the client’s needs wants and desires will emerge, adapt over time, prosper, and, unfortunately, clean up the mess of the few who ruin it for those who completely understand this exciting and dynamic marketing milieu!

Call for information and a free outbound advertising consultation and inbound marketing assessment to achieve the Ultimate Internet Image.

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-539-7412
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

PS, For an amazing overall program for developing an inbound marketing consultancy, one you can plug in and go with, a turn key operation, simply click here…the results will be the Ultimate Internet Image…for you and your new clients! Webinar and information good until Saturday 12-19-2009 at midnight, so don’t delay!

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Outbound Marketing, Inbound Marketing and the Ultimate Internet Image

December 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

The Questions Every Business Must Ask Before, During, and After Each and Every Inbound Marketing Campaign

Many companies pay huge sums of money, either to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN (Bing) for pay-per-click sponsored advertising or to SEO firms, to get to page one, the first page for various coveted keyword phrases responsible for generating leads, traffic, prospects, and ultimately, sales.

While both inbound marketing strategies may be effective, they are certainly not the most effective methods overall, both in terms of costs and/or results, for dealing with the marketing conundrum, the puzzle presented by Google and the other search engines.

The puzzle?

How does a business, either an online, Internet-based company or a traditional brick and mortar business, get the most exposure in the least amount of time and for the least amount of money?

In other words, how can a company optimize not only exposure, the ultimate Internet image and presence, but how can I do it in a cost effective manner?

How does a company optimize the ROI, return on investment?

These are the questions every company, online or offline, participating in online marketing or, as it is now referred to, inbound, new media marketing, needs to be able to understand and address. Unless a company can properly address these questions, these issues that cut to the heart of both short term and long term Internet marketing strategies and efforts, they are going about it in the wrong way.

As noted previously, there is a revolution underway, a transition within a transition. The Internet has forever altered how we spend money on sales and marketing campaigns. The shift is two-fold at its most fundamental level, and there are transitions within transitions, the state of Internet marketing, and thus the state of inbound marketing, is fluid, in a constant state of flux, evolving as knowledge of how to fully optimize the platform and its strategies are understood at a greater and deeper level.

The initial transition has occurred within and away from outbound advertising, the traditional in-your-face, intrusive advertising (e.g., Yellow Pages, television, radio, billboards, etc.), to a consumer oriented, search driven marketing strategy, later to be referred to as inbound or new media marketing. Within this transition several more have taken place. However, the most significant and interesting shift has been in the social media milieu because it is reshaping the Internet at a fundamental level. As the latter continues to occur, how we target and reach various segments of the Web 2.0, social media population is defining inbound marketing.

The use of social media and video marketing, along with the emergence of the blog, social bookmarking, and the mini or micro-blogging phenomenon have reshaped the strategies of companies big and small, both traditional brick and mortar companies moving online and emerging Internet marketing concerns across a variety of niches.

Ultimately, the transition is far from over, yet one thing is a certainty, the old media style of advertising, the outbound method of marketing is fading and the new media, inbound marketing approach to client and customer acquisition is here for the foreseeable future. The ROI may be incredible, given the proper strategy and an understanding of inbound marketing.

The next article in this series: The Use of Video and Social Media to Achieve High Levels of Search Engine Visability! will deal with how to integrate these two powerful models into your inbound marketing to create the Ultimate Internet Image long term!

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
The Ultimate Internet Image – International
216-539-7412
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

PS, Call for a free consultation and video marketing strategy workup.

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