Positioning, Differentiation, and Homogenization

The Impact on Inbound Marketing and Social Media Management!

Positioning and differentiation are two of the most important concepts you will come across as an inbound marketing consultant for social media manager.

Your understanding of these fundamental marketing principles will assist you in building your inbound marketing consultancy. Additionally, they will help you understand your clients; and, the businesses and/or professional practices of your clients.

In order to offer something truly remarkable, we must be remarkable ourselves, and that means personally and professionally. Additionally, we need to define and distinguish ourselves and our work in the marketplace; and, to do that, we must be remarkable.

As many marketing experts have so aptly pointed out:

Good is no longer good enough.

In fact:

Great is no longer good enough either!

You must be remarkable, consistent, and determined in your inbound marketing efforts…and your social media strategies.

Dan Kennedy states that, “Positioning is controlling how your customers and prospective customers think and feel about your business in comparison to other, similar businesses competing for their attention.”

Brian Tracy states that, “Positioning refers to the way your clients think about you and talk about you, and your company, when you are not around.” Tracy goes on to explain that, “The position that you hold in your client’s mind determines all of his reactions and interactions with you. Your position determines whether or not your client buys from you, whether he buys again from you, and whether he refers other people to you.”

In other words, everything you do when it comes to your client’s inbound marketing requirements affects the way your client thinks about you, your inbound marketing and social media strategies, and your inbound marketing consultancy’s brand…your Internet image.

Brian Tracy and Dan Kennedy differ somewhat, with Kennedy conflating the definitions of positioning and differentiation somewhat; and Tracy offering distinct definitions.

In the end, it all comes out in the wash!

Why?

Because you cannot have one without the other and be succcessful, positioning and differentiation are like the Ying and Yang of marketing.

Tracy maintains that, “Differentiation…refers to your ability to separate yourself, and your product or service, from that of your competitors. Differentiation is the key to building and maintaining a competitive advantage.”

Ultimately, it comes down to how you read their individual definitions, with careful attention to the context in which each definition is offered.

Positioning and differentiation are two halves of the same whole, an advantage you and your inbound marketing firm has over your competitors in the same marketplace; the unique benefits no one else can provide your clients.

However!

When all you have to offer is what everyone else is offering, and you have made it all about the price, you have little chance to be remarkable.

In fact, even if you are? In all liklihood, you won’t get hired because you have defined the parameters before you even open you mouth.

Unfortunately, we are witnessing the homogenization of inbound marketing and social media management!

We are also witnessing this trend throughout much of the business world today. As a consequence of this trend, the homogenization of inbound marketing, we are witnessing less of a distinction between inbound marketing consultancies and social media management firms.

What defines good enough…much less remarkable?

Is it true that good enough…isn’t good enough?

Additionally, what qualifies one entity to “certify” another at this point? And yet, we see this movement to be “certified!”

Interesting!

I call this trend “Follow the follower!”

Worse yet?

We are also witnessing the commoditization of inbound marketing, along side its homogenization.

Listen to Dan Kennedy talk about price lists some time if you want a real education on commoditization.

He is dead on the money, pun intended, on this point.

When you make the conversation all about price?

You become nothing more than a discount operation in the eyes of your prospective clients!

Instead of being about what makes you separate and distinct?

Your positioning and differentiation?

Instead of what makes you remarkable?

You are nothing more than an inbound marketing or social media version of K-Mart!

Why K-Mart?

Because they went bankrupt!

And making the conversation about price before you know anything about your client is bargain basement mentality; and, all your competition has to do is chop your price…and you rapidly fade away!

How can you possibly know how much to charge an inbound marketing or social media management client when you have yet to establish your client’s needs?

Or, for that matter, if you can help them at all?

In many instances, the business building and marketing strategies of today are not based on a follow the leader approach, an approach most refer to as modeling.

Modeling is a strategy that makes sense, at least to a point.

“Standing on the shoulders of giants!”

However, as noted above, we seem to be witnessing a “Follow the follower” mentality, everyone lock-step behind the next…and the result is lackluster at best.

I suggest that inbound marketing is perhaps too new, as a marketing discipline, to have many giants worth modeling…much less available for a perch on their shoulders!

Sadly, many of the companies at the forefront of the industry, those worth modeling at all, do not have extensive experience in the trenches, building inbound marketing and social media strategies for businesses and professional practices day in and day out, belly to belly, one at a time…over a period of time.

Ironically, many of the leaders today are primarily thought-leaders, with little in the trenches experience with local, “offline” businesses…consulting one on one.

Frankly, this takes getting out from behind the monitor and the desk and talking to business people in the community. What Dan Kennedy would call a No B.S. education, one based on real world experience and not on theories and concepts learned from an info course or on a website.

The best experience you will ever have, the fastest way to mastery of your craft, inbound marketing consulting and social media management, is to get out and rub elbows with business owners every day!

If you build the kind of site I see online today, the one-size-fits-all type of inbound marketing website…with services and prices posted like some sort of as menu?

You are one step away from becoming K-Mart!

If a client finds you at all, they will simply go down the menu and circle what they want, scratching what they don’t want, and that will be that.

Sadly, it will not be based on positioning or differentiation!

It will be all based on price before you even have an opportunity to establish why you may indeed be different and remarkable.

Why?

…because you are simply K-Mart!

That will be 12 blog posts please…to go!

Hold the fries!

Please let me know what you think!

Also, check out the contest on the home page…we are running out of time.

Subscribe and get a free copy of the Inbound Marketing A though Z available September 8, 2010!

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

PS, For more on this topic check out The Homogenization and Commoditization of Inbound Marketing (Part I) and Homogenization, Commoditization, and Mediocrity in Inbound Marketing (Part II).

Before the Blueprint: Building an Inbound Marketing Consulting Firm

Note: After the most recent Inbound Marketing Week in Review, which was wildly popular and I thank you for that, I noticed a major issue with my Studiopress Theme. There was no comment box on the page! Whoops! Well, I scurried off to the Studiopress forum and quickly rectified that. So, if you read The Inbound Marketing Week in Review and would like to comment? Please, do so! At the very least, I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback below and for this point forward. Additionally, please share this with friends and connections online…it will be greatly appreciated. Now, on with the show!

We read, see, and hear a lot about the nuts and bolts, the A to Z of creating an inbound marketing consulting firm. I am always interested in articles, videos, and audios that attempt to provide us with a blueprint, a template we can follow as we build a sales and consulting business. While much of this information is helpful, it is the kind of thing you get out of books and in university classrooms around the world and not particularly original or insightful. Of course, that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful, it just isn’t everything you need to begin an inbound marketing consultancy…or be successful at inbound marketing consulting.

