Mar
31

Don’t Party Without Social Media!

This is an excellent guest blog post by Sonja Fridell, Social Media & Marketing Manager, BrainSell, Ipswich, MA, www.brainsell.net/blog, @brainsell. You can follow Sonja on Twitter @sfridell too! I invited her to guest blog on my site after meeting her in person at the event she describes below. To learn more about the great content included in the event, you can reference back to the post I wrote to recap.

Social media and public events go hand in hand. Actually, without social media, events these days can be ominous, empty dealings.

I recently took on the task of putting on a large event for my company, BrainSell, a software reseller. We put on the event with a partner, SugarCRM. CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, can be a dull topic. We knew that a selling, non-educational event would NOT fill the ballroom with eager potential customers. However, remarkable content would.

The President of our company, Jim Ward and I had just read Dharmesh Shah’s book, Inbound Marketing, and it had quickly become our bible. Jim is a big dreamer and insisted that Dharmesh would speak at our event. With persistence and tact, Shah agreed. Our remarkable content was secured. We dubbed it: Accelerate Sales with Social Media and CRM.

Now I had to recruit.

We learned a few things from all of the planning and marketing.

1. Inbound marketing WORKS!
Over 75 percent of our registrants found out about the event through social media outlets. That would be re tweeting, messages and discussions on LinkedIn and Facebook, and a few Facebook and LinkedIn advertisements. People spread the word for us!

2. Social Media Sign-Ups = Qualified Attendees (usually)
Since people found out about the event through social media, they were immediately more qualified to attend. Maybe a friend retweeted it and their circle of tech savvy friends saw it. Those people sought out the content and WANTED to learn. Our audience was super engaged! One thing we did notice was the amount of job seekers. In this economy, it’s hard to avoid, but those people can still circle back and bring you business in the future.

3. Build Your Virtual Network
We started a Twitter hash tag for the event, #crmaccbos. Attendees tweeted live from the room. Not all people gave their Twitter name during the formal registration process, so finding those people was easy with a hash tag to follow. We increased our Twitter following by a few dozen in just a few hours!

4. Keep traffic up
People notice your brand after you treat them to a valuable event. Our web traffic was up 200 percent in the weeks surrounding the event. Even the days and weeks after, our traffic was up. We video recorded the entire seminar and we’re currently posting segments on our blog and YouTube. That way, even people who didn’t attend get to take something away. And the hits keep coming.

We could have never predicted the positive outcome from this event and my mission is to replicate it all over the country. I will never again party without social media.

Mar
30

Using the Internet of 2020 to Innovate Your Business Today

76%: The number of experts that believe that by 2020, “people’s use of the Internet has enhanced human intelligence; as people are allowed unprecedented access to more information, they become smarter and make better choices. Nicholas Carr was wrong: Google does not make us stupid.”

I don’t think Google will make us stupid either. With the immense amount of data at our finger tips, I think we will become more motivated to find information now instead of having to thumb through a book or wait to hear back from a co-worker or professor about a piece of information.

So how can a business benefit?

Start putting your product/service information on the web today. This will allow your customers to surf the web and find your product. This is referred to as pull, not push, marketing. Consumers are searching for information, you provide it, so you both win.

Many businesses are just getting onto the web and creating websites, social media sites, video channels, ning communities, etc. Get on there now and get your presence known by your consumers, so that years from now people will know how and where to reach you for information. Be seen as a thought leader and expert in your field or industry so that people will come back for more and share the word. If Google only will make us smarter, then it will help people find more and more info, meaning more competition. Therefore, get on there now while people are still just realizing this, so you get a head start.

I do not see writing and grammar skills enhancing too much due to the Internet, but 65% say that “By 2020, it will be clear that the Internet has enhanced and improved reading, writing, and the rendering of knowledge.”

