Inbound Marketing and Search-based Targeting

Chasing Traffic is About Getting Them to Uncover You!

First, set aside your ego!

People are not looking for you online, they’re looking for a specific solution. If you happen to have incredible brand awareness and can solve their problem? Great! Maybe you are Dell or BMW or State Farm. However, as a rule, online consumers will not type your name into the search box, they’ll type in the search term that satisfies a specific need, requirement, etc.

Something you probably already know:

If they’re typing your name in to the search box? You should be spending your marketing effort (read: cash, money, resources, keesash, moola, bread ) elsewhere!

The secret to online success, inbound marketing success, Internet commerce success?

1) Get in front of as many people searching for what you are already offering

2) Offer a product searchers are already seeking out

3) Get in front of a trend based on viral marketing mojo

Number 2 is the secret to real success online, get in front of a lot of people seeking a given product or service.

Number 1 is what most businesses do because they already have a lot of stuff to sell and have experience selling it in the offline world.

They think, “Hey! It’s just another market and we can simply do the same thing in this slightly different venue, with some of that new-aged Internet inbound marketing stuff…right?!”

“Yeeaaah!” Jon Lovitz would say, “that’s the ticket!”

You can indeed be successful exploiting Number 1! If you are creative and remember a few rules, rules that have nothing to do with the excess baggage you have probably carried over with you from the offline, outbound marketing world.

As Seth Godin as so aptly stated, and I’ll paraphrase, a Meatball Sundae just won’t cut it!

Believe it or not, an incredible number of otherwise very savvy businessmen and women chase Number 3 and quickly go broke!

Or, if they are smart, lucky, and quick studies, they may wake up and avoid crashing into the rocks. You see, many go broke listening to the Siren’s Song.

You know what I am talking about?

Internet marketing gurus, gurus who are experts at doing just one thing, selling bright, shining objects to those otherwise savvy businesspeople who have lost all real business sense as they pursue the Online Gold Rush or believe they can create a Meatball Sundae!

The fact is, the Internet is different and inbound marketing is very different! In order to succeed, you must not only create a new marketing strategy, you must create a different business mindset, and then you have to  reset your thinking about how to pursue customers or clients, customers and/or clients who now hold all the cards and will seek out your product because it serves their wants, needs, and desires.

If you aren’t where they’re looking? You are out of luck and, very quickly, out of business online and offline.

So, reset your thinking this year and, if your marketing consultant is telling you that all it will take is a little whipped cream and topping for that Meatball Sundae…get a new inbound marketing consultant.

Yesterday!

John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image
440-821-7018 (cell-anytime)

Building an Inbound Marketing Consultancy…

…or Social Media Management Firm

Prospecting is one of the major stumbling blocks to inbound marketing consulting and social media management success. Paradoxically, prospecting is crucial for success because, in order to help others build their businesses, we must simultaneously build ours.

If we do not find and develop inbound marketing and/or social media clients, we will never be able to do what we love to do….what we are good at doing. To help others succeed, using the inbound marketing and social media management strategies we have come to understand and believe in, we have to seek out and educate brick and mortar business owners and professional people (i.e., M.D.s and D.O.s, dentists, chiropractors, podiatrists, attorneys, accountants, etc.) about what it is we do and why it is in their best interest to allow us to assist them with the transition from an old media, outbound marketing strategy that no longer works to a new media, inbound marketing strategy that will.

Significantly, is it not only crucial that we identify inbound marketing and social media management prospects, we must have a plan in place to contact, develop, and educate them once we do.

I’ve mentored several inbound marketing consultants, men and women just beginning to build their inbound marketing consultancies; and, in almost every case, they have reached the same point with much the same reaction. Interestingly, while they have followed enough of the steps I will discuss below to have made a contact…they don’t know what to do next!

Or, they have actually been contacted by a prospective inbound marketing client only to freeze up!

Failure and Teachable Moments: Prospecting and Inbound Marketing

Significantly, many of these failed calls did not fail because the consultant didn’t know his or her craft…quite the contrary. They failed because they simply placed too much pressure on themselves and froze up. Ultimately, the call ends badly and a contact that may have developed into an inbound marketing client instead developed into a teachable moment and a valuable lesson.

Note: We learn as much from these failures, if not more, than we do from calls that go just right and end with an appointment being made. Keep in mind, the sole purpose of the call is to make a good enough first impression to get a second appointment. At this point you do not know if you have a prospective inbound marketing client or not, so don’t try to sell anything. Once you develop that mindset, it is easier to talk to business owners and professionals. You see, at this point you do not have a sales situation, all you have is conversation.

While you may conceive of selling as difficult, having a conversation is easy…so quit trying to sell!

What do we do?

How are these calls handled?

Well, first you have to get the inbound marketing or social media management prospect to call. This means generating prospects, knowing how they are likely to react, and being comfortable enough with yourself, the phone, and the material (inbound marketing and social media) to do a good job; and that all comes with experience.

We will discuss more about this in part two.

However, the first thing we need to do is to identify the prospect, and then develop the prospect, so they are willing to take that initial step and either make contact…or be receptive to our first follow up contact.

