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The A through Z of Inbound Marketing: B is for Backbone

August 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Building an Inbound Marketing Consultancy

If A is for Attitude then B is for Backbone!

In The Inbound Marketing Week in Review: What are the A, B, Cs of Inbound Marketing we spoke of the “A” letter resources, concepts, and ideas, those adding to our knowledge-base as we strive to build an inbound marketing consulting firm and serve our clients.

Naturally, many of the terms discussed can be applied to Internet marketing, online business across a variety of niches, MLM, and, of course, “offline” businesses, particularly as they seek to make the transition from outbound to inbound marketing and build an Internet image or online presence.

NOTE: We will continue to refine the list as we work toward September 1, 2010. Anyone who is a subscriber to the UII Newsletter and email list on or before August 31st will receive a free copy of the completed ebook on August 31, 2010. So subscribe today!

So, here are the B resources, concepts, and ideas, in part. Please leave your comments and ideas below. Have we left anything out? Can you add something to our list? Please feel free to offer your feedback and, if appropriate, we will attempt to include it in the final draft.

B – Backbone: Internet consulting, online business consulting, or inbound marketing consulting, whatever you choose to call it, is not only about knowing the Internet, it’s about being able to understand and relate to the “real world,” the offline business world…and sales.

Having a backbone is a must!

By that I mean, you must be able to take rejection. And, you must be able to say no yourself when it is necessary. Meaning, you must be wise enough to walk away from a sale and a big check when you know a prospective client is the wrong fit for you and your consulting business. That takes backbone, particularly when you are first starting out.

Additionally, asking for the kind of fees you will require, and deserve, will take backbone…at least until you have some experience and feel confident in your abilities. Interestingly, once you understand that you are, in fact, able to deliver a service few others can, that you are indeed an expert, it will no longer take backbone to ask for your fee. Your knowledge and service will convert either a nonexistent Internet image or one that is all but nonexistent into The Ultimate Internet Image. And there aren’t a lot of people or businesses that can do that.

While it is true that the more knowledgeable you become and the more experience you gain, the stronger your backbone will become, you must demand it of yourself from the get-go or you will be swamped with the wrong clients paying you far too little for your services…and you will be miserable.

Make sure you learn to say no and walk away from the wrong situation.

And, whether you listen to Malcolm Gladwell or Perry Marshall or Lee Milteer, they are all telling you one thing:

“Listen to you gut!”

And I would add:

“Use your backbone!”

B – Blogging for business is a necessity. I’ve heard some of the experts, even experts who blog themselves, call blogging for business “lame.”

Or, more accurately, they call business blogs lame.

Perhaps many are?

However, if you set up your inbound marketing clients’ blogs properly and fill them with quality content on a continuous basis, it will pay huge dividends in terms of interest, traffic, and sales for your clients.

Blogging is one of the most effective traffic and relationship building tools available online today. I would argue that the distinction between a website and a full-function blog will disappear in time, perhaps entirely within the next five years.

All you have to do is look through the Studiopress blog themes available or look at what some businesses have done with Thesis themes to understand that I am on the money here.

For inbound marketing purposes?

The blog is a better vehicle for traffic generation than a static website, particularly when starting out, for a myriad of reasons.

If a static page is required?

Many premium blog themes will accommodate you and your client. All-in-all, the blog is the way to go and the amount of traffic and page rank you can gain for your inbound marketing clients in a relatively short period of time makes this one a no-brainer. At the very least, if your client is set on their static website, as is? Integrate a blog immediately and link the two sites or integrate a blog into the exiting website. The boost in traffic and page rank will be significant and will convince your client to go along with other inbound marketing strategies as time goes on.

In today’s online world, if your client isn’t blogging, they might as well be rowing across the Atlantic with one arm.

They will never get where they are going without all the resources available to them…and that includes a professional looking blog!

B – Blogosphere is a term implying that all blogs are made up of a single universe, the blogosphere, and that they are all connected in one community. The blogosphere also refers to various interrelated blogs and their connections. It is an interesting concept and there seems to be at least some validity to it.

One example of the power of this phenomenon is when a video, article, or blog post goes “viral,” spreading across the Internet rapidly, seeming to take on a life of its own.

Interestingly, Jon Hoover recently mentioned how blogs and the blogging community were once like a small town and now the same community is more akin to a major city. I would argue the same is true of the blogosphere. What was once a relatively small and unique, interactive community has spilled over its boundaries and the new manifestation has very little in common with what once was.

