Archive for January 2009

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Posted by Jeb

Jan

2009

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Search Engine Optimization Search Engines SEM SEO

Have you recently heard the phrase “inbound marketing” bouncing around? As with most new fangled terms it actually means something quite simple- being found by your customers instead of you seeking them out. Basically you are playing a grown up version of hide and seek where you actually want to be found.

If you own a company you know that it’s much cheaper and more effective to make a sale with a customer that is actually seeking your services. Essentially you are cashing in on someone else’s work. Someone else has already convinced the customer that they need your product or services. Maybe a friend, a co-worker, peer or a blog. Doesn’t matter really, the bottom line is that this customer has their wallet open and is ready to go. All you have to do is not screw it up!

Since we all know and agree that Inbound marketing is much more effective than traditional (Outbound) marketing the question becomes now do we most effectively practice Inbound marketing?

The answer is in how your company uses the web. People are looking for your products and services. More than ever their first stop is a search engine. Are they finding you there for your industry related searches? If you are selling “green widgets” and when they type in “where to buy green widgets in Indianapolis” are you the first listing? If not then you aren’t being found and it doesn’t matter if you have a better green widget. The customer has already completed the transaction with another company.

So don’t hide from your customers, get found. More specifically, use the web to get found or get you will get left behind.

Note: Thanks to Hubspot for their informative post on Inbound Marketing that I referenced in writing this blog.

Listen Closely To What Obama Is Saying

Posted by Jeb

Jan

2009

0
Comments

Filed Under: Marketing

Are you really listening to Obama? This isn’t about whether you agree with him or not, it’s about seeing the clues for what is coming down the pipe. Notice that he has been using the words “retrofit” and “weatherize”. Not something you hear from a President everyday. What does this mean?

If you are in the construction business and suffering it means you might want to “retrofit” your company to start “weatherizing” homes instead of building them. Obama is looking to weatherize 2.5 million homes.

Remember, this isn’t about your politics, it’s about reading the tea leaves and planning ahead. New business opportunities will be created by this President so get the domain name now. Or it will cost you later.

Start positioning your company now to take advantage of these incentives coming to a city near you…soon.

This is a good idea in general. If you have a hunch about something, buy the domain name if you can. $8 a year can buy a lot of piece of mind.

By the way, if you do some research you might see I just bought a number of “weatherize” and “retrofit” related domain names.

Don’t Stop Me From Giving You Money!

Posted by Jeb

Jan

2009

6
Comments

Filed Under: Everything Else

I have had a couple frustrating experiences lately with tech companies. In both instances these companies created barriers for me giving them money. It’s almost like they were implementing a “sales prevention” strategy!

Who are these companies? Normally I don’t squeal but I’ll make an exception here- Facebook.com and ChaCha.com. Both have great advertising platforms- ChaCha.com with ads on their text (SMS) responses to user questions and Facebook.com with demographically targeted social networking ads. What they don’t have is a system that works, yet.

In the case of ChaCha I had a client that was very interested in trying their SMS text advertising system. So I filled out a form through their website and waited for a response. Days went by, nothing happened. Through a fellow Small Boxer, PJ Christie, I networked to the VP of marketing or someone similar. Finally, after a few more days, I was contacted by a sales rep. After a very confusing quote process we finally went forward with a $2000 budget. The campaign started and we waited for some ROI.

Next thing we knew our ads had run their course in a matter of two weeks. We had the understanding that we would test the waters in December and really start to roll in January. I was given no communication that we could burn through 60k or so impressions in 2 weeks. We had spent $2000 and had next to nothing to show for it. The client wanted to target late January and February and was willing to ramp up spending then if the trial worked. When we broached this topic we were told for the first time that a national (competing) company had an exclusive during that time so we couldn’t even buy ads if we wanted to.

To say the least I was not happy with the experience. To add insult to injury (with a little comedy) I received a call a full two months after filling out the original form from a new sales rep asking me what kind of campaign I wanted to run. Needless to say I wasn’t interested at that point!