For you to understand how big a step it is for most business owners and professional people to make that first call, think back to how you felt the first time you contacted someone about getting help to build your business.

If you haven’t, you will…Almost everyone does!

Interestingly, the emotions experienced by an individual making that first call, the individual on the other end of the receiver, are a combination of desperation, curiosity, and fear.

• Desperation - Because they generally have an issue with their marketing. Their marketing is generally some form of outbound marketing…or perhaps a static website that dates back to ’90s online marketing mentality. The “offline” business owner or professional is in pain or they wouldn’t have made the call. In other words, they have a problem with their marketing and they know they have a problem.
• Curious - Two, they are a bit curious about you, particularly if your message resonated with them enough to prompt a call. That also means they will probably be cautiously receptive, provided you don’t come off like a nervous idiot!
• Afraid - Finally, they are afraid for a number of reasons:
  • They are undoubtedly afraid that you are going to come across as some high pressure jerk. This is how they may feel…not how you actually are. I hope!
  • Or, conversely, you that may come across as someone who cannot help him or her at all…thus leaving the business owner in even worse shape. Keep this in mind: Deep down they hope you have the solution; and, it took a lot for them to make the call…so handle it properly! They want to talk to you, they are simply apprehensive…afraid!
  • They are also afraid because they may have to change something. Or a lot of somethings; and, people resist change. We all fear and resist change, so be aware of that fact; and, deal with it with confidence, reassurance, and education…at the right time!

For all of the above reasons, and many more, you have your work cut out for you!

Now that you have some idea of what you are up against, you can at least begin to design an approach that is appealing, low-keyed, and effective.

You have two choices:

1. “Throw enough spaghetti against the wall and some of it will stick!” This is the old shotgun method. Some stick a pin in a map and then begin to prospect geographically. Others tailor their efforts demographically, still with something of a shotgun approach. Still others use a combination of geography, demographics, and psychographics (we will get into this next) to get as close a look at their target market and their buying behavior as possible but they are still using a broad-cased approach with little or no real broad-based research…beyond that mentioned above.
   1. Direct Mail - I personally like direct mail and use it a lot! If it is done right, and over time, direct mail can be very effective based on ROI. The problem most people have with direct mail is that it doesn’t get opened because it looks like junk mail or it doesn’t pass the 3 second test and goes right into the waste basket. We will deal more with this in an upcoming article.
   2. Craigslist – Actually, all of the free online classified directories work and they also do well with Google, particularly Craigslist. It is free and, if you are not using it, spam and the negative media notwithstanding, you are throwing away a few clients yearly. Over a five year period, that is a significant sum of money!
   3. Backpage, Kijiji (eBay), etc – The same goes for these free classified sites, they are all useful and every inbound marketing and social media management firm should have a presence on them. Even the sponsored listings are ridiculously inexpensive…so do it!
   4. Cold Calling – I am not a big fan of cold calling, in fact I loathed it, particularly in the old school way. However, there is a course available that has transformed cold calling and it is worth a look. Even if you only use the course as a means of getting comfortable with the phone, because we all us it, this course is a must. It is called Unlock the Game by Ari Galper. The inbound marketing consultants I have mentored will tell you, this is the first course I suggest for all new consultants. It is a must! The free training alone is incredible and will change your thinking and your approach to the phone, and prospecting, forever.
   5. Others - This is where I place all the other things that you might like to try. However, if you apply the other strategies, those listed above and those I will get to below, you really won’t have time to fool around with a lot of them. One I will suggest is the Yellow Pages.
      1. The Yellow Pages - Businesses advertising in the Yellow Pages have watched response drop and the prices for ads skyrocket. Many of these business people are looking to get out. Be creative and do you research and you will find very good inbound marketing prospects in the Yellow Pages. If you have the time, this can be a valuable resource.
      2. Valpak – Valpak used to be one of those things that hit the trash, validating The 3 Second Rule! Now I view it as a resource. If a merchant is willing to go to the time and effort, not to mention the expense, of setting up a Valpak account? They will be interested in what you have to say…provided you approach them properly and educate them thoroughly. I place Valpak advertisers into one of three categories and then develop them accordingly. Again, I will cover this in an upcoming article dealing with direct mail and inbound marketing consulting.
2. You can get creative! Creative prospecting includes a variety of strategies, all designed to find the hungry market…what I have heard others refer to as the hungry fish. I am not crazy about calling prospective clients fish but if it helps you visualize what I am talking about…whatever works and so much the better. However, your prospective clients are people just like you with real world concerns, families, and businesses to provide for, keep afloat, and run. The more human you perceive them to be, and not just as “hungry fish” or “target audiences” or even “prospects,” the easier it will be to connect with them, build interest, relationships, confidence, trust, bonds, and clients for life!
   1. First – Go where the business people are. Join the Chamber of Commerce, the Jaycees, etc. I’ve mentioned this marketing step before. Get the membership directories but be careful not to prospect to them aggressively or right off the bat. Learn who the key influencers are and attempt to get to know them, very much as you would do on a social media site. Chamber of Commerce members are a there for a reason, to network and to build their businesses. If you can help them build their businesses, once they get to know you, you are in!
   2. Go to the local library and offer to teach a class on how small businesses can build an online presence. Libraries usually introduce these programs well in advance, usually in a bulletin, so you can get great exposure and have plenty of time to develop the course material. Libraries usually require an outline but that can be accomplished in an afternoon. You can teach the class as an over your shoulder course, one in which the students (local business people) follow along throughout an inbound marketing campaign set up. Or, you can simply do the A-B-Cs of inbound marketing and social media. The latter works well if relate it to local offline business. In either case, you will have many people approach you and ask if they can hire you or at least talk to you about what they can do to improve their online marketing. It is up to you to do the rest. Hence forth, you will be viewed as an authority in your community and the word will spread rapidly.
   3. Get a digital recorder and drive through your town, making note of the new businesses, the grand openings, and certain high value or high ticket businesses that attract your eye. Once you have “carded” the area (i.e., recorded the information, picked up local newspapers, maps, periodicals, grocery store handouts, and the rest), go back to the office, transcribe the information, note the advertising, and create a spreadsheet. Then it is time to do some research. Make sure you log the following information:
      1. Name
      2. Address
      3. Phone – Verify from infoUSA.com
      4. Web address (if they have one – note if they do not)
         1. Alexa Rankings
         2. SEO Information (to be covered in an upcoming article)
      5. Google them and establish how deep their online presence goes and what they are doing in the way of inbound marketing and social media to build The Ultimate Internet Image (couldn’t resist!)
      6. Email address from website About and Contact Us as well as from Whois.com and BetterWhoIs.com
      7. Business Owner – Contact Name infogroup/infoUSA.com
      8. Contact Title
      9. Verify Mailing Address from American Chruch Lists
      10. Type of Business
      11. Employee Size
      12. How Long in Business
      13. Other Relevant Data
3. Referrals and Warm Contacts – These are either referrals from business owners and professionals you are already assisting (I will go into how to develop referrals and letters of recommendation – testimonials in an upcoming article). You can also approach the individuals you do business with and pass out a business cards, strike up a casual conversation, and ask them if they have a few minutes and take it from there. How you handle referrals and how you handle your warm market are different but they are both high quality leads and a great source of business.
4. Local Newspapers – Businesses spend a lot of money on newspaper advertising with very little to show for it. I suggest OfflineBiz.com. When you upgrade to the Gold forum you get a letter as part of your introductory series that converts better than any direct mail piece I have ever used! I am talking about 12-18% for every mailing that goes out. The nice part is that you can use it in conjunction with newspaper ads, magazine ads, Yellow Pages ads, etc. It is without a doubt the best letter I have ever used for response on a cold mailing as part of a direct mail campaign. Try it! It will be worth it. And OfflineBiz.com offers instructional material that is really quite good. If you use the information and the letter provided by OfflineBiz.com you will see your response rate related to newspaper advertising prospecting in association with direct mail skyrocket. I have never seen anything like it! Sound like a commercial? It works or I wouldn’t mention it, affiliate link or not!