Interestingly, almost every article, video, podcast, audio, or blog post begins with the same, canned list of ingredients, a kind of soup to nuts of business planning:

• Business Plan
  • Who
  • What
  • When
  • Where
  • Why
  • How
  • How Much
• Mission Statement
  • Branding
  • Persona or Like-able Characters
• Infrastructure
  • Support Personel
  • Office Space
  • Hardware
  • Software
• Focus or Emphasis
  • Area or Areas of Specialization
  • Demographics
  • Psychographics
  • Location: Geographic Considerations and Constraints
• Know Thy Market (got a little Biblical there for a moment)
  • See Above
    • Target Audience
    • Competitive Analysis
• The Sales Process
  • Inbound Marketing
  • Outbound Marketing
  • Advertising
  • Prospecting
  • Marketing Budget – Huge (just as we tell our clients)
• Incremental Growth
  • Start Up Plan with a Quick Start Focus
  • 30 Day Challenge
  • 180 Day Plan
  • 1 Year Plan
  • 18 Month Plan
  • 3 Year Plan
  • 5 Year Plan
  • 10 Year Plan
  • 20 Year Plan
• Employee Education
  • Formal Education
  • Tuition Reimbursement
  • Certification
  • Association Memberships
• Testing
  • In House or Outsourced (the latter is usually a good idea as it will tend to offset built in bias)
  • Test! And test! And test again!
• Metrics or Statistical Analysis (for the older generation) – Also an aspect of Testing
  • What to Measure
  • Increments
  • Anything and Everything
• Quick Start
  • Start Date
  • Daily Goals
  • Budget
  • Advertising
  • Inbound Marketing
  • Internet presence
    • Social Media Profile
    • Social Media Presence
    • Website Development
    • Blog (as main site or as a compenent of a conventional, static website)
    • And on and on and on!

Most of the above is, once again, straight out of every MBA program around the world, with variations for the region of the world, the emphasis of the particular school, and the era taught. Ultimately, much of the information is the same, it will all work (more or less), and it is all flawed; or, at least, incomplete.

Flawed?

Incomplete?

Almost every one!

We are talking about inbound marketing consultancies, so we will stick with that. But the flaw is universal and it generally leads to the eventual failure of the enterprise.

I will explain.

You see, there is a crucial component missing in every plan, every step by step program I have reviewed lately. Interestingly, the flaw, the gap, the void, the hole, or whatever you want to call it is so big and so obvious, you could drive an inbound or outbound marketing truck through it…a big truck!

It is a single word. It is an obvious issue, a single question; and, you must be able to ask yourself the question and answer it well. And, you must be happy with your answer.

Here it is:

Why?

Yup!

That’s it!

Why?

If you don’t ask yourself “Why?” right up front?

The first time things get tough…you will be! Asking yourself “Why?”, that is.

If you can’t answer “Why?” right off the bat? Intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually?

You will never be able to, particularly when times get tough…and they will.

While I don’t agree with everything Michael Gerber proposes in his The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, I do believe there are 3 segments to most business personalities:

• Entrepreneur
• Technician
• Manager

Consequently, if you cannot deal with, and make adjustments for, the requirements of all three, and so so effectively, and also deal with the transitional periods:

• Infancy
• Adolescence
• Adulthood

You will fail, as well.

Note: Interestingly, you will commonly receive the call of inbound marketing assistance at that point when businesses are attempting to make the transition from infancy to adolescence. Interestingly, it is at this transitional phase that most business owners realize that in order to make it? They must ask for help. This isn’t always the case but it happens often enough to be noted. You will have your work cut out for you!

Back to “Why?”

Significantly, this is also the case with your own business and, if you cannot answer, ”Why?” , you will never make it through the adjustments and transitions yourself.

You simply will not have it in you.

Interestingly, you will not only have to assist your inbound marketing clients through the various transitions, at least as you are able, but you will also have to face the same transitions and many of the same growth issues yourself.

But that’s a topic for another post. Lots of ideas!

I don’t know where Michael Gerber got his statistics (or have I’ve forgotten) but taken at face value, he suggests that not only will 80% of businesses fail in the first five years? That’s any type of business, including inbound marketing firms.

Incredibly, in the next five years?

80% of the businesses that made it through the first five years will also fail.

It is interesting how many people believe the five year mark is the watershed. Meaning, if you can get through five years, you are home free.

This is simply not the case.

I suggest the following:

The key compenent, the linchpin if you will, the question 100% of the failures never asked themselves, and answered, was Why?

Of course, once in business, with its ups and downs, good days and bad, one thing is certain.

They asked another question…a lot!

Why?

Glad you asked!

Because:

• Inbound marketing is about working with people.
• Inbound marketing is about sales.
• Inbound marketing is about running the mundane, day-to-day end of the business (the management).
• Inbound marketing is about developing a thick hide.
• Inbound marketing is about disappointment. Things don’t always go as predicted by your mind maps and flow chart.
• Inbound marketing is about rejection. Prospects say no and clients will leave you…not matter how on your game you are.
• Inbound marketing is also about triumph. Making a presentation that results in a sale is like a fix! Although I have never personally inhaled.
• Inbound marketing is rewarding. The rewards of running a successful campaign, much less a successful inbound marketing consultancy, are myriad. Interestingly, the greatest rewards have nothing to do with the money. It’s the intangibles!
• Inbound marketing is about service. It’s like Zig Ziglar has said, and so many have parroted: You can get everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want. While we are on Zig Ziglar quotes, the first time I saw him speak live was in the mid-70s (before more than a few inbound marketing consultants were born), this is one of my favorites along the same lines: If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all your want in life if you help nenough other peolple get what they want.
• And inbound marketing is a scared trust. Believe it and say Amen! I will explain below. Hold onto your hats because if you ever doubted that statement when I have made it in the past, you won’t any more.
• Inbound marketing is all of this and more. And so is almost any other kind of business you can go into. It takes determination, desire, and a very thick skin to succed in any business…and in life.

But inbound marketing is something different, something special, something unique.

Inbound marketing is, as I have said before, a scared trust!

Why?

There’s that question again!

Because if you fail, your client may fail too. You see, wou are responsible for generating business, you are responsible for whether a business makes it our not.

You are responsible for the personal and financial well-being of:

• The owner of the company who put his or her faith in you.
• The owner’s family because as the owner goes, so goes his or her family.
• The employees are inextricably linked to the success of the enterprise, and thus, are directly affected by the results you deliver or fail to deliver as an inbound marketing consultant.
• The employees families is a logical extension of employees’ well being.
• The community’s health will take a hit, particularly if the business has a big enough financial footprint in the community (i.e., employees, taxes, wages, etc.).

You are also responsible for:

• Your well-being because as your fortunes, health, focus, and attitude swing? So goes your company, family, etc.
• Your family’s well-being is directly tied to how effectively you service your clients and the results you achieve.
• Your employees’ well-being is tied to the success of your inbound marketing efforts, not only the efforts for clients’s sake but the results you achieve building your inbound marketing business…as you continue to build the businesses of others. If you fail, everyone takes the hit.
• Your employees’ families well-being is tied to their jobs and to you, how you serve your clients, and how ell you build your business.
• Your suppliers, merchants, etc…..
• I could go on forever…or almost!

The ripple effect through the lives of countless others is affected and impacted by you and your ability or inability to answer that one question and answer it well:

Why?

Responsible!

Think about it.

This isn’t something we go into after buying a $997 ecourse…or a $9997 ecourse for that matter. There is too much at stake and far too many peoples’ lives depend on how you perform as an inbound marketing consultant.

You must know business, not only the inbound marketing business, but Business with a capital B.

Ultimately, you would be amazed how many people go into business every day, all sorts of businesses, without ever asking themselves “Why?”