In the case of Facebook I wanted to test their demographic/region targeted advertising system so I set up some campaigns for Small Box. Pleased with how the ads were getting my company’s logo in front of thousands of targeted users I decided to start using Facebook to advertise for some clients.

All was going well until Facebook suddenly had an issue with my credit card. After checking with my credit card company and resubmitting it several times, along with several other cards that all have plenty of credit, I was unable to get a card accepted for payment, the system claimed an issue with the address, no matter how I entered it.

So the ads stopped running. I contacted Facebook via their help system and was told that it was an issue with my card. I called the card companies, again, to verify nothing was wrong. Still it will not, to this moment, accept any of 4 different cards that all should work fine- and do regularly on other sites.

I contacted Facebook again, I searched in vain for a phone number to call, I Twittered to see if anyone knows how to reach support directly. Nothing. It would seem they would have a toll free line for me to call with any issues. It’s like they don’t want to take my money.

What’s the lesson here? Don’t launch a product or service you can’t support. It will turn off would-be product evanglists like myself and create a legion of discontents writing blogs titled something like “Don’t Stop Me From Giving You Money!”

Having A Meaningful Online Conversation

Posted by Jeb

Jan

2009

7
Comments

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Social Media

Is Social Media a gigantic waste of time?

A recent column in the IBJ (Indianapolis Business Journal) by Morton Marcus is asserting that this brave new world of online communities are nothing more than that- a huge, colossal waste of time.

Before I do the obvious and prove Mr. Marcus wrong I think we should concede a little ground. He has a point, it is not hard to waste a lot of time online. Building up meaningless connections with people you don’t know has little value. Having 1000 online acquaintances (or “friends”) doesn’t beat having 10 “real” friends.

The problem is that Morton is not having meaningful conversations online. So who can blame him for throwing in the towel?

My wife has recently embraced Twitter and Social Media in general. It’s been fun to watch her get bitten by the Social Media bug over the last few months. First it was Facebook, aka the Social Media Gateway Drug, and now Twitter. Although I joined Twitter over two years ago I have to admit it wasn’t until the last few months that I “got” it. The reason was that I didn’t see any meaningful conversations happening when I logged in.

As anyone who is a member of Twitter will tell you the problem was that I wasn’t engaging in the community. I wasn’t seeking out like-minded individuals to share ideas. Also, I wasn’t posting my ideas and links so why would anyone seek me out?

The Web is a huge, ever expanding universe. It’s easy to get lost and feel like everyone is trying to sell you something. So how do you have a meaningful online conversation?

Here’s a few ideas on how someone like Morton Marcus can have a meaningful online conversation-

Talk To Peers- ask around, what sites are they spending time on?
Look But Don’t Touch- before creating accounts, spend some time on the recommended sites. You don’t need to join every community you come across online. This can lead to Social Media Fatigue (SMF as it will now be called).
Start Slow- join one community, I suggest Facebook, Twitter or a niche Ning community (i.e. SmallerIndiana.com). Spend 10-15 minutes every day on that site. Join conversations that interest you, message users that seem to be on the same path as you.
Know When To Fold ‘Em- it’s ok to leave a community. I left My Space recently. I wasn’t having any meaningful conversations. I left a note on my profile page letting people know they could find me at Musicalfamilytree.com which is the music community site I started with some friends and now has about 1500 members and many quality conversations centered around one of my great loves- music. It’s a Goldilocks’ site. Not too big, not too small, just right. If the community you joined has passed the Goldilocks’ sweet spot then opt out.

You will start to see a return on your time investment as you start to have meaningful conversations around topics you care passionately about with people that share this passion. That return might be in the form of knowledge, friendship, or business. This depends mostly on what you wanted going in.

So I hope you are reading this Mr. Morton and you give Social Media another chance. It does require a different way of thinking especially in how one allocates time. But if done properly it can yield a great return, personally and professionally.