The blogosphere of today is a universe apart from the blogosphere of a decade ago.

B – Brand Awareness is a reflection of how many consumers are aware of a particular brand. One of the most important purposes of an inbound marketing campaign is to enhance brand awareness, to increase the overall, positive response to a client’s product or constellation of products. Ultimately, brand awareness is measured using brand recall, brand recognition, top of mind awareness, and other metrics beyond the scope of this post.

However, on a related topic, it is important to realize that many of the sales that are currently being attributed to social media may be more a consequence or at least a reflection of brand awareness.

Two companies, one with brand recognition and one without, will have very different results given the very same social media marketing campaign. We will explore this relationship in greater detail as we go but it goes without saying that brand awareness is central to online success and inbound marketing is crucial for brand building and brand recognition…or whatever you want to call it.

B – Backlinks are also known as incoming links, inbound links, inward links, and inlinks. Backlinks are incoming links to a web page or website and are one of the most important factors in determining a website’s ranking. Backlinks are also a reflection of who is paying attention to a certain website or page within a certain website. Building incoming links can be one of the most challenging tasks for an inbound marketing firm because they take time and the creation of quality content…and a little bit of luck.

As important as the backlinks, perhaps more important, are the quality of the incoming links.

In other words, where the link is coming from is more important than the link itself. A link from a less than reputable site can have an adverse impact on ranking.

Links for sake of more links is gnerally a bad strategy.

B – Benefits: Sell the benefits.

Or, as an old mentor of mine used to say, and I have said time and time again to the people I mentor, coach, and train:

“Sell the sizzle, not the steak!”

If you are selling air conditioners in August?

Sell the feeling you get when you first walk into an air conditioned house after cutting the grass on a 90 degree day. Do not focus on the digital controls or the ease of operation.

Help your inbound marketing client picture a full dining room from 4:30pm until 7pm. Let your client hear the phone ringing off the hook for pizzas at a typically slow period of the day because of an email blast. Get them to see the new car, the kids in college, and all the rest of the benefits of your inbound marketing expertise.

Don’t tell your inbound marketing prospects about autoresponders, email marketing, and social media profiles…they could care less!

Sell them the sizzle and then they (and you) will have steak!

B – Blogger (blogspot) is Google’s free blogging platform and, while many feel it is not worth the time or the effort, nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, I have heard people say it doesn’t pay to utilize this platform. Significantly, Google allows anyone, and that includes inbound marketing firms, to build an unlimited number of blogs for an unlimited number of purposes. If you are not using this resource, you are missing out on a valuable inbound marketing tool. Do not simply build mirror sites but build blogs with content and then encourage others to link to them and through these blogs back to your clients’ primary site. Imagine one hub connected to another and another, all of them interconnected and pointing links and driving traffic back to your central hub. And, you can do it all for next to nothing!

B – Business Networking is a marketing method that has been around a lot longer than the Internet. Networks of like-minded business people come together to seek and share opportunities and ideas with one another.

There are several well-known online business networking sites, to include:

Inbound marketing firms not only use these networking sites to build their consulting businesses but to build up their clients’ businesses as well.

Social media has transformed business networking.

Some of the most responsive social media sites online are business networking sites like ecademy and LinkedIn.

These sites and others should be an integral part of your inbound marketing strategy…not only your’s but your clients’ as well.

B – Brick and Mortar Businesses, what I often refer to as traditional brick and mortar businesses, are the primary focus of many inbound marketing consultancies because many brick and mortar businesses are having a difficult time making the transition from outbound marketing to inbound marketing. Many brick and mortar businesses have been sold a bill of goods and have been convinced that all they have to do it put up and website, maybe spend a bunch of money on SEO, and the rest will take care of itself.

The “If you build it, they will come!” days are over.

Interestingly, some marketers refer to brick and mortar businesses as “offline” businesses…but that is less than accurate, particularly in 2010.

Brick and mortar businesses are generally considered to be businesses with a physical address in the “real world” and not just an address in the virtual or online world…as “online” or Internet businesses do. When most people think of brick and mortar businesses they think of some sort of retail establishment or a service-oriented business, like a plumbing contractor or an HVAC contractor, any sort of a business with a physical address doing business face-to-face with customers, clients, or patients.