Prospecting for inbound marketing and social media clients is about…

…research, experience, and empathy!

If you can put yourself in your prospective inbound marketing client’s shoes and understand everything there is to know about them before they call you, or before you call them, you can speak intelligently…without pressuring them!

The key is to make it a conversation and get the appointment.

The appointment may lead to something…and it may not. It is up to you and the prospective client at that point. However, if you lay the groundwork and choose your prospective clients well, combining the best of both approaches, the spaghetti approach and the creative approach, you will have more business than you know what to do with…long term.

Ultimately, we will get into greater detail with respect to several of these points.

But for now…know this:

You can never do too much prospecting and you can never be too prepared. However, do not try to sell anything over the phone and do absolutely no selling on the first visit.

Your job is to listen, learn, and understand!

If you can do that, you will be on your way to inbound marketing and social media management success!

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

PS, I am accepting 5 students and will work with them for the next 180 days. You will have your business up and running in that amount of time and be making money. Guaranteed! For more information, you may contact me via my personal email address: excellencepaidforward@gmail.com

PPS, Watch for Part II. We will deal with the nuts and bolts of each issue.

Are you selling price or loyalty…?

When you train your customers to buy based on price, they become loyal to the price, and not loyal to you.

For example, if a new giant retailer came out on the marketplace today, and their whole sales pitch was, ”We promise to be THE lowest-priced store in town — we will even beat WAL-MART hands-down, on every single item in stock.”

What do you think would happen here?

Do you think everyone would stay put and stay faithful to Wal-Mart?

I doubt it.

Sure you’d have a few die-hards, but for the most part, Wal-Mart’s customers would RUN as fast as they can to this other place.

Being loyal to YOU is far more important, and makes pricing FAR less important, however, if you want that kind of loyalty, you have to earn it!

The reason we don’t ask for our best price is because we are afraid they will reject us… here’s a little secret… you may be rejecting yourself before your prospect even has a chance to reject you?

