Do you have a marketing strategy?

April 22, 2011 by 2 Comments

Often times a brilliant idea becomes a business. You know what I mean. A creative person or a group of creative people have a real “aha moment.” These creative people have a passion for something, see something that needs to be done or a problem that needs to be solved and almost by accident they find themselves in business.

As these businesses are born, often little time is taken in the development of a marketing strategy. Without a powerful marketing strategy even the most brilliant of idea is doomed to failure as a business. If you are in business today or are thinking of turning your latest brilliant idea into a business, consider three things about marketing before you do:

1. What are you really trying to sell? If you are selling your passion, make your marketing about the passion, if you are selling something solves a problem market the problem solved.

2. What is the story you are tying to tell? Steve Jobs is one of the best marketers in the world and his keynote addresses are world famous. His whole intent in these keynotes is to tell a story about the new product that would cause buyers to want what he was selling.

3. How will your offering make life better for your customer? It is said that all sales are a response to some emotion. Both negative and positive emotions drive sales. How does your marketing plan reach into the emotions of your current and potential customers, moving them to buy into the notion that they must have your brilliant idea?

Planning of any kind takes time and patience. Most people, particularly those inspired by brilliant ideas, don’t take enough time to think the marketing strategy completely through. Don’t be one of those who do not. Your brilliant idea and the confidence to bring that idea to market rest in the balance.

To your success ….

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What is Inbound Marketing Anyway?

April 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I had a great conversation with a group of business friends this morning. During that conversation one of my friends asked me, “What is inbound marketing anyway?”

Now, being involved in inbound marketing everyday, I was a little taken-a-back with the question. But, knowing that this question was asked in sincerity, it made me wonder how often I use these words without also supplying a definition.

So, I decided that I would take some time to talk about inbound marketing. I want to show how it can be used to build an online brand that can change the sales cycle and results for any business who learns what inbound marketing is, and how to use it .

In these next few posts I will do my best to make this subject clear. I will attempt to show you  exactly what inbound marketing is and the power that creating a great inbound marketing strategy/system can bring to your online brand and ultimately your bottom line.

In the end, you will be able to make the right decision about how inbound marketing can best benefit you and your business!

Let me leave you with a definition today that will hopefully spark your interest and bring you back for part 2:

Inbound marketing is a strategy of marketing in which real and valuable information is offered (free of charge I might add) to current and potential clients. This information, freely given, will create trust, and in the end will create a continuing flow of potential client/customers asking for access to your products/services. In other words you provide folks with answers, no strings attached, and they come to you when you are ready to buy.

See you next time!

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Business Blogging, Branding, and Inbound Marketing

March 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment

While having a chance to just cruse around the net today. I came across an interesting question asked on one of my normal places to visit. The question was about blogging, branding, and inbound marketing which was very cool since that what this blog is about. Basically the question was, “If I don’t want to create my own blog can I just post add to or post comments to other blogs to create traffic and communicate my ideas?”

As I sought to answer his specific question, I decided maybe a few points on business blogging, branding, and inbound marketing would be beneficial to others as well. So ….

1. I don’t think that the idea of posting on other blogs as a way of building your brand won’t really provide you with the results you are looking for. It’s kind of like selling hamburgers in the parking lot of a McDonald’s.

2. I think that if you are really serious about your content a self-hosted blog protects your brand and identity better than a “free blog.” (Read Liz Strauss’ great article on this subject.)

3. Blogging/social media is a long-term build. When websites became inexpensive propositions, businesses jumped on the “website wagon” and statistics show that more than 90% do not generate enough income to cover their costs. Blogs are now taking over these same failure rates.

4. Just getting people to your site doesn’t necessarily create leads or sales. The blog gets you in the door with people, but what you offer beyond the blog is what creates the lead and makes the sale.

My point here is that if you just “put up a blog” without considering how it fits in your overall marketing strategy, you might rank among those who leave blogging quickly and with a bad taste in your mouth.

Hope this helps and as usual any comments are appreciated!

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Successful Inbound Marketing Tips

March 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In order to get found, create leads, and convert leads to customers, you must understand these three successful inbound marketing tips. When you put these tips into practice you can’t help become more and more successful.

Tip 1: Create a Successful Inbound Marketing Strategy

To engage in successful inbound marketing, you must begin with a strong and agressive strategy.

  1. This strategy must include a clear understanding about who you are writing to.
  2. You must also understand what your target market wants, needs, and is asking.
  3. Finally you need to know what you have to offer and make that easily available to your audience.

Tip 2: Consistently create original and valuable content.

Once you know what your audience is looking for and what you have to offer to meet their needs, you must create original and valuable content. This content must come on a regular basis. It must also provide your audience with your original thoughts rather than the parroting what someone else has already said.

And above all things the content must come in a consistent manner. Your audience needs to know that you really care about their success and that you are going to provide them a steady stream of valuable content to prove it.

A successful inbound marketer is someone who becomes a thought leader for his/her target audience.

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Tip 3: Keyword Research

In order to have a successful inbound marketing strategy you must understand and successfully use the most powerful keywords in your niche in order to be found. To find these keywords, you must be able to do a good job researching all the keywords and keyword phrases that make sense to your niche and then choose the ones most in demand by your audience.

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