Ultimately, things will get tough, very tough. You will enter Seth Godin’s Dip.

If you failed to ask yourself “Why?” starting out? You will most certainly be asking yourself “Why?” then.

If you know “Why?” going in, it will make it possible for you to weather the many storms you will be faced with while building your inbound marketing consultancy. Things will get tough. Prospects will say no. Clients will leave you. Others may not pay.

“Stuff” happens!

“Stuff” you have very little control over.

So, if you didn’t have a very good reason for starting down this path?

If you couldn’t answer, “Why?”

Or, never thought to ask yourself “Why?”

When “stuff” happens, and believe it, it will, you will be asking yourself a question almost as short, almost as succinct, and just as meaningful at that point. And you won’t have an answer!

The question:

“Why me?”

So, ask yourself “Why?” before your start and, if you can’t come up with a very good answer?

In fact, if you can’t come up with several?

You might want to think about another question, almost as short, and just as meaningful:

“Why not?”

I can tell you my answers…but they are irrelevant. The answers must come from you, they must be heartfelt, and they must be genuine.

If they are?

Your inbound marketing consultancy has a shot.

Otherwise?

You might want to take up basket weaving. Or traveling to India and chanting on a mountain top. Or exploring the rain forests (everyone whould actually do that one, it’s amazing).

My point being?

You need to take a hard look before you leap into inbound marketing, or anything else for that matter, because you are:

Responsible!

Good luck to you whether you are just starting out or have been developing your own inbound marketing consultancy for a while. It is one of the most exciting things I have ever done in my life, at least in the business world. It is an amazing ride and there is never a dull moment.

But I know “Why?” I am doing it.

Now?

It’s your turn!

But you must know “Why!”

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. I do appreciate each and every one of you for that. Please leave a comment below. You feedback will be an immense help to me as I shape upcoming posts, videos, and audios.

Contact me anytime!

John Zajaros

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

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

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

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

The Ultimate Internet Image’s Central Hub Strategy!

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

Hubspot!

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

In other words, great minds think alike!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I would love to hear your thoughts!

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

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

Who can follow this?

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

Probably not!

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

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

Some are very cool, like this one.

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

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

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

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

Check them out by “Googling” the search phrase:

Social Media Images

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

Why?

I think has to do with the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Metrics!

Test! Test! Test!

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

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

Short term and long term relationship building!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your feedback is appreciated!

Contact UII anytime!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yup! Intrusion and interruption!

So, here is the million dollar question:

Where is the balance?

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

This is the typical marketing strategy on Twitter:

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

Spam! Spam! Spam!

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

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

“Like!”

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

A Meatball Sundae!

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

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

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

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

I was going in several different directions by then.

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

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

This is a huge marketing takeaway!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In other words:

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

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

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

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

The challenge is, as it has always been:

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

The Good Ole Days and Outbound Marketing

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

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

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

Better still?

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

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

The world was different and those days are gone!

Or are they?

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

Yup!

“Did we get any mail?”

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

OK! Back to the future!

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

Embargoes, Recessions, and Carter…Oh my!

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

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

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

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

Is it shrinking? To be sure!

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

Heresy?

Perhaps. But it is also reality.

There are two worlds and you must market to both!

Enter the Internet, New Media, and Inbound Marketing

The Digital Future Report 2010

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

Marketing Myopia

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

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

The Internet and Buying Behavior

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

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

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

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

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

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

How will it differ?

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

Why? Because it is the nature of the beast!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inbound Marketing and Communication Media Resources

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

Main Page of The Center for the Digital Future

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

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

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

Hubspot: 0% of Internet Users Would pay for Twitter

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

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

CIA Population Statistics

Monday Morning Quarterbacking and the Inbound Marketing Week in Review

Many of the observations I’ve made and ideas I’ve had over the past week are still floating around in my head from last night’s post: Inbound Marketing Week In Review - Inbound Marketing, the New Media, and Meatball Sundaes.

I was still weighing two or three ideas for this past week’s Inbound Marketing Week in Review when I settled on the list of new media and inbound marketing topics I wrote about, the topics I usually cover with my inbound marketing consulting clients…and my take on them.

In a way I am of the Stephen King School of Writing. I get an idea, or a thought begins to crystallize in my mind, and I will either let it sit in my head and see if it takes hold, or I will write it down in my notebook and let it sit there instead. In either instance, I will wait and see if it has traction, if it takes shape over a few days to a week. If it hasn’t taken shape or I haven’t done anything with it after a few days, chances are I never will and it really wasn’t that good or that exciting, at least to me, to begin with.

However, every once in while I get an idea that does take hold!

When I get an idea that grabs me, something with some traction, a sense of excitement comes along with it. The excitement begins to build and that’s when I know I really have something. The idea then moves to the next stage and I begin to write an article or a blog post. On occasion, I take the idea and create a video. But that’s the topic for another article or blog post.

See? It never ends!

The same process I use for developing ideas holds for the articles I write. I begin writing articles all the time, some days I begin several. I begin reading several books at once too. It’s just they way my mind works. It really isn’t about focus, it’s more about appetite.

Then, once I have several ideas that have taken shape and articles or blog posts have been started, one of the articles usually takes off. The article or post will either take shape immediately, and that’s when it is fun because everything just flows, or it will sit for a time. If I let something sit and it makes sense when I reread it, then I know I have something.

The funny thing about many articles and blog posts I write, even at this stage, is that they just don’t stand the test of time. What looked great as an idea and even started off nicely as an article or post just kind of fizzles out. Actually, there are quite a few more that fizzle than pop!

It’s just that way with ideas, and articles, they may seem great when they first pop into my head but only a few stand the test of time and fewer still stand the written test.

Significantly, ideas are a lot like dreams, they are fleeting. As a result, ideas should be written down or otherwise cataloged. If you try to remember dreams, you can’t. The same is true of ideas, most ideas you have are gone a few minutes later, so if you want to keep them, write them down or record them.

Recording Ideas

I use a digital recorder and a lot of little black books for my ideas. The Little Black Books are made by Moleskine and I buy them by the dozens. I use them for ideas and for taking notes at meetings with clients. I am never without one. I’d love to say I thought of it on my own but such notable artists, thinkers, writers, and scholars as Van Gogh, Picaso, Hemingway, and Chatwin have used the very same notebooks for the past 200 years.

So, if it is good enough for them….

The nice thing about all of this is that in writing everything down, ideas are never an issue. Or rather, lack of ideas is never an issue. Interestingly, ideas that seemed very good and very important when floating around in the gray matter often do not stand the test of time or the test of ink and paper.

Yet, others do!

There are times when there are so many ideas I simply do not know where to begin. It is a nice problem to have and it all begins with writing ideas down, working the ones that really seem hot, giving the rest some time to percolate, and then building upon the ones with legs.

This is one of those occassions! Lately, I have a lot of ideas and not enough time in the day…or at least not enough of me to go around! It’s not because I’m some sort of a machine when it comes to great ideas. In fact, most of my ideas are terrible. But in writing them down or using my digital recorder to store them, and then putting them through the process described above, I am never at a loss for solid ideas. Once I get to the point where I feel I have a few solid ideas, then I begin to apply them and see if they survive.