I do think that shorter forms of writing, such as SMS, tweets, and other social updates will increase since we will be so used to sending out real-time, quick messages to employers, colleagues, friends, family, etc. However, I think longer writing and reading may suffer. Writing will suffer because we are used to writing small blurbs of info quickly, so when it comes to writing a long article or e-mail, we may get bored, sloppy, or careless. Reading longer length articles will lose the attention of the reader faster since we have become so accustomed to reading small, instant messages to get our information. We do not want to read your 1,000 word blog post or four page article anymore, we’d rather the intro and conclusion, or an executive summary.

So what is a business to do?

Keep your info quick, to the point, and very interesting. This will keep the writer engaged in the content for a shorter but more important time period, and the reader will get the information that they need and in the short time that they have to receive it. This is not to say that readers and writers will become dumbed down, but with the amount of information shared on the web daily, we need short, to the point messages. By starting to write these types of blogs, emails, articles, etc. you will be better received by the public as a whole as they become accustomed to this habit.

Will security be breached with the explosion of information sharing?

55% say that “By 2020, Internet users can do a lot of normal online activities anonymously even though the identification systems used on the Internet have been applied to a wider range of activities. It is still relatively easy for Internet users to create content, communicate, and browse without publicly disclosing who they are.”

Many do worry that with the emergence of social media, location-based applications, extreme content sharing, and viral videos, people are now more unsafe on the Internet. However, it is how you send out and protect your information and identity that will determine how safe you are. Systems are not becoming less safe, people are. To be a smart business, protect your identity when it needs to be protected, but don’t shy away from sharing and communicating via the Internet, as that will lose you significant business and relationships.

So what is a business to do?

You should verify your identity and those of your clients/customers online (this will add value in the transaction process online). Continue to converse with people, make sales, and share incredible content, but make sure it is protected, you are not giving out too much personal, location-based, or financial information, and engage intelligently with people.

Takeaway…

It’s not what you use, but how you use it. Realize the major changes going on in the Internet environment today and capitalize on them so you are best prepared when the time comes. Don’t be a follower, get the first mover advantage by planning today. You can never go wrong by looking to the future for opportunities and innovative capabilities.

One of the most inspirational business quotes I have read to close this post is, “The great successful men of the world have used their imagination… they think ahead and create their mental picture in all it details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building – steadily building.” (Robert Collier).

Mar
24

CRM Acceleration Boston Recap

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the CRM Acceleration event at the Hilton Woburn, sponsored by BrainSell and SugarCRM. Speakers included Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot, Mitch Lieberman of SugarCRM, Umberto Milletti of InsideView, Martin Schneider of Sugar CRM, and Chip Meyers of Insource, followed by a panel discussion.

I always like to take opportunities such as this one to act as a sponge by absorbing as much of the information, atmosphere, and contacts as I can. The speakers provided great information that is crucial for businesses to understand today, whether they are implementing or considering any inbound marketing techniques or not, as it is becoming ever so important in the business world.

Below are the great takeaways from the event:

Get Found Using Inbound Marketing:

First, know that Google LOVES blogs, so naturally the searchability of your company’s blog will not be hard to obtain. If you update the information on your blog on a consistent basis, Google rewards you by listing your blog even higher for particular search queries since it is able to crawl your site more often. If you update once a year, Google deems it less important, thus does not crawl as often, and searchability can dramatically decrease.

If your company does not have the bandwith to keep up with a blog on a consistent basis, Dharmesh suggested to at least write two blogs: one on why you are in business and what differentiates you from all the other fish in the sea. The second should cover a great customer success story to demonstrate physical benefits of your service to a real client. Even if this is all your company has time to write about, it can be a great platform for potential clients (leads) to read what you are about and how you help businesses succeed.

While blogging, remember to talk in ‘human’ talk as Dharmesh stated. Don’t write in that marketing gobbledygook that people try to write in to sound fancy and smart. Although it does look nice, people go to blogs for a simple, straightforward read that does not further confuse them, so save your gobbledygook for your direct mail pieces.

Now, some may say, “Well I work in a boring industry, why would people want to read a blog about this industry?”.