Build loyal customers by helping them and offering them services and helpful information, and not simply the lowest price.

Make it a great day!

Bob Oros
800-480-5197
http://www.BobOros.com

NOTE: Bob Oros is cut from the same cloth I am. I received this in my inbox this morning and immediately emailed Bob to ask him if I could use it. Bob is a real world, No B.S kind of sales trainer and speaker; and, he and I hit it off from day one. I would recommend Bob’s sales training course to anyone who wants to get back to their roots and take it to the next level in sales! Bob Oros is the real deal and it is a pleasure to post his insights here. If you have read anything about the homogenization and commoditization of inbound marketing, my theme over the past two days, this post will resonate with you!

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).

Social Media, Inbound Marketing, and The Mediocre Majority

Whether you are listening to Earl Nightingale in Lead the Field, Dan Kennedy in No B.S. Business Success, or Mark Twain just being Mark Twain, there is consensus among all three of these gentlemen.

Interestingly, it is an observation I made for myself a long time ago!

The line of thinking goes something like this:

If you have no successful example to follow in whatever endeavor you choose, you may simply look at what everyone else around you is doing and do the opposite, because — THE MAJORITY IS ALMOST ALWAYS WRONG! Dan Kennedy paraphrasing Earl Nightingale.

It is Dan Kennedy who coined the phrase:

“The Mediocre Majority”

Mark Twain noted the same thing 90 years before!

Interestingly, Mark Twain and Dan Kennedy may have been cut from the same cloth…both seemingly Professors of Harsh Reality. At the very least, they are both thought of in terms of their No B.S. approach to the truth; and to life as they see (saw) it.

It was Mark Twain (1904) who stated that, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”

I agree!

There is process that takes place in the United States, and perhaps abroad; and, it repeats over and again:

• An idea is introduced and everyone goes crazy about it, we can’t get enough of it. This has been the case for everything from hoola-hoops to mini-skirts, from bell bottoms to wine coolers, and from long hair to Cabbage Patch Dolls. We go bananas, can’t get enough of it, and nothing can keep us from whatever the latest trend is.

• If it is behavioral, we will go from one extreme to the other, a knee-jerk reaction of sorts. We go from the nonconformity of the mid-60s to early 70s, to the “greed is good” and the BMWers of Yuppie era and the Wall Street ‘80s. We go from the social consciousness of the ‘90s  and concern for the homeless, to watching them all-but-disappear as an issue by the early 2000s.

• We’ve witnessed the emergence of video games from Pong to Pac Man to Donkey Kong to Super Mario Brothers and on to games with graphics so real and so violent they require warnings.

• Remember Netscape? How about WebCrawler? Remember SuperCalc? Word Perfect? AOL? MySpace? Yes, many are still around but they have faded or are fading, they’ve evolved, or perhaps morphed into something almost unrecognizable. But they were all one King, or nearly King, of the Hill.

Now?

Protecting Your Most Valuable Marketing Resources – Time and Money

Information Overload Pt II

In the previous article, and the videos attached to it, we dealt with focus and entrepreneurial success characteristics. We talked briefly about the various aspects of online marketing, to include Internet marketing and inbound marketing, and the cacophony of sound, both literally and figuratively, generated by online marketers.

I hope you had a chance to look at Internet and Inbound Marketing Success: Focus and Information Overload, and the videos attached. The article, and the videos associated with it, set the stage for the rest of this series.

I think if take the time, you will find that your time is well spent.

On to Internet and Inbound Marketing:
How to Deal Information Overload Pt II

One of the biggest challenges many of us face when beginning to make sense of the Internet generally, and inbound marketing in particular, is deciding just which expert to listen to and which resources to invest in.

The noise made by this guru and that expert is absolutely deafening and, because we don’t know who to listen to or what to invest in…we attempt to listen to everyone and jump from one program to the next in an attempt to get it just right and not miss something vital.

Incredibly, most of the inbound marketing experts we are listening to have never attempted the actual nuts and bolts of what they are teaching for any length of time…they are simply teaching others how to do it.

Yes, some have. But they quickly find out that, online anyway, it is better to teach than to do!

In other words, it is like the saying:

“Those who can’t or don’t do…teach; and those who teach…make more money!”

Sound a bit facetious?

It should!

I actually heard an Internet marketing guru say, and I am not sure he realized what he was saying at the time or not, I have the recording of it, that he realized early on he could make much more money teaching others how to make money online than he would ever make practicing the principals he was teaching himself.

Amazing!

It goes to show you 2 things:

1. There are a lot of “gurus” who have never actually practiced what they preach
   1. Marketers selling dog training courses who have never trained a dog
   2. Marketers selling courses to teach parrots to talk who have never taught a parrot to do anything and, like the dog trainer, may not even own one
   3. Marketers selling inbound marketing consulting courses who do not own and run inbound marketing consultancies and have no concept of what it is like to run and brick and mortar business
2. There is a lot more money in information products teaching others how to sell info products that there is in any of the subdisciplines most gurus point the masses towards
   1. There is a lot more money in selling info products dealing with how to be an affiliate marketer than there is being an affiliate marketer
   2. There is a lot more money selling apps for making Facebook pages than there is making Facebook pages

Picks and Shovels!