At times like this, when I have so many in the queue, so many that seem to be solid, I simply use the most scientific method I know. I close my eyes and point!

No, not really…but almost!

I generally pick the ideas I can get excited about, the ones that intrigue me the most, because those are the ones I’ll put more time and effort into. And those are the ones that are likely to work for my inbound marketing consulting clients.

The Ultimate Dilemma: “Choose Wisely Grasshopper!”

Yes, I like to pick ideas to work on that intrigue and excite me but this is also the real world and I have to eat. Ideas with no hope of generating even a little interest are shelved, not forgotten, particularly if they seem interesting to me, just put aside for a time when I can play with them.

As an inbound marketing consultant I have a myriad of responsibilities, many of them are vitally important. Many of my responsibilities as an inbound marketing consultant will have a direct impact on whether or not my client stays in business. That is not arrogance or conceit, it’s the truth…and it is humbling. If you are not just a little in awe of the repsonsibility you have, you probably should think about doing something else for a living.

I’ve stated time and time again, as inbound marketing consultants, we hold a scared trust!

As inbound marketing consultants we are responsible for the success or failure of our clients’ businesses. When everything else is pealed away, it is our ability, or inability, to apply our ideas to the new media, and hence to the inbound marketing strategy we develop for our client that will define the overall success of the business, practice, organization, or association we are working with.

The better the ideas, the better they will translate and apply to the new media, the better the inbound marketing strategy!

Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae

As Seth Godin has stated on more than one occasion and in more than one way (read: Meatball Sundae), the health and welfare of a company is a direct reflection of the effectiveness of its marketing. In today’s world, that means the use of new media in the right way and not simply as a new “topping” on an old organization.

Inbound marketing strategies are based on original ideas, and the ability of its inbound marketing consultant to shape how the new media is applied to a new way of doing business.

Ideas! Ideas! Ideas!

A great idea often means the difference between success and just another Meatball Sundae….some of the new marking stuff sprinkled on top of the old organization.

So, get a lot of ideas in the hopper and then do your homework. Check for interest, trends, keywords and keyword phrases with legs, and then apply your ideas to the new media and your inbound marketing strategy.

Then, be prepared to do a few things:

1. Think of more inbound marketing ideas!
2. Test more inbound marketing ideas!
3. Apply more inbound marketing ideas!

The success of failure of your inbound marketing strategy has everything to do with the ideas you are able to generate and how you process them; and then apply them to the new media.

Ultimately, your client’s success and yours are inextricably linked so happy idea hunting. The nice thing is you really don’t have to hunt for ideas, ideas are in infinite number. You are constrained only by your imagination and your ability to recognize and apply ideas once envisioned.

Inbound marketing is and exciting and intriguing endeavor. All things are possible if you simply open the floodgates of your mind. Prepare yourself to receive, and then record, the myriad inbound marketing ideas, good and bad, that will issue forth!

Good luck and don’t forget The Little Black Book and a small, handheld digital recorder. In combination, they will transform your life and your inbound marketing consultancy.

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

Inbound Marketing A through Z: Beginning a Marketing Consultancy – Part III

Once you have come to know your prospective client and have agreed to go forward, making sure you will be able to work together for some time to come, it is time to get down to business!

Up until now the discussion has been about strategies and branding, unique selling propositions (unique selling point – USP) and video marketing, the power of the new media to build relationships and how inbound marketing is the best thing since sliced bread. You have no doubt discussed how, with the proper mix of inbound and outbound marketing strategies to include blogging and the use of social media, you will be able to enhance your new client’s Internet image, getting them to page one of the various search engine results pages (SERPs) for the keywords that will reach their target audience.

If you are really sharp, you have also discussed how you will, at the same time, use traditional marketing, now referred to as old media, outbound marketing strategies, to gain additional traction.

Please note: It is crucial to use what works.

Marketing is not an either-or proposition, as in inbound marketing or outbound advertising, it is about converting leads, prospects, and prospective patients into life-long customers, clients, and patients. The proper marketing strategy will yield an ongoing relationship that profits both sides of the equation for years to come.

When viewed as a comprehensive strategy, there is one goal:

To increase traffic to the website and through the door, literally or figuratively, converting traffic into leads, appointments, and sales; thus building a relationship before, during, and after the initial sale and, as stated, gaining a client for life.

How?

Well, whether you are reading this as a marketing consultant beginning to build your own inbound marketing consultancy or as a prospective marketing client, attempting to get an idea of what is in store for you if you take the next step and initiate a formal, inbound marketing consultation and competitive analysis, the process is fairly straightforward.

If you have been through the inbound marketing consultation, whether as the consultant or as a prospective client, you will know many things about your niche and your target market.

The information you need can be derived from the following resources:

• First, “Google” you’re your client’s business name and personal information, if relevant.
• Alexa Rank
  • Traffic Stats: Daily Traffic Rank Trend (up or down over 30 and 90 days)
  • Reach (percent of global Internet users who visit your site if your client has one)
  • Pageviews (percent of global pageviews)
  • Pageviews/User (daily pageviews per user)
  • Bounce % (the percentage of visits that consist of a single pageview)
  • Time in Site (daily time of site)
  • Search % (the percentage of visits that come from a search engine)
  • Search Analytics
    • Search Traffic
    • Top Queries from Search Traffic
    • Search Traffic on the Rise and Decline (based on keywords)
    • High Impact Search Queries (popular queries relevant to the client’s site)
  • Audience
    • Audience Demographics
    • Visitors by Country
  • And much more
• Quantcast
  • Daily, Weekly, Monthly Traffic
    • Per Person
    • Visits
    • Pageviews
    • Pageviews per Person
    • Visits per Person
    • Global Traffic Frequency
  • Geographic Data
    • Countries
    • States
  • Demographics
  • Business
    • Small
    • Medium
    • Large
    • Business Activity
• Google
  • Keywords (Free Adwords – External Keyword Tool)
    • Wonder Wheel
    • Current Trends
    • Video for Keywords
    • And much more!
  • Analytics
  • Page Rank
  • Ultimate SEO Tool
  • Google Rankings
• Market Samurai – In my opinion the best overall keyword tool available
  • Keyword Research
  • SEO Competition Research
    • Extremely useful analysis of page one competition, analyzing a myriad of factors
  • Page Rank Research
• SpyFu – In my opinion the best competitive analysis tool on the Internet
  • In Depth Keyword Research
  • In Depth Competitive Keyword Research
  • In Depth Competitive Comparison and Analysis
    • Includes competitors’ advertising trends, budgets, keywords purchased, and ads run over the past 12 months
      • Incredibly valuable tool
• KeywordSpy – Competitive research is on par with SpyFu and should be used together with SpyFu when possible
  • Excellent resource for tracking variables over time
  • Easy to use Mozilla plug-in
  • Amazingly powerful window into just what the competition is doing!
• Google, Yahoo, and Bing
  • Check for number of pages each of the Big 3 acknowledges
  • Check for number of links

If you have used most or all of the above, you are ready to create an inbound marketing strategy what will work. If you haven’t…what are you waiting for?

If I had to pick 3 tools and was contrained by budgetary concerns, the 3 I would choose are:

• Google (Beginning with this link)
• Market Samurai
• SpyFu

In that order!