The answer to that is simple: If people are willing to buy in your industry, they will be willing and ready to read your blogs. Don’t ever assume that people will not do something, because you are in fact in business due to your customers and they care about what they can get from your company. If you can provide something extra to them even in a boring industry, you have begun to differentiate yourself.

If your company does have the bandwidth to blog on a more consistent basis (at least once weekly, preferably), read on…

When blogging, talk about the industry’s problems, not your solution. You may wonder why you can’t sell your product in your blogs since the CEO or CFO wants to see some ROI on your marketing efforts. I am not saying you cannot sell your product, you just shouldn’t do it right away. You must first build up credibility in your blog by not talking about yourself, but by talking about issues that your customers/prospects care about. Once that is strongly established, then you can begin talking about your solutions to those issues. People can see through the purpose of your blogs if you put a call to action on your early blogs.

Make sure that in your blog content, you stand for something. This means that you choose one side of the fence or another on a particular issue, and not somewhere in the middle. The reasoning behind this is that people will either love you or hate you for this, but those that love you will REALLY love you. It also shows that you have the capability to take a firm stance and back it up, demonstrating expertise and credibility in a particular industry or topic.

Next, make it very, very easy to share your content. Have easily accessible links to share on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, etc. on each blog post.

What is a ‘Social Business’?

A social business is involved with building mutually beneficial relationships with customers. Social CRM is essentially the company’s response to the customer’s control of a situation. In this new business ecosystem, customers produce the content, and businesses must decide whether to get involved with the conversations.

In a social business…

1. People are the platform

2. Information is co-created. This means that information flows from the outside in, instead of the inside out. The customer defines the product or service and the value it will provide, and the business must respond. (Think of how Apple operates).

3. Power is distributed physically and virtually.

4. You must be transparent with information, people involved, and expected goals.

5. You must be interdependent; trust is crucial!

Who is the ‘Social Customer’?

1. They are demanding because they now have a voice.

2. They are mobile. Don’t discard mobile, as it can be a viable communication platform because mobile usage and mobile Internet has increased dramatically (a simple Google search will show this).

3. They trust their peers. For B2B, 59% engaged with their peers who helped address their challenge to find a solution.

4. They are knowledgeable. For B2B, 78% started with an informal information gathering process, such as a Google search. This demonstrates how critical being visible through search engines is to helping a customer begin their purchase decision with you.

5. They are resourceful: 41% of customers follow online discussions to find out information, and 37% post questions about topics to get results from peers.

The new era of sales:

1. Sell your brand in the way that your customers want to buy.

2. Create buyers, don’t sell your product.

3. Recognize that prospects want to receive information that is relevant to their current initiatives or business challenges, they don’t care about you or your product right away.

4. Discover key events to create the perfect sales opening; prospects will be more receptive.

5. Listen to the social buzz to learn what is not necessarily in the news but is important to prospects.

6. Focus on synchronizing the buying and selling cycles. Fact: Only 20% of sales reps are prepared for sales calls. Give reps the tools and technology to be prepared for the selling pitch when they deem the prospect is ready to receive it.

In summary, social CRM involves engagement, being adaptive, listening, being open, building different communities around your product, and enabling others to share and promote your brand.

Social business with social customers involves using technology to solve a problem for the customer. You as a business must make the lead feel comfortable, valued and enabled in order for them to trust you and feel motivated to learn more from you.

Always keep in mind that your customers just may know more about your products/services than you do, but embrace that! Make those people your brand experts and evangelists and recognize them in your brand community(ies).

Mar
16

A Guide to Using a Full Set of Conversation Tools to Reach Customers

Kristin Dziadul a guide to business communication

Engage. Converse. Sell! These are three terms that a marketer and salesperson alike know all too well. However, they are easier said than done. Yes, you can develop great website content and blogs, but are you managing public relations? You can develop a great product, but are you promoting it in the appropriate communities?

There are many sales, marketing and PR activities that must be done to ensure you engage, converse, and sell correctly in order to be a successful company, but your business truly needs the full set of communication tools in order to be effective.