Sam Brannan taught us all a lesson during the California Gold Rush and savvy Internet marketing gurus haven’t missed a beat!

Brannan sold picks and shovels to the 49ers and made a million. The gold rushers, the 49ers, bought Brannon’s wares and got tired, broke, and hungry.

Today?

Internet marketers sell the picks and shovels of marketing.

You dig and they get rich!

Stop buying picks and shovels and start focusing on a few resources and make them pay.

How?

First, decide to follow one or two experts and then devour everything they teach you. If they refer to a resource, check it out…but remain skeptical and only purchase what you absolutely require.

Hopefully, you will choose wisely Grasshopper!

Ask yourself these questions before you invest your time or money any anything online:

• What’s in this for me?
  • Marketing Lesson: How does this benefit me and help me to grow my business?
• Who cares?
  • Marketing Lesson: Does this seem to be something that has worked for others?
• Can I validate the claims being made?
  • Marketing Lesson: Does the person offering the resource or the advice have a following and/or a track record?
• Why should I believe you?
  • Marketing Lesson: Malcolm Gladwell speaks of the adaptive unconscious in his book, Blink. Adaptive unconscious is the mental processes that works automatically and rapidly…based on relatively little information. In other words, intuition and gut instinct! In most cases, if you listen to your gut, it will guide you in the right direction.
  • Marketing Lesson: If you get a feeling deep in the pit of your stomach that says, “I just don’t know?” Walk away…fast!
• I’ve heard it all before!
  • Marketing Lesson: If you get the sense that they are spouting the same-old, same-old? Find a new teacher or think about investing in a different product.
    • This is particularly true in the inbound marketing sphere right now, with every Tom, Dick, and Jane selling their particular Ju-Ju for $997 or $1997 on how to corner the inbound marketing niche and make $5,000 to $10,000 per month starting Monday…and it’s Sunday night!
• Why in the world did I buy this product?
  • Marketing Lesson: If you get that feeling after investing your hard earned money in a course you should be all excited about…cancel! Today!
    • Yes, there is such a thing as buyer’s remorse. However, if you think the product doesn’t measure up or they are going to feed you bits and pieces over several weeks or months, it often means they don’t even have the product completed and you need to get out before the refund period lapses or you will be stuck with a subpar program and nothing to show for it!
• What else should I be doing now?
  • Marketing Lesson: If you are watching a video or reading an article and you are asking yourself what else you should be doing now, you need to:
    • Set it aside and come back to it when you have time to devote your complete attention to it.
    • Decide whether the message is relevant or not and move on.
      • Note: Keep in mind that not everything an expert is going to offer will resonate with you. I use the 3 strikes rule, unless it is really bad. I give an authority I am interested in 3 strikes. It they haven’t offered anything that floats my boat by strike 3…they’re out!
• Will this be a wise investment in terms of my time and money?
  • Marketing Lesson: If you can’t afford it in terms of money or can’t swing the time? Walk away! Offers are like the “gurus” making them…there will be another along later this week, next week, next month, and so on and so on and so on….
    • In fact, if you haven’t noticed it already, almost every big launch has a relauch and then a 2.0, a 3.0, and so on and so on and so on….
    • So, don’t sweat it if you can afford it…there will come a time when you will be able to. And then? You’ll probably be glad you didn’t buy it “back when,” because you will know enough by then to see it for what it is.
    • And 9 out of 10 times it is junk…or at the very least can be bought for much less or even found free with a little digging and a bit of Googling!
• Finally, ask yourself the following question: What makes you different?
  • Marketing Lesson: In other words, why should I listen to you? What makes you so special? And don’t worry about feelings! You are dealing with two of your most precious resources:
    • Time
    • Money
      • If either of these two resources is not well spent, and you can’t find a reason why the person asking for either is worth your time and money, because time is money? Walk away…Fast!

In Part III we will discuss the different coaching strategies and the various authority sites. We will also discuss the various Internet and inbound marketing resources; and, whether or not they are worth investing in or not. Finally, in Part IV, I will discuss some of the major implementation strategies I have used over the past two years, those I have discarded and those I still use…and why.

I hope you have found this interesting and useful.

If so, please leave a comment and share it with your friends via email and social media!

Thanks so much for taking the time and please don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter which starts off with the Inbound Marketing A through Z to be published September 7, 2010; and, it will be free of charge for subscribers.

Thanks again and please leave your feedback!

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

Building Your Inbound Marketing Consultancy

Prospecting is a Four Letter Word

Building an inbound marketing consulting business is very much like building any other kind of service-oriented business. Building a business, particularly from scratch, requires perspicacity, professionalism, patience, persistence, practice, persuasion, people skills, perception, penetrating insight, and prospecting.

And that’s just for starters!