If budget is not a concern, and it shouldn’t be by the time you begin servicing clients, all of the above mentioned resources are vital. Significantly, most are free.

Research completed, the first step is to create a social media profile. The social media profile should be comprehensive and across an array of niches but focusing primarily on social media sites relevant to your client’s audience.

Use the following socioal media hubs as a guide. There is a great deal of overlap but if you cover the four mentioned below your client will have excellent inititial coverage and you will have an easier time getting their message out.

• Ping.fm
  • Crucial – I use Ping.fm for all of my clients, daily. Use Ping.fm’s list of “networks,” setting up all of the networks available.
• OnlyWire
  • As important as Ping.fm and as easy to use – Again, set up all the “services” available.
• HelloTxt
  • Once again, a very useful hub – set up all the sites that link through HelloTxt.
• XeeSM
  • Like XeeSM a lot! XeeSM has a super array of apps and is very easy to use. The creators are very responsive and it fills out the four hubs I set up for every client.

If you have set up all four of the social media hubs above your client will have approximately 225 social media profiles and you will be able to control the daily message through the four hubs.

Not bad, huh?

The video sharing and article directories are next.

Video marketing is absolutely crucial for a number of reasons.

You have undoubtedly heard the saying:

Video is king!

Consequently, video is essential to new media, inbound marketing success. We live in the video age. Video will reach incredible numbers quickly and the shelf-life of well produced videos is worth the time and expense to do it right.

The best tool available to get you message out quickly and efficiently is TrafficGeyser (or Traffic Geyser). TrafficGeyser is a powerful resource, one you simply cannot do without. TrafficGeyser combined with something as inexpensive as a $200 Flip MinoHD and a decent tripod will get you started creating quality videos in no time.

TrafficGeyser offers a number of advantages when setting up your client’s inbound marketing strategy:

• TrafficGeyser allows you to set up multiple profiles for clients, thus allowing you to control all your clients’ campaigns from a single platform. At TrafficGeyser’s Platinum level you will have access to approximately 125 additional sites, including:
  • Social media sites
  • Social bookmarking sites
  • Article directories
  • Video sharing and video marketing sites
  • Podcast sites
  • Blogging sites
  • TrafficGeyser will then allow you to upload blog posts to all of the blogs you set up to reach through TG.
  • TrafficGeyser allows you to upload all your videos to the various video sharing sites, thus saving you hundreds of man-hours over the course of a year. Control all of your accounts through a single interface.
  • TrafficGeyser allows you to post articles to the various article directories with a click.
    • That’s right! You can set up your article directory memberships through TrafficGeyser and then upload them to the various directories from a single platform.
    • This feature allows you to set up all of your article directory profiles from one platform and then control them from your TG account. This is a real timesaver!
    • TrafficGeyser allows you to post to the various podcast sites.
    • TrafficGeyser allows you to set up RSS feeds.

By the time you have completed setting up the first four hubs (Ping, OnlyWire, HelloTxt, XeeSM) and your TrafficGeyser profile for your new client they will have approximately 350 new media marketing profiles across the Internet. With this kind of coverage, provided you create quality content, your client will see a significant bump in traffic, leads, prospects, appointments, and sales within 90 days and a huge jump in the first 12 months.

The secret is really no secret at all, it simply takes quality content delivered consistently over time. If your client already has a USP or you help them create one (upcoming blog post) and combine that with the right inbound marketing strategy using all the resources available to you and mentioned above, you will be a hit and your clients will love you!

The formula is simple:

Links + Longevity + Quality Content = Increased Traffic

A well-focused message will reach the proper target audience. If you develop a unique seeling proposition (USP) that captures your target market’s imagination and deliver quality content over time, you will have people linking to your site and it will increase in authority. Couple the above with a well-constructed video marketing, delivering first-rate, well-written articles to the various directories and you will own you niche in less than a year.

Consistent, quality content delivered over time equals inbound marketing success and guaranteed profitability using the new media.

Above, you have everything you need to get the ball rolling!

In the next article we will talk about site construction, blog versus static website, premium WordPress theme versus the freebies, and the various shopping carts available. We will then get into email marketing and the various providers. We will also consider a number of other resources and various factors to consider when building your client’s Ultimate Internet Image.

I will then go into detail concerning the various resources available to streamline submissions even further, how to upgrade your video equipment, including why and why not, and what audio program is the best and when to use it.

For now?

You have enough to get started, beginning to serve your clients well!

If you would like a comprehensive inbound marketing consultation, to include an assessment of your current marketing strategy, as well as a comprehensive competitive analysis, contact me today at The Ultimate Internet Image (see the number below).

Good luck!

John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004
440-821-7018

Beginning an Inbound Marketing Marketing Consultancy and the Gold Rush

Offline Gold, 4 Hours a Week, and the Business of Marriage

First, before we get started I want to warn you, this is going to ruffle a few feathers. In fact, that is part of the reason I am writing it!

There has been a lot of talk about Offline Marketing Gold, particularly as it relates to social media management and inbound marketing. This article is the first of three parts. The first is more conceptual, broad strokes and my take on what is happening online in marketing today. I also talk about whether you are the right fit to pursue inbound marketing as a career.

And yes, it is a career!

An inbound marketing consultancy is not The 4 Hour Workweek and it is not 2 hours a day from the beach. My clients at The Ultimate Internet Image want results and they want to see me or at least hear from me…often.

After all, I have their professional lives in my hands (I will explain below).

So, just a warning before we begin. I will be all over the place today but tomorrow I will pull it all together and provide the actual nuts and bolts, the resources I apply from the time I begin to assess a prospective client through signing them as a marketing client of The Ultimate Internet Image.

In Part III of Inbound Marketing A through Z: Beginning a Marketing Consultancy I will address the various options you have for developing a client’s Internet image or online presence, the software we use at The Ultimate Internet Image to get clients to page one in hours (our record in 56 minutes) and the strategies involved in keeping them there. Additionally, and this is crucial, I will address how we get page one listings to convert into clients, ultimately into dollars.

Yes, Google’s page one is nice, you can’t beat it, but once there, and once someone visits your website as a result of a page one organic (or sponsored) listing, how do we get the visitor to act? The strategies we use at UII will be addressed in detail in Part III.

So, on to the Gold Rush!

I have been reading a lot about all the money to be made in “offline” business consulting, inbound marketing consulting to be more precise. The offline business world is made up predominantly of brick and mortar businesses (retail in all its many manifestations), service oriented businesses (e.g., HVAC, plumbers, landscapers, contractors of all sorts, computer repair, etc.), professional practices (e.g., medical doctors, dentists, chiropractors, podiatrists, attorneys, accountants, etc.), and speciality providers. I use specialty providers as a catch-all for those types of businesses where a special service or a special order is required, you can’t just walk in and buy something; there is a process.

In other words, there’s a lot of “gold in them thar hills!”

Or at least that’s what certain savvy marketers would have you believe.

“Step right up ladies and gentelman,” as PT Barnum would say, “watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!” Or? $5000 to $10,000 a month!

Those are the numbers I see thrown around each and every day. Significantly, the numbers are being thrown around on the Internet; and, almost always by Internet marketing “gurus” selling programs on how to make $5000 to $10,000 a month offline!