There are eight (you may add more) conversation tools I find very important for almost any business to employ today:

1. Product Development: The product communicates what the brand stands for and what kind of value the company will provide to its customers. This is a non-verbal aspect of a business that cannot be understated. Ensure that your mission translates into the finished product so consumers see a mirror image of the stated mission layed out in the final product. Developing the right product at the right time for the right price is critical to any business’ success, and it communicates a lot about a company’s business model and potential for success.

2. Developer Relations: Good relationships with those in your supply chain is also crucial for implementing a successful brand. If the developer and you are aligned with both mission and layout of the actual product, there is a much higher chance of success. Also, the more reputable you are with companies in the supply chain, the higher chance you will have of being a respected member of the business community.

3. Ambassador: Be a true ambassador of your product. If you cannot 110% back up your product claim and speak fluently and expertly on all of its benefits and customer values, then you are not a true brand ambassador. Potential clients and customers can see if you do not fully understand or believe in the product, so ensure that you are marketing the right product and can back it up, be enthusiastic about it, and transfer that enthusiasm to your prospects and leads!

4. Marketing: Marketing conveys the brand image and values to the public. This is the main communication tool on a mass level that will let everyone and anyone know what you stand for. Ensure that you tailor the perfect message to fit the product image, reach the appropriate target market, and convince them that your product is THE one for them.

5. Public Relations: With the emergence of social media, the lines between PR and marketing have been blurred, but the pure essence of PR cannot be forgotten. Interact with the media, talk to other businesses, deal with any issues professionally and appropriately, respond to negative feedback in a timely manner, and always keep in mind that the customer is right and the reason that the company is in business is for the customer, so keep them happy and solve their problems.

6. Customer Service: Social media can be used as a form of customer service, but ensure that you are still employing the general principles of customer service. Always try to calm them down if upset, apologize, try your best to fix their problem, emphasize the business’ 100% care for customer satisfaction, and do what you can to keep them a loyal customer. Remember, even if they had a bad experience with your product or service, you can still turn it around by giving INCREDIBLE customer service that will make them talk about your great response.

7. Community Relations: Developing a community around your product and nurturing it is critical today for enabling engagement and brand loyalty. If you can develop a ning community or place on your website or social media site where people feel like a valued member, you will dramatically increase loyalty and retention rates. Employ a community manager to execute these exact tasks by reaching out to the right people, giving them a space to talk to your company, and respond to them as a valued customer.

8. Blogger Relations: If you are in the Internet or technology industry, this is a MUST. If your customers share information a lot and there are many bloggers covering different industry topics, you must be watching those blogs and developing a positive rapport with them. This means commenting on their site, reaching out to them via social media to develop relationships, and even asking to guest blog, and vice versa. This will increase your chances of having them speak well about you on their blog or to their blog’s readers.

This list may be daunting to a small start-up or a company with limited PR, sales or marketing capabilities, but implementing them on a small scale may only take a few hours maximum a day and will be more than worth it. Making your customers feel valued and confident that their voice is heard will go miles to driving positive business and customer relations.

Please add a ninth, tenth, or even eleventh element of communication that businesses should employ if you have found one to be very effective for you.

Feb
09

Love Thy Inbound Marketing Theories

Inbound Marketing just makes sense.

Most students graduating college with a marketing or advertising degree know the in’s and out’s of traditional outbound marketing theories, but they are outdated techniques today. During my college career I always sat in class wondering why companies bothered with mass television or direct mail campaigns if the response rates were hard to track or very low. It just did not make sense!

Upon graduation I have been studying all about inbound marketing, and love it. Today, virtually everything is online. Therefore, business must be online too. Think of the last time you waited around to hear about a product on a television ad or in a magazine. Instead, I bet you are looking up product features on Google, Facebook’ing friends to ask for their suggestions, or going to YouTube to find a product demonstration. This is because the Internet allows all types of information to be available at our fingertips 24/7.