If you read most of the success-related, self-help books on the market today, they will recite, almost in unison, the litany of success killers, the traits we either have or do not have that lead to an entrepreneur’s undoing.

Interestingly, the number one reason why most people fail, at least as far as the success and self-help “gurus” are concerned is procrastination. Over and over again, until it has attained the status of dogma, we are told that if you can only beat the nasty procrastination habit we will all be masters of our universe and captians of our destiny.

And I say…

Poppycock!

I’d say something else but this is a PG kind of blog and I think Poppycock does it rather nicely.

It is my firm conviction, my belief if you will, that people only procrastinate when they hate doing something. Now, they may hate it because they dread the action, they may dread it because they aren’t crazy about the result, or they may dread it because they simply hate what they are doing in total.

Regardless of what the act or the outcome is, the bottom line should be crystal clear to anyone looking at this whole thing objectively:

A procratinator dislikes, often hates, at least some aspect of what they are doing. In fact, they dread doing it. And, unless you change the underlying fear, because dread and fear are incredibly powerful forces that go hand-in-hand, a procrastinator will continue to procrastinate.

Consequently, they will also continue to fail.

Have you ever heard of anyone dreading a vacation to the Caribbean?

Have you ever heard of anyone dreading payday?

Have you ever heard of anyone dreading winning the lottery?

Have you ever heard of anyone dreading their favorite pastime?

Walk with the dog?

Spend time with the grandkids?

Well OK, maybe you have me on that last one.

But you get the point, right?

And what is the activity most dreaded by salespeople and marketers?

Heck, by business people and virtually anyone who has to “go out and get it!”?

Prospecting!

Why?

Because you have to ask people to do something thay may not want to do. You have to go out and talk to people, people who are resistent to change under the best of circumstances; and, you may be rejected.

And fear of rejection is right up there with fear of failure and they both stifle productivity and lead to procrastination!

Prospecting has linked to it, built into the very core of it, fear of change, fear of rejection, and fear of rejection. Is there any doubt in your mind as to why salespeople procrastinate when it comes to time prospect?

I hate prospecting! Or at least I did!

In fact, I had one of the most coveted marketing jobs in the country. I was making top 5 money. That’s income in the top 5% of all wage earners in the USA. I walked away from it because I hated prospecting and, in particular, the telephone.

Loathed, hated, despised, broke out in hives, got physically ill!

And that was on a good day!

And I wasn’t talking to people who resented my call either. I was talking to warm leads, referrals from other businessmen who were already clients.

It didn’t matter…I hated it!

Why?

Because I put so much pressure on myself to make the sale, to make every sale, that I made myself sick.

Interestingly, looking back at it many years later, there was virtually zero pressure coming from anyone else; the pressure all came from within. But it was enough to completely destroy my ability to do my job effectively.

The ironic part of it?

Once in front of a prospective client I was fine. I had one of the highest closing percetages in the company, ever.

But when it came to the dreaded “P” word…I was a basket case!

I can’t go into all the reasons why, they are beyond the scope of this article, but I can tell you this, my reaction was irrational, it was illogical, and it is felt by hundreds, if thousands of salespeople each and every day across tashe United States and around the world.

We all hate two things:

1. Being required to ask people to do something they may not want to do
2. Rejection

Now, what if we could get around those two obstacles?

I think most of you reading this, if you are serious about selling and marketing at all, will agree that making a sale, bringing a new client on board in any sales situation, is a kick. It is one of the best feelings in the world, a complete rush!

“Better than sex!” we used to say.

Hey, what did we know…we were young!

But the fear of rejection and the pressure we place on ourselves can be such an impediment to success that it undemines everything else we do or even attempt to do.

Even the result, knowing a big commission or an annual contract worth thousands isn’t enough to offset the dread and the pain associated with prospecting.

Ironically, while the dread and pain are self-inflicted, they are nevertheless real.

Happily, because we have done this to oursleves, we have the capacity to undo it. But it takes shifting our thinking, looking at the entire process with new eyes and a fresh attitude.

Unfortunately, there are far too many sales trainers, prospecting experts, offering the same, rehashed notions that have been around since Christ left Chicago.

Funny thing about sayings, and there are a number of them, is no one can remember how they came to be used, if not accepted.

The same is true of prospecting methods.

Since Christ left Chicago!

Since Christ was a Corporal!

Since Pontius was a Pilate!

Throw enough “spaghetti” against the wall and some of it will stick!

Every no gets you closer to a yes!

And so on and so forth. You get the drift, right?

Plenty of catchy sayings and lots of rah-rah, chant in front of the mirror, manic mantra “stuff,” but not enough real world, nuts and bolts, “How do I overcome this terrible feeling?” advice.

Why?

Because they didn’t and still don’t know how to themselves!

Why?

Mainly, because we were going about it all wrong.

The prospecting process, in fact the entire sales process was and remains fundamentally broken for millions of salespeople doing their very best, day in and day out, to “Go out and get it!”

Just go out and do it!

Buck up and all that old boy!

Pip pip!

“I am the greatest salesman in the world!”

And so on and so forth!