Hmmm?

I am often amused when I read such claims, not because there isn’t some validity, because there is, but because it seems the offline world, whether retail, service-oriented, professional, or specialty, has become the latest California Gold Rush. And, as is always the case when “gold fever” strikes, there is no shortage of shrewd Internet marketers out there ready, willing, and very able to stoke the fire and fuel the hype. We’ll get into the distinction between hype and reality in a bit.

Picks and Shovels Anyone?

You may have heard the story of Samuel Brannan (1819-1889), the founder of the California Star and the proprietor of the Sutter Fort store, among many others. Sam Brannan made his fortune selling picks and shovels, predominantly shovels, to the miners and wannabe miners caught up in the California Gold Rush (1848-1855) fever of the day. The story is told by J.S. Holiday in Rush for Riches; Gold Fever and the Making of California (1999).

Interestingly, it is said that Brannan used tithes collected from members of the LDS Church to buy the shovels and then ran (some say strode) through the streets, holding a small vial of gold dust and yelling:

“Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!”

The tithes were actually colllected from the earnings of the LDS miners themselves.

Brannan never spent a dime of his own money, he simply parleyed the money of others and then fueled the hype so people who were thinking about cashing in had nowhere else to turn for their supplies. The Sutter Fort store is said to have sold $150,000 per month worth of supplies in 1849.

In 1849!

Not bad for someone who never mined an ounce of gold himself. Sam just preyed on the gullibility and the greed of others to make his fortune, Brannan’s own greed is, of course, notwithstanding.

I hope you can see the parallels?

It seems every time there is a new idea, a gimmick, or whatever, there’s no shortage of Sam Brannans ready to cash on the gold rushers. In this case, the offline gold rushers looking for all that offline business gold.

Inbound Marketing Gold!

Is it real? Yes…and no!

Yes, there is money to be made inbound marketing consulting, or offline business consulting if you will. And no, it is not as easy as many Internet marketing gurus would have you believe, not by a long shot. But that doesn’t stop savvy marketers from charging $97 or $997 or $997 or $9997 and up for the Holy Grail, the secret to end all secrets, the ultimate cash-in:

Offline Business Gold!

Let me qualify all of this before we go any further.

I almost said “Let me say this about that!” A Richard Milhous Nixon moment – Phew – what a flashback!

OK, back to inbound marketing consulting!

There always has been and, no doubt as we move into an era of greater and greater specialization, always will be, a need for consultants. However, we are talking about the need for marketing consultants who are intimately in tune with the offline business world and, in particular, with the needs of the traditional brick and mortar retail business, professional practice, service-oriented business, or specialty shop. The familiarity does not have to be specific to the client’s business but there must be an overall awareness of what it takes to survive in the “offline” world. There must also be an awareness of how outbound marketing may still fit into an overall sales and marketing strategy.

Why?

Because without awareness and flexibility there can be no empathy and if you can’t put yourself in your client’s shoes, how can you possibly understand their needs, wants, and desires?

Online vs Offline

Additionally, we do not live in an online world, we live in a world that is both online and offline; and, to neglect either is to fail your client. Yes, we are becoming increasingly connected, particularly in the developed world, and the developing world is catching up fast, but remember, being connected, having access to an Internet connection, does not always mean using the Internet connection.

It’s interesting how many advertising and marketing people I talk to, online and offline, inbound and outbound, who think in terms of one world when in fact there are two.

Some people never turn on a computer, don’t know how to set up an email account, much less check it, and really could care less. If you neglect that portion of your client’s market, you are leaving a ton of money out of the equation; and, perhaps it may be the difference between profitability and bankruptcy.

OK, so you say you have an awareness and you have empathy. You also feel you understand the importance of a hybrid approach to marketing, the synergy between outbound and inbound marketing strategies. And, finally, you have been there, done that in one way or another.

That’s great! If you can communicate your awareness, and your empathy, to you prospective marketing client you may have a shot.

If not?

You may want to consider a different career choice.

I am not trying to burst anyone’s balloon here but we are talking about peoples’ lives, their business and personal well-being will be in your hands. If you fail, there is a good chance your client’s business will fail…or at least take a significant hit. This is serious and it takes more than a ninety-seven dollar course or a nine thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-seven dollar course to get you there, it takes time, awareness, empathy, imagination, experience, and thick skin.

Yes, very thick skin!

This is not checkers, this is chess; this is about strategy and the stakes are high! As I have said in previous articles, you take on a scared trust when you acquire a client. And, if you drop the ball, your client takes the hit professionally and personally. Additionally, your performance affects your client’s family’s well-being, their employees’ and their empolyees’ familys’ well-being; and, particularly if the client has a sizable business or practice, you may affect the entire community.

Still want to be an inbound marketing consultant?

If so, there may be hope for you!

Combined with your marketing knowledge generally, and inbound marketing experience specifically, you must be able to integrate the business’ personality, and that of its owner, into your marketing strategy. That sort of understanding and familiarity takes getting to know your client over a period of time. To that end, you must have access to your client on a regular basis.

In many ways, your new relationship with your marketing client will be like a marriage; and, you should be prepared to be in it for the long haul.

Beware!

If someone is looking for a quick fix, look out!

Quick fixes are rare and generally take a lot more money than the individual requiring such a “fix” is willing to invest. It is kind of the like the tutor who gets a phone call two weeks before the end of the school year, the child is failing, and the parent wants the tutor to help the child pass the course. Some things are beyond repair and others, while not beyond repair, simply take more time than you are afforded.

Assess your individual clients carefully, listen to what they are saying, and select your clients after getting to know them. Remember, you are going to be married to them for a long time! Make sure you can work together and do not go into an arrangement simply to make a sale thinking you can fix it later. Most of us who have been or are married know that doesn’t work. Make sure you are on the same wave length right from the start.

Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Advertising

Additionally, just as you must understand there is an offline and an online world, you also need to understand that marketing is not an us or them proposition, outbound versus inbound. In marketing, it is whatever works, whatever communicates the message the client is attempting to get across and doing it in a way that converts a prospect into a client. In other words, you must be able to tailor your marketing message, your USP if you will (unique selling proposition), in such a way that it causes people to take a specific action…whatever that may be.

Ultimately, marketing is about creating a message that will be received in a positive manner; and, the message must prompt a specific, quantifiable action. Significantly, while this is indeed becoming an increasingly relationship-oriented, permission-based world, particularly as it relates to marketing, inbound marketing; there are times when a targeted outbound marketing strategy is warranted. Interestingly, a targeted direct mail strategy will often work quite well, particualry if it is well crated and focuses on the client’s target market. Additionally, there are times when a focused, properly tailored ad campaign will delver results in the local newspaper.

However, and this is big, the outbound marketing campaign must be targeted, trackable (ROI verifiable), and it absolutely must be part of a much broader holistic, hybrid marketing strategy. In other words, the marketing strategy you create must be the best of both worlds, inbound marketing and outbound marketing under a unifying umbrella.

Still with me?

Perhaps you will make it!

Given you have the necessary awareness and empathy, combined with experience; and, once you have an understanding of your client and your client’s business, you are ready to devise a marketing strategy that will fit the needs of the business.