Why inbound marketing?
Advertising online is a lot cheaper and highly targeted.
Being on Twitter and Facebook is free (aside from time and personnel needed to work on updating it)
Uploading videos on YouTube is free
Creating a quality website is comparatively inexpensive
Developing a ning community for your target market is inexpensive as well


It only makes sense to employ inbound marketing techniques for your business today! If your consumers are online, you must be as well. Plain and simple. Our economy has changed dramatically in the past decade. Ten years ago, television, radio, and magazines were highly effective because people were tuning in and did not know how to block out traditional advertisements. Today, we have TiVo, iPods, Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s new iPad, and now the boom of Internet business.

It is also very easy to track your progress online. Google Analytics is a free way to track visits, traffic sources, and page effectiveness on your website. A new start up, HubSpot (located in Cambridge, MA) has their own excellent program to track leads and conversion on all of your sites, even social media sites. These tracking devices are much more precise than traditional ways of measuring results on television or radio.

A great resource to learn all the critical basics of inbound marketing is Inbound Marketing by Hubspot’s founders, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. To read my most important takeaway’s from this book, please see my recent blog about it. HubSpot also has developed an Inbound Marketing University which I am taking right now.

Is your company currently using inbound marketing techniques. If not, why not?

Feb
08

Top 6 2010 Superbowl Ads

Overall, I was not impressed with the Superbowl ads. In past years they were definitely much more entertaining and humorous. Below are my top 6 picks, what were yours?

1. Flo TV- My Generation Ad

Used an upbeat song, and showed major milestones from different generations so it was relatable to many different people. Then progresses to how that generation can connect digitally today. Very cool and well played!

2. Vizio Beyonce Ad (Internet Apps)

Very cool ad! Starts with an intrigue factor by featuring many significant viral Internet events (Danny after the Dentist, Beyonce, etc). Then moves on to show how technology is all being put in one place to manage and view all your social and search sites in one place. I can’t wait to get one of these now!

3. Budweiser Bridge Ad

As always, Budweiser pulled it off again. This ad seemed to go along with the saying “desperate times call for desperate measures.” They demonstrated the dedication of loyal beer drinkers with a spice of humor.

4. Snickers Superbowl Ad

Humor, plain and simple. This ad appealed to people of all ages and used exaggeration to make it funny to anyone.

5. Budlight Asteroid Ad

Another successful Bud commercial that ties in humor and exaggeration to demonstrate the dedicated and fun loyal customers of their beer. Beer ads always seem to work quite well during the Superbowl (I wonder why…)

6. Doritos- House Rules Ad

This ad was quite funny and relatable to kids and adults alike. Overall it was a great execution!

Feb
03

Gen Y is Reshaping Mobile Marketing


(Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons)

50% of Generation Y consumers have mobile phones. They also have much more disposable income than would be expected, and are very willing to spend it. Generation Y provides a great opportunity for marketers today, as they are reshaping they way consumers search for information and buy products. So what is a marketer to do??

Studies have found that the more mediums a customer is involved in with an organization, the more engaged and likely to respond they become. This provides a great opportunity for both social media and mobile engagement with this age group. Gen Y is hugely dominant on social networking sites, and also have access to mobile phones and text messaging. Therefore, if the two are combined, think of the buying power they will then have! Although SMS marketing is not big yet, it will be during the age of smart phones and increased Gen Y spending.

SMS can be used like Facebook and Twitter, but it is better because it results in a quicker response to a promotion. Chad Hallert, Director at Ecommerce stated, “We tried stand alone offers with mobile, social and email…when you break them up to pieces, nothing really competes with e-mail, and the other two don’t look as valuable as they are”.

When SMS and social marketing are combined in a campaign, results are improved by 5-8%. This is because the SMS alert or Facebook update is added to an already existing campaign with a website, paid search and e-mail. The increased response rate is due to higher customer engagement (Sutton).

So how has Generation Y reshaped mobile marketing? They provide companies the opportunity to reach them in a new medium that other generations may not respond to. And since they are consuming many different types of media each day, there is a high potential of reaching them in various ways, generating interest, and making a purchase.