Most of the rehashed “stuff,” another four letter word, has been around a very long time and every few years a new sales training “guru” comes on the scene and tries to sell the rest of us what has never really worked all that well to begin with.

Interestingly, with the emergence of inbound marketing many salespeople and marketers have come to believe that everything can be accomplished at arms length. And, while it is true that more things can be accomplished at a distance, for the majority it is simply not the case.

In fact, there have been several studies, including one concluded just recently, The Digital Report 2010, that suggest that people are more skeptical than ever of information gathered and/or received from online sources.

That means salespeople have an even bigger hurdle to overcome than ever before!

There is a fundamental lack of trust for any information gleaned from the Internet. Consequently, salesmanship, and personal contact, have become more important than ever before. In many instances the sales and marketing infrastructure is directing us one way, and the consumers seem to be demanding something altogether different.

Does that mean that prospecting, and indeed the entire sales process, has to be more difficult?

No!

Significantly, recent findings would suggest that the high pressure prospecting and sales closing methods of the 50s through 90s, and even into our current decade, are not only outmoded, they are counterproductive.

In other words, they just won’t fly anymore.

People are turned off by the old school tactics, and that includes many of the more intrusive outbound marketing practices dating back decades. The consumer is smarter and better educated than ever before and the tricks of yesterday simply fail to convert.

Today, a new sales approach is necessary if we are to be successful, and that goes for inbound marketing or any other field.

The new approach is a laid back, conversational approach!

In the words of Ari Galper, one of the smartest sales trainers to come along in a very long time, it is necessary to:

“Go deep with the client.”

In other words, instead of the shotgun approach to prospecting, a method in which the focus was to talk to 10 people by 10am, now the focus should be to talk to one person from 8am until 10am…or longer.

The idea is to drive deep into the issues and concerns of the prospect, the challenges they are grappling with.

A great word: grappling!

Imagine walking into a business with no expectation of a sale. Now, imagine taking the time to get to know the individual who has their very life blood invested in that business and seeing them as more than a prospect.

Now look at them as more than simply number one in a one out of ten on my way to 10am.

You might actually find out something useful about them. You will build a relationship. And once the relationship is established, trust will follow, and the sale will take care of itself.

Interestingly, when you shift the focus from a sales pitch to a conversation, the stress and the dread disappears…from both sides of the equation.

Remember when I said I used to hate prospecting?

No longer is prospecting about making a sale, it is about building a relationship, getting to know the man or woman you may have as a client for a very long time…getting to know them in a way the old school apporoach never would have allowed for.

The greatest thing about Ari’s approach?

You will never feel the same dread again. You will no longer be out to make a sale…you will be out to begin a conversation.

Once the sale and the sales pitch are removed from the equation, the experience becomes a pleasurable one and one that will ultimately lead to more sales, greater success, and less procrastination and dread.

That is a Win-Win in anyone’s book!

Contact me anytime for more information and see the postscript below for more information about Ari Galper’s Unlock the Game. Ari’s free training alone will change how you approach sales forever.

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

PS, Best of luck and please leave your thoughts and feedback below. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. All subscribers will receive Inbound Marketing A through Z free of charge on September 7, 2010!

Outbound Marketing to Build an Inbound Marketing Consultancy

Inbound marketing, as you have no doubt heard over and over again, is primarily about developing permission, what Seth Godin calls Permission Marketing in his book by the same name. Permission is based on a relationship built over time and based on initial approval of something a “seller” is “selling,” a message or a product in one way, shape, or form.

But stay with me, I am going to use “sell” and “selling” and “seller” a lot…and for good reason.

Seller?

Selling?

Yes, seller and selling!

I understand that selling is about how we phrase our message and all the requisite terminology:

• Investment
• Proposal
• Purchase and Purchase Agreement
• Agreement
• Approval
• Suggest/Suggested
• And so on…

However, when we cut through all the sales training “stuff,” we are all selling something to someone and they are either buying it or not.

Every single one of us…simple as that!

• We are selling our services based on our knowledge, knowledge few others have by the way. We are selling our prospects on the notion that, as inbound marketing consultants, we are the only marketing consultants competent enough to take their Internet image to the next level.*
• Info marketers are selling information.
• MLM entreprenuers are selling an opportunity, usually based on the home-based business, residual income model.
• Retail businesses are selling widgets or cars or bagels or pet supplies or whatever.
• Service-oriented businesses are selling their ability to solve a problem by way of “specific knowledge” and also being able to access the parts and the trained labor force to accomplish that task.
• Professional people are selling themselves and their expertise in a given field, often based on years of training and hands-on experience.
• I cound go on and on into virtually any and every walk of life and sell you on the idea that we are all selling something, everyone from salesmen to waitresses to ministers to teachers to coaches to…..

You get the idea?

I don’t need to beat this to death.

First and foremost, we are selling ourselves!

Selling ourselves means getting out in front of the right audience; with just the right message; backed up by the right experience; and, at just the right time.

And that ain’t always easy!