The Ultimate Internet Image serves brick and mortar businesses, assisting them in the transition from outbound advertising to an inbound marketing. UII creates an inbound marketing strategy tailored to the needs of their “offline” clients and appropriate for the individual client’s competitive business environment. It is crucial to understand both the Internet and the “offline” world if we, as inbound marketing consultants, are to properly serve our clients.

It takes empathy, understanding, knowledge, and experience to develop an inbound marketing strategy that works for our brick and mortar business clients!

Next, we will jump to the Cs of inbound marketing. Please add your thoughts and ideas below. I would love to hear from you and it will add immensely to the final product, an inbound marketing guide we can all share in.

Thank you and please comment below!

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

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Filed Under: Blogging for Business, Brick and Mortar Business and Inbound Marketing, Business Blogging, Business Blogs, Inbound and Internet Marketing, Inbound Marketing, The A through Z of Inbound Marketing, The Ultimate Internet Image, Ultimate Internet Image, Ultimate Internet Image and Inbound Marketing, Ultimate Internet Image Consulting Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Inbound Marketing and Business Blogging: Relationship Building 101

June 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

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

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Filed Under: Blogging for Business, Business Blogging, Business Blogs, Relationship Marketing, Ultimate Internet Image, Ultimate Internet Image and Inbound Marketing, Ultimate Internet Image Consultation, Ultimate Internet Image Consulting, Ultimate Internet Image Consulting Launch, Web 2.0 and Business Blogging Tagged With: , , , ,

Blogging for Business: Your Inbound Marketing Strategy’s Linchpin

May 14, 2010 By 2 Comments

Blogging for Business: Relationship Marketing 101

Currently, blogging for business is a topic of much debate. Interestingly, some of the individuals labeling it as “lame” and “ineffective” use it daily to promote their various online, and offline, business ventures. One or two have actually made their fortunes blogging! So, how “lame” can blogging for business be?

Blogs are used by businesses big and small to enhance their brand and communicate with their clients and prospective clients on a daily or weekly basis. There can be little doubt that blogging for business is here to stay, perhaps not in its current incarnation, but the premise behind it and its applications are incredibly powerful, its relationship building capabilities such that, at least in this author’s opinion, the blog and blogging for business are here to stay. We will discuss blogging for business here and in future articles, as it is the central hub, the linchpin of a well-thought out, well-constructed inbound marketing strategy.

As stated above and previously, one of the most effective inbound marketing strategies available for businesses, online and offline, both in terms of cost of implementation and in overall return on investment (ROI), is blogging. Why has business blogging become so important as an inbound marketing strategy? There are a variety of reasons. Blogging is conversation, it’s personable, and it’s informative. Blogging is attractive for both online and offline (i.e., brick and mortar) businesses because consumers (i.e., customers, clients, and patients) feel they are being told a story rather than sold a product or service; and, no one wants to be “sold!”

Significantly, clients and prospective clients become part of the conversation by reading the blog posts and leaving their thoughts and feelings in the form of comments.

Who doesn’t like being asked their opinion?

And, what business owner wouldn’t pay big money to know what his target audience is thinking, as well as what they react to and why?

A blog is a great way to show the world your expertise, thus establishing authority and demonstrating your competence in the marketplace and to your target market. People like to do business with business people they know, like, and trust. Prospective clients are drawn to businesses and business people who are experts in their field. Demonstrating competence enhances your image and makes the prospective client feel confident about their decision to purchase from you…you, as the expert in your field.

When properly constructed and implemented, an effective business blogging strategy is an incredibly valuable asset. Blogging for business is crucial, whether the business is entirely online or a combination of both, as is the case with most brick and mortar businesses today.

When well organized and written, a blog conveys the ultimate Internet image, an image that announces:

“This business is well run, this is a business I can do business with!”

A well thought out, well constructed blog, combined with an effective overall inbound marketing strategy, conveys a message, an image if you will, that this business owner is knowledgeable and cares enough to seek feedback about products and/or services offered from his or her clients and prospective clients.

A wise business owner values feedback, realizing there is always room for improvement, both in sales and service. Why not ask for feedback from the very people who use the product or service day in and day out? A blog can accomplish this for a business, creating a link both valuable and, ultimately, profitable. The feedback a blog offers is an often over-looked advantage; and yet, it is an incredibly powerful resource.

Significantly, the proper blogging strategy will provide a window into the thinking of your client-base and create a vehicle you may then use to improve your products and/or service.