What do you think?

Jan
26

Traditional Media: Past, Present, or Future?

Ten years ago, television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and yellow page advertisements all worked very well for companies big and small. Today, people have learned how to block out these traditional outbound marketing techniques. The days of interrupting people’s lives to shows a minute clip about your company or product are over. Instead of tuning into advertisements to learn about products, people are going online to find this out, and are using social networking sites to gain valuable input from peers and colleagues alike.

In the past year alone, traditional media outlets experienced drastic changes due to changing customer preferences and increased usage of the internet. To give an example, 293 newspaper companies shut down, eight magazines with circulation numbers over 1 million had to close shop, and 1,126 magazines in general closed down. Also, more than 10,000 jobs were lost in the radio industry, and over 100 television stations are reporting bankruptcies (Vocus Whitepaper). These staggering statistics show how hard of a hit traditional media took. Although the economy did take a huge plummet recently, advertising just wasn’t working enough to sustain these businesses.

Newspapers

It is quite obvious that writing on the Internet (blogging) is the new form of newspaper articles. “Blogs offered more opinions and provided more water cooler discussions. Never mind that the skill of reporting quickly became a lost art. Once, three or four sources were required for a newspaper to go with a story; now just one source is enough for a blogger to put it on the Web site and spur a heated debate” (Vocus Whitepaper). 293 newspapers shut down in the past year, and only 45 started up; nine of which were based online first. The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and a few other major newspapers experienced over 421 layoffs and buyouts (Vocus Whitepaper). If major, well-known newspapers are folding, what is in store for the ones still in existence? I think the best move for them is to move their publications online and be supported not by subscriptions, but by online advertisements. The Wall Street Journal is already doing this. This shift in the newspaper industry will be drastic, however many newspapers may decide to form partnerships with other news media companies to utilize many more resources. Also, people are used to getting information for free online, so people are not making sense of having to pay for a newspaper when they can get that same information for free online.

Magazines

“Magazines that struggled in 2009 will cease to be in 2010” (Vocus Whitepaper). With over 1,000 magazine companies shutting down, the realm of magazine readership is a very different environment today. Rebecca Bredholt, a managing editor of magazine content stated, “The current recession was like a naturally occurring brush fire. It got rid of dead wood. The green shoots we’ll see will be from online trade and association publications” (Vocus Whitepaper). Magazine companies will need to reconfigure their strategy to either focus on a more specific niche interest, or move to online publications instead. Personally, I have not subscribed to a magazine in many years. Instead, I use Google Reader to subscribe to blogs and news sites to get my information. This causes much less waste in paper, and is easier for me to filter through articles.

Television

According to a Vocus Media Research Group, approximately 100 television stations were affected and/or shut down due to massive bankruptcies. Julie Holley, a managing editor of television content at Vocus said, “So stations are continuing to broadcast through the bankruptcy while the parent organization gets back on its feet, meaning there is no obvious effect on what the viewers see.” Companies are no longer able to support high cost technologies and staff to fill every position they used to hold, resulting in lower quality broadcasts, and staff will hold a more varied role in the company. This overall will cause a strain in television companies, ultimately resulting in their demise unless they can find a way to sustain themselves using new technology and the Internet.

Radio

Radio stations alone experienced a revenue decrease of up to 15-20% in the past year, and 10,000 jobs were lost. A majority of this loss was from the largest owner of radio stations, Clear Channel. “To keep costs low, stations have been forced to run nationally syndicated shows like Don Imus and Rush Limbaugh in favor of original programming” (Vocus Whitepaper). Although radio stations realized a huge plummet in profits and employee losses, this medium is predicted to outlast all other types of media. They are predicted to continue to air shows on their Web sites and provide links to previously recorded material as well. This will help radio stations transition into the digital age which still maintaining their purpose. In addition, there will be more applications that will allow users to listen to specific radio stations. Radio and portable music devices, such as iPods and Zune will become very popular in 2010 as well. It seems that radio is adapting quite well with newer technologies and may be able to sustain a competitive advantage during this unstable time in the media industry. “Radio has always been known as a survivor. When television, and later, cable TV came about, radio’s demise was widely predicted. But radio adapted, became more specialized, and differentiated itself with a sense of localism” (Vocus Whitepaper).