Interestingly, in order to build an inbound marketing consultancy, you basically have two choices:

• One - You can develop permission over time by providing valuable information and allow your business to grow organically? Getting your brand anywhere and everywhere online and then hoping your messsage resonates with your target audience enough for them to act upon it.
• Two - You can go out and get it! Inbound and outbound marketing techniques? Heresy, you say!

In the case of inbound marketing strategies, you will be selling yourself by way of:

• Google Maps for the local search possibilities
• Blogging to connect and build relationships
• Article marketing to build authority, as well as for SEO and traffic
• Video marketing for a myraid of reasons beyond the scope of this article
• Social media because it is absolutely necessary in today’s online world, again for a myriad of reasons
• And the rest. And there is a lot of “the rest!”

As far as building your inbound marketing business, so you can serve others, you need to do everything you can to grow your business organically.

That goes without saying…or at least I hope it does!

Throw in some pay-per-click (PPC) for good measure and you are on your way.

Yes, there are a few people out there who have never created a website and, in spite of that, have done and continue to do quite well as inbound marketing consultants. And yes, if you apply inbound marketing strategies to your business it will flourish in time.

However, as I tell each and every client I acquire for The Ultimate Internet Image, inbound marketing is like farming.

Yes, there are some immediate results and they are exciting.

But immediate results should never be overstated or you will lose clients faster than you acqire them!

Back to Inbound Marketing and Farming

Most of inbound marketing is about working yourself to the bone, planting; and then, for a while, you may see nothing but bare ground; and finally, one day, you are standing 6 feet high in corn!

And that is exciting!

In the case of outbound marketing, the go out and get it side of the equation, and yes we do go out and get it in inbound marketing too, unless you have deep pockets, are independently wealthy, and/or have the patience of a saint, you are going to have enter the dark side, the outbound marketing side, and create business in order to have a business, keep the lights on at home, and do what you love.

Many of the strategies we sell as inbound marketing consultants are based on one thing, getting out in front of our target audience and then playing to that audience enough times so resonates with them.

Then, once we have an opportunity to serve our clients, we give them what they need, not necessarily what they want, to build their online image and relieve the pain!

The pain being anything from a terrible, 5-page static website to little traffic, and on to zero conversions. The pain most businesses are experiencing when it comes to their Internet image is, in and of itself, enough to fill an ebook.

For a great blog post that deals in part with the pain, go to Copyblogger’s Four Sales Page Elements That Get People To Buy Now…but wait until you are done here and have left a comment…OK?!

The Inbound Outbound Conundrum

As you build your inbound marketing consultancy, often from scratch, you have to get yourself in front of people who may:

• Not be online at all
• May have a website they never visit
• May have a website but think of it as an online billboard
• May not have a lot of time to spend online even if they do go online occassionally
• May not know there is something better, or know they have a problem, but don’t know the solution they seek is often a click away

In other words, one of three things are possible:

1)      They are oblivious to the whole “online thing.”

2)      They are aware but don’t really care, it simply isn’t a priority for them. This is usually because they are unaware of the power of the Internet, they lack information.

3)      They know they have a problem but don’t know how to solve it or where to find someone to solve it for them. Most business people never speak to a marketing consultant about their advertising or their Internet image, other than perhaps a webmaster (and even that is rare). And a webmaster is usually not the greatest source of marketing information.

Prospecting is the bane of almost every salesperson; and ultimately, as we have established above, we are all salepeople.

If you weren’t before…you know you are now!

In the next article in this series, out very soon, we will discuss how you bridge the gap between marketing methods and thus apply both outbound and inbound marketing strategies to build your inbound marketing consultancy and the ultimate Internet image for your consulting firm and your clients.

Please let me know what you think! Also, check out the contest rules on the home page and enter today!

The deadline has been extended to September 7, 2010 in order to accommodate Labor Day in the States.

The ebook alone will be worth it, Inbound Marketing A through Z, and you have a super chance of winning the prize package too!

Contact us anytime!

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

PS, Check out our new blog at Ultimate Inbound Marketing for more inbound marketing related articles. audios, videos, and resources!

*Yes, there are a number of individuals out there calling themselves inbound marketing consultants who have never gone beyond purchasing an info product for $997 but they rarely get beyond square one. If you have real world experience, you are part of a very select enterprise. If you have gone so far as to purchase one of these products and are now stuck? Contact The Ultimate Internet Image and we will do our best to help you along…one colleague to another.

Building an Inbound Marketing Consultancy

If A is for Attitude then B is for Backbone!

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

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

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

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

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

Having a backbone is a must!

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

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

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

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

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

“Listen to you gut!”

And I would add:

“Use your backbone!”

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

Or, more accurately, they call business blogs lame.

Perhaps many are?

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

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

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

For inbound marketing purposes?

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

If a static page is required?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

B – Benefits: Sell the benefits.

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

“Sell the sizzle, not the steak!”

If you are selling air conditioners in August?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• ecademy
• LinkedIn
• Plaxo
• Xing
• Biznik
• XeeSM
• And a myriad of others (you can see how many by clicking all of the above links!)

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

Social media has transformed business networking.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you and please comment below!

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

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