How do you do that?

Well, up until now we have been talking in broad strokes. Now that you have made the decision to create a marketing consultancy, you need to make a decision concerning the type focus your marketing consultancy will have. Will you focus solely on inbound marketing or will it be a hybrid approach to marketing? I recommend the latter.

In any case, once the decision is made, you can begin serving your clients to the best of your ability, knowing you have the ability.

Then, the fun starts!

OK! So, you have gotten past the philosophical hurdles, you have decided you are not just another gold rusher, and you have made the decision to go forward. Now, you can assess individual clients and decide whether you are the right person for them and their business. Equally, if not more important, you must decide if they are the right client for you and your business.

Remember, this is like a marriage so go slow!

Next, I will cover how I proceed once a prospective client contacts The Ultimate Internet Image for a free marketing consultation and competitive analysis. The consultation and analysis take between one and one-half and two hours to complete in the client’s office. If the first session goes well, a second session is scheduled and an in depth hybrid marketing strategy is developed. The preparation time for the 90 to 120 minute session is between 24 and 36 hours.

Once again, this is not about The 4 Hour Workweek or a 2-4 work day. Nor is this something you can do with a $97 or a $997 investment in an e-course. If you believe all of that after reading the above, PT Barnum was right and I have some gorgeous beach front property to show you in the Mojave Desert.

If you are still with me, I hope I have made you think a bit and I promise if you stay with me for Parts II and III, it will be worth your while.

Contact me anytime!

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

Can There Be A Balanced Approach to Outbound Advertising and Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is all the rage, and justifiably so. Inbound marketing is an effective way to get in front of a lot of people searching for your products and/or services online. In other words, by applying a targeted new media, inbound marketing strategy, a business or professional practice can get in front of their target audience in a way simply not possible using most outbound advertising strategies.

Hence the Debate in Marketing Today!

You see, there is a debate going on in marketing today, a kind of tug-of-war between the traditional, outbound marketing world and the young turks of the new media, those consultants and consultancies applying inbound marketing strategies often to the exclusion of all else. Significantly, what we are seeing, instead of a synthesis, instead of a synergy of old and new, the most effective of both marketing worlds being tied into a single and effective strategy, most marketers are in the “My dad can beat up your dad!” mode.

There’s Offline and Online Marketing and Never the Twain Shall Meet

What exactly does that mean? Never the twain shall meet?

It means that two things are so different there will never be an opportunity for them to unite. This mentality is at the crux of the outbound advertising – inbound marketing debate and is symptomatic of what I refer to as marketing myopia. Marketing myopia is rampant and is a typical response whenever a new idea endangers the old-guard. I will explain in greater depth in a moment but for now think of how inertia works against progress and you are on your way to understanding what is ultimately behind the debate.

Inertia and the Crux of the Matter

The ongoing debate is particularly puzzling for traditional brick and mortar business owners. If the experts can’t agree, and when do the experts agree about anything, how is a business owner to know who to believe and which strategy is best for his or her business? The ongoing debate, whether to engage in outbound advertising or inbound marketing is ongoing and is an essential marketing point requiring resolution.

However, like most debates, there are strong feelings on both sides and many ways of looking at the myriad and complex issues.

In order to understand the issues at the heart of the outbound – inbound debate, it’s important to understand that while inbound marketing is indeed all the rage, the emergent and soon to be dominant force in marketing today, there are still very complex three worlds, three overarching strategies, and three audiences (not always separate and distinct), when it comes to marketing:

The Offline World

The Online World

The Online/Offline World

Significantly, while there are three very different worlds, or target audiences. The three audiences are very broad; and can, in fact must, be broken down still further into a seemingly infinite number of niches and niches within niches. Significantly, how we reach an audience is often niche specific, having less to do with a particular advertising or marketing bias and more to do with how a particular audience receives the bulk of their information.

How a particular audience receives information has as much to do with demographics, psychographics, and firmographics as the message itself. There are also a variety of socioeconomic variables, those not addressed in the variables listed above, that come into play and must be addressed if a marketing campaign is to be truly effective. For a marketing message, an advertising campaign, to be effective it must reach the targeted segment of the market (target audience), those receptive to the message and willing to act upon it, or at least consider it.

According to Wikipedia, “psychographic variables,” or simply psychographics, “are any attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles. They are also called IAO variables (for Interests, Activities, and Opinions). They can be contrasted with demographic variables (such as age and gender), behavioral variables (such as usage rate or loyalty), and firmographic variables (such as industry, seniority and functional area).”

Interestingly, many marketing consultants would have the businesses and professional practices they advise target a particular audience based on the biases of the marketing consultant rather than based upon how a particular audience receives and accepts media messages (i.e., advertising).

Unfortunately, most marketing consultants would have a client lump all their efforts into one basket, often to the exclusion of all else, based solely on the strengths of the marketing firm and not on the needs of the business and its target audience.

Hence the Phrase: Marketing Myopia!

While there can be little doubt that the offline world, meaning those who either intentionally or unintentionally are without Internet access, is disappearing. This trend is real and the growth of the online world is exponential, particular in the developing world.

While the offline world is still much larger than the online world, at least worldwide, the gap is closing.

The table below provides the numbers from Internet World Stats

The Online World

In certain areas of the world, the percentage of the population with Internet access has overtaken the numbers without computer access and an Internet connection.

Interestingly, the numbers for the US, Europe, and Oceania/Australia indicate that if you are in a traditional brick and mortar business in one of these areas of the world, inbound marketing must be an integral component in your marketing strategy. However, there is still 23.8% of the population in the US without Internet access; 47% of the European population is without Internet access; and, 39.2% of the population of Oceania/Australia is without Internet access.

Additionally, and this question must be asked is, although 76.2%, 53.0%, and 60.8% of the populations in the various regions of the world, respectively, have Internet “access,” how many of the people with access actually use a computer regularly? How many of those individuals with access ever use or care to use a computer, much less log-on to the Internet? This is still a huge segment of your possible market and, if you ignore this segment of the population or simply fail to reach them, you may be leaving an incredible amount of money on the table, an audience completely untapped.

The online world is, at least in the areas of the world mentioned above, the majority and is growing rapidly.

Hence, the reason to be in front of this trend!

Consequently, it is crucial to recognize the offline segment of your target market and tailor your marketing strategy to reach them as well.

An aside: Notice the incredible growth rate in Asia, the Middle East, Latin American and the Caribbean, and, in particular, Africa with an 1809.8% growth rate. If you are considering an online business, these regions should play into your business development and marketing plans.

The online world is growing around the world and, hence, inbound marketing must play a pivotal role in your overall marketing strategy. However, engaging in an inbound marketing strategy should not be at the expense of the traditionally offline world, those individuals without computer and Internet access and/or those individuals who choose not to use a computer and the Internet in their daily lives.

The Twain Shall Meet: The Student Instructs the Teacher – The Tail Wagging the Dog!

Significantly, the online/offline world is where most consumers spend their time, attention, and money, balancing both and using whatever works, whatever they are comfortable with situationally. Other factors impacting the efficacy of outbound advertising and inbound marketing strategies are the variable mentioned above: demographics, psychographics, etc.