While radio is looking to adapt to new technology, there is hope for newspapers as well. A company called NewsCred had developed an online source for users to build their own customized newspapers. Users are able to generate a professional0looking site which can include content of their interest. With a premium account, users can even create a news aggregator and opinion site as well. To create their preferential content, users specify which types of topics they are most interested in reading about, and NewsCred generates a feed of this information directly to their personalized site. Hence, the virtual newspaper, the new form of newspapers. This site also allows users to write editorials which can be featured on the front page of the virtual paper. Although this idea is a great revolution of the typical newspaper, NewsCred will face some tough competition; by iGoogle in particular. iGoogle is a new service by Google which allows registered users to have news feed widgets, much like that provided by NewsCred. Other custom news sites such as Meehive and Kosmix provide the same direct threat at iGoogle does for NewsCred. (Kincaid). It will be interesting to see how this new online virtual newspaper will change how news is processed, and if it can stand up against strong competition.

Jan
22

Inbound Marketing: My Review

To say that Inbound Marketing by @Hubspot’s founders @BrianHalligan and @Dharmesh was an amazing read would be an understatement. I recently finished college with a Marketing Communications/Advertising major, but this book completely revolutionized my theories of marketing. The authors ask the reader at the beginning of the book to take every outbound marketing theory they learned and disregard it. Now at first this made me regret spending over $130,000 on college tuition, but I realized that my traditional marketing background helps to support the reasoning behind why inbound marketing just makes sense.

Below are the most critical and interesting pieces from the book that everyone should pay attention to:

1. Realize that ten years ago, traditional marketing techniques (i.e. television, radio, magazine advertising) did work very well; especially for companies like GE. However, how people are much better at ‘blocking’ these messages out. This is where inbound marketing comes into play.

2. “It’s not what you say–it’s what others say about you.” People have become more skeptical about what companies say about themselves. It is much better to have customers come looking for you, find your content incredible, and spread the good word.

3. Create a REMARKABLE strategy. Your content strategy must be very unique and highly valuable to your customers. This not only drives them to your site, but increases the chance that they will become a lead and customer. Remarkable content also increases the likelihood that more people will link your site to theirs, which in turn increases your ranking on Google.

4. While traditional marketing methods tested the ‘width of your wallet’, inbound marketing is much different. If done right, you can spend much less money and create an incredible web presence.

5. Create a blog. Blogging is more powerful than ever. If you write about incredible topics that are valuable and relative to your audience’s interests, they will talk about you. Blogging also gives you credibility and increases your visibility on the web.

6. Subscribe to other people’s blogs. By reading what others are saying about your industry, you can reflect on their articles in your own blogs, start a conversation with the others by commenting on their blogs, and therefore you increase your visibility.

7. Get found on Google. You must know which types of keywords are best to be found by Google. If you use a highly common keyword, you will get lost in search results. Start off with less popular but still relevant keywords. Also, focus on the keywords you assign to each page on your website for increased visibility.

8. Recognize the power of inbound links. The more links that are created on other sites to your page, the better ranking you will have in Google. Do not ask others to put your links on their site outright; make sure they value your content and are willing to do so. The more high-power sites that add your link to theirs, the better ranking Google will give you.

9. Get found using social media sites. Create a consistent image of your brand by the look and feel of your pages, pictures, bio, etc. Post valuable and interesting topics on your sites so people will want to engage in conversations with you. Focus on getting found on Digg (even though this is a tricky thing to do), get discovered on StumbleUpon, and be searched for on YouTube

10. Learn how to convert your visitors into leads (make compelling yet simple calls to action and track your progress), convert prospects into leads (use highly effective landing