The feedback from your business blog will also provide ideas and strategies for new products and services. Interestingly, you may even be able to gain a competitive advantage by learning what your clients and prospective clients like and dislike about your competitors, their products and services. Perhaps it’s a product or service you don’t provide but should? Perhaps it’s something to do with price? The blog provides the vehicle, the opportunities are there; and, it is up to the individual business owner to take advantage of them. A well constructed inbound marketing strategy, one that has at its center a well-thought-out and appropriately implemented blogging strategy, will put your business on track to accomplish all of the above and more.

One last word about inbound marketing, blogs, and blogging for business: photographs, audio recordings, and short videos are worth their weight in gold.

If you aren’t the greatest writer, and don’t have the money in the budget to hire a good copywriter, also worth their weight in gold, a photograph or short video can help you tell your business’ story. With today’s technology, a photograph, audio, and/or video is easy to create and it’s often the first item to catch the attention of a visitor to your blog.

It’s worth taking some time each day to blog. Think of it as going out to talk to the man on the street. Think of it as time well spent. You will find it to be a great investment in time and effort, the ultimate in ROI.

What is The Ultimate Internet Image? The ultimate online presence entails merging Internet, “inbound” marketing know-how with a traditional, offline, “outbound” approach to advertising. In doing so UII has created a revolutionary approach to marketing and advertising tailor-made for the current, search-driven, new media business climate.

Facing and meeting today’s economic challenges head-on, and by rethinking your overall approach to business building and traffic generation, The Ultimate Internet Image will demonstrate, by way of results, why an inbound marketing strategy created by UII is the logical, next-step in establishing your business as a major force in your competitive niche, as well as in your community, online or offline.

Contact us for an in depth consultation, including a competitive analysis. UII will help your business or practice grow!

John Zajaros
216-712-7004 (bus)
440-821-7018 (mobile)

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Filed Under: Blogging for Business, Business Blogging, Inbound and Internet Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Internet Marketing and the Blog, Ultimate Internet Image, Ultimate Internet Image and Inbound Marketing, Ultimate Internet Image Consultation, Ultimate Internet Image Consulting Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

What is Inbound Marketing and Why is it Essential to my Offline Business Survival?

May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

What is Inbound Marketing and How is it Important to my Business?

You’ve worked hard on your online or brick and mortar business and feel prepared to offer consumers something they need, but how do you bridge the gap between those potential consumers and your high-quality content, products, or services? Inbound Marketing utilizes an understanding of how consumers actually use the Internet to seek information and make purchases, and applies this understanding to every element of content, advertising design, and overall marketing strategy.

Whether you have an established Internet image or are in the conceptual stages, working on your website, taking advantage of the Internet’s vast marketing resources can be a daunting task worthy of serious consideration, a perhaps the help of someone qualified. Even the web savvy can benefit from the professional assistance offered by an inbound marketing consultant. Ultimate Internet Image offers the advice and expertise you need to establish that ultimate Internet presence and build the consistent and convertible Internet traffic your business needs to survive and flourish.

How is Inbound Marketing Different?

In the past, if you wanted to sell a product or service, outbound advertising was your only real option. Expensive billboards, TV commercials, Yellow Page ads, trashy direct mail pieces, telephone prospecting, and radio spots where your only way of reaching consumers; and, this relationship was a one way street. There was usually no way to track how an ad was doing until the campaign was over, if then. How do you track a billboard ad? At least most of the ones you and I see every day! What happens to most direct mail? Straight from the mail box to “File 13,” the trash basket! When you received your last cold call, how long did it take for you to hang up? There are some marketing firms still engaged in this increasingly obsolete and incredibly ineffective method of marketing, outbound marketing, exclusively.

Ultimately, there must be a balance between inbound and outbound marketing; and, it must be trackable and the return on investment worth the risk. When all is said and done, all advertising has an element of risk. The task of a qualified inbound marketing consultant is to attempt to reduce or, whenever possible, eliminate risk.

Today, the consumer plays an important and active role in the buyer-seller relationship and marketing must reflect this transition. Consumers are identifying themselves, their interests, and their purchasing power, by way of search habits and Internet usage patterns, to anyone with the tools to listen. Your brick-and-mortar business or internet startup needs these tools and a savvy marketing consultant can and will provide them.

How Does Inbound Marketing Work and What are Some of the Key Components?

There are a number of ways to market products online. The Internet will enable you to reach potential clients, patients, and customers in a way outbound marketing cannot.