Interestingly, while many outbound advertising techniques no longer have the same effect they once did, either because the attention span of the target audience has been diminished, it has been segmented and fractured, because consumers no longer have the patience for the intrusive strategies engaged in by many of the outbound advertising campaigns.

• Network Television: Consumers are no longer watching network television or, if they are they are, they’re using TiVo and DVRs to edit out commercial messages. Cable is the standard and OnDemand, as well as online versions of Netflix and Blockbuster have eliminated the need to find something to do during commercials. The old-fashioned 60 second sprint to the restroom during commercials has been dealt with by using the pause button.
• Commercial Radio: Consumers are listening to dedicated satellite radio (e.g., XM-Sirius) instead of commercial radio stations or they are listening to their own music. Yes, the old-fashioned CD is still around. Does anyone even have a cassette player anymore? MP3s are built in to cars now, standard equipment. Of course, many listeners still do it that old fashioned way, they change the channel. Listener loyalty is only as powerful as the next commercial interruption. How much did you say you paid for a radio spot? Yeah, think again!
• Newspapers: Newpapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post are in trouble. The Huffington Post, a completely online news service will make more money this year than either. Time, CNN, and even the network news companies are scrambling to create an online image with blogs, social media strategies, and the like as fast as they can hire competent social media management.
• Yellow Pages: When was the last time you used the Yellow Pages? A recent study revealed that consumers are no longer using the Yellow Pages to seek information prior to purchase but are going directly to search engines. The Internet has replaced the Yellow Pages as the vehicle of choice for consumer search. This means that more local consumers of goods and services are using the Internet to find local merchants, service providers, and professional services online. The report also revealed an increased usage frequency for online sources versus that of Yellow Pages usage. Not only is the Internet being used more than traditional print media, it is being used more often. This trend promises to increase over the next decade. Significantly, in 2008 62% of all consumer search activity involved the Internet, and that included an appallingly low 1% search via mobile phones. The mobile phone data is certain to explode in the next decade as most cell phones integrate fast and inexpensive Internet access. Yellow Pages search dropped to 30% and yellow pages-type directories are scrambling to gain a footing online, something they should have been doing a decade ago.
• Direct Mail: One of the neat new tools used to gage reader attention online is called a heat map. The heat map tracks a reader’s eye movement online, that they read first and what holds their attention the longest. If there was a “heat map” in your home or office that tracked your pattern of activity, it would be bright red from the mailbox to “File 13!” The path from the mailbox to the garbage can is well-worn and the trip is made on complete auto-pilot. You have that much time and perhaps 3 seconds at the trash can to gain your reader’s attention long enough to get them to open what you have mailed…or it is gone forever. Interestingly, the same is true for websites. You have long enough for someone to “Blink” (read Malcolm Gladwell’s awesome book “Blink”) and it is over. The reality of the situation is, most direct mail and most websites fail to make the cut…gone forever!

The question becomes, if the numbers are so powerfully skewed in favor of the Internet and inbound marketing, why do I need to use outbound advertising at all? Given the current trend, why should I consider outbound adverting, wouldn’t it be wiser to invest solely in inbound marketing?

Great questions and I hear them time and time again. The answer is surprisingly simple, because there are three worlds and while the Internet is an incredibly powerful force, there is still an incredibly deep and broad segment of almost every audience that is not plugged into the Internet. Yes, there are instances where almost 100% of your efforts should be online. If you are selling Internet access, you might want to be online. However, you must also consider the person who is not currently connected but is looking for the right online solution. For that individual, you need to be offline in order to take the prospective client online. Yes, they will undoubtedly do their research but the right outbound advertising campaign will reach that prospective client too.

The secret to Outbound Marketing?

You need to be where your target audience is and the message must be targeted. And, the content must hold the prospective client’s attention long enough to convey the targeted marketing message and prompt them to act. You have 3 seconds! Gone are the days of the full page spread with a bunch of pictures and the headline:

“Biggest Selection – Lowest Prices!”

Did that every work? I wonder!

Ultimately, and this is going to fly in the face of much of the conventional wisdom and be counter to what many of the marketing “gurus” will advise, but the final component is patience, taking a long view. Rome wasn’t born in a day and you are not going to see a response to most marketing campaigns overnight, that is unless you are willing to pay the search engines a lot of money to get the exposure you want or you are willing to pay the right consultant, one with a track record for being able to get their clients to page one organically, and keep them there.

So, direct response does not mean immediate response!

I tell all my clients, whether targeted outbound advertising or direct response, new media, inbound marketing, marketing is like farming:

First you plant, then you wait, and wait, and wait………and wait; and then, you harvest!

Most of what happens occurs below the ground, out of sight, and with seemingly nothing happening it is easy to become impatient and even disillusioned. However, there is a process, just beneath the surface, and if you are patient, if you take the long view, your harvest will be amazing.

If you take the short view and fail to continually nurture your fields (i.e., continue to promote consistently), you will end up failing to reap anything close to what is possible with the right approach and the proper perspective.

It is important to have a method of tracking results and it is also important to know when to quit and move on to something else, but taking a long view in marketing is crucial.

Finally, a balanced marketing campaign is essential, one that integrates the best of outbound advertising and inbound marketing into a cohesive and targeted message that works. It is imperative to integrate what works now, today, in 2010 and beyond and not what has worked in the past, in 1964 or 1974 or even 2004.

How do you know if it will work?

Test! Test! Test!

Here’s a final observation and a question for you to think about until next time:

A spot on page one of Google has an incredibly powerful impact on your business’ bottom line, particularly if it is maintained over time and across a number of keyword phrases. An additional spot on page one (e.g., one sponsored and one organic) will not generate twice the impact, the bump is at least 3 times as pronounced! That means you don’t get double the impact, you get three or more times the effect from a double listing on page one. Now, imagine you own most of page one for a given keyword phrase across a number of SERPs (search engine results pages) and across a number of search engines. Now imagine you are aggressively promoting proven, targeted outbound advertising strategies (e.g., targeted direct mail).

What sort of a bump do you think you can expect?

Unlike other marketing strategies that rely heavily on one marketing vehicle, a linked inbound marketing and outbound advertising program accelerate results and have a dramatic impact on your bottom line.

Hopefully, we are on the way to enhancing your awareness of marketing myopia. If you can recognize it, you can avoid it. Don’t fall victim to the marketing biases of your marketing consultant, a consultant or consulting firm advising a single pronged approach is much like a boxer with one arm, you are only going to get half the punching power. Yes, it may be directed…but imagine what you can do with both arms working together!

In the next article we will address various advertising platforms, as well as linked inbound and outbound marketing strategies for brick and mortar businesses.

Contact John Zajaros today for an in depth marketing consultation and competitive analysis.

John Zajaros

The Ultimate Internet Image
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004 (bus)
440-821-7018 (cell)

]]> http://ultimateinternetimage.com/marketing-myopia-inbound-marketing-vs-outbound-advertising/feed/ 2 http://ultimateinternetimage.com/blogging-for-business-your-inbound-marketing-strategys-linchpin/ http://ultimateinternetimage.com/blogging-for-business-your-inbound-marketing-strategys-linchpin/#comments Sat, 15 May 2010 03:45:09 +0000 admin http://ultimateinternetimage.com/?p=197

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)