1. Search Engine Optimization or SEO – SEO is the method of organizing your web content to make it easier for search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing to “read” and rank. Search engines use “crawlers” (some call them “spiders” or “bots”), as well as other specialized software, to crawl your content in order to position your website pages on the appropriate search engine results pages (SERPs). By using the proper keywords and metadata, along with improving the website’s architecture, a previously obscure web site can improve its ranking across the Internet and improve overall visibility. This is the most cost-effective, long term strategy for building an online presence and, ultimately, you Internet image.

2. Social Media Marketing – Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Friendfeed, and LinkedIn (to name a few of thousands) have members in the tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions. Not only does social media reach more people (i.e., consumers of products and services) than any other medium, users of social media organize themselves into marketable niches (i.e., Tribes or congregations). A well constructed social media marketing strategy will reach more people faster than the slickest ad campaign ever devised, and for pennies…or “for free!” An understanding of how people interact on these sites will help you take advantage of the biggest lead generator in the world. Interestingly, like people, these social media platforms all have their distinct personalities; and, there are rules to adher to. Unless you want to be tagged as a spammer, certain death online, the message must be subtle and the focus of your strategy needs to be one of relationship building rather than overt selling. While difficult to track, the results can be impressive, provided the proper strategy is employed.

NOTE: Social media marketing is something of an oxymoron! You do not overtly or aggressively “market” online via social media. Anyone who suggests you should is not someone you want to work with. Being tagged a spammer, as mentioned elsewhere in this article, is the quickest and surest way to being tagged a spammer…and that is a social media death sentence! Keep in mind that the big companies and the “successes” they boast about online have more to do with brand recognition. The results are not about social media marketing strategy, we are comparing apples and oranges because most businesses do not have that sort of brand recognition and must therefore develop brand awareness before they can expect the kind of results the “big guns” derive from their social media marketing efforts.

3. Blogging – Building and maintaining relationships with clients and customers has always been one of the biggest challenges for businesses, and marketers, trying to build a brand and a business. One of the most neglected, most profitable groups of clients, customers, or consumers for any business is their current client base, people who have purchased their information, goods, or services before. A blog is one of the best ways to cultivate new prospects, keep in touch with current prospects, and engage current clients on an ongoing basis. Full featured blog themes provide online endeavors and brick and mortar businesses (i.e., offline businesses) an opportunity to interact prospects, clients, customers, and patients on an ongoing basis, creating previously unimaginable channels for user-feedback, long-term relationships, and even e-commerce.

NOTE: The static website is becoming increasingly obsolete, as well-informed businesses are moving towards full-featured websites and blogs to take ful advantage of the relationship building tools available to them through what Seth Godin and others are referring to as the “new media.” In other words, the static website is rapidly going extinct as Web 2.0 and the new media emerge.

4. Pay-Per-Click or PPC – PPC advertising provides traffic the old-fashioned way, by paying for it. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and many others will post your banners, ads, and other approved links and messages, charging you based on your campaign’s architecture and how effectively your ads generate clicks to your site (click thru rate) . Pay-Per-Click can also be very expensive, particularly if you don’t possess the know-how to convert user interest (traffic) into sales. PPC can be an incredibly effective method for generating traffic, leads, prospects, and sales but it must be focused and you must know what you are going…or it can get away from you fast. If you are a novice, you would be wise to spend some time getting a feel for this advertising method before jumping in or keep your daily budget (you are allowed to set a daily maximum spend) to a minimum until you have a sense fo what you are doing. The best case scenario is, of course, to hire a PPC specialist, sometimes referred to as an AdWords specialist, to run your campaign. Most full featured inbound marketing consulting firms will offer this service.

Only by balancing the elements and strategies above can you improve web traffic, and traffic to your business, online or offline; and, build new relationships, and establish a lasting, and ultimate, Internet Image for your business. The best strategy is always to use the experience of others whenever possible. Why reinvent the wheel? Find an inbound marketing consulting firm you have confidence in and allow them to get to know you and your business. In doing so, you will be on your way to what is known as The Ultimate Internet Image.

Don’t leave your business’ future to chance, get an in depth marketing assessment and then get traffic, leads, prospects, and sales!

Contact us today!

John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image
216-712-7004

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Filed Under: Brick and Mortar Business and Inbound Marketing, What is Inbound Marketing?, Why Do I Need an Inbound Marketing Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

January 24, 2010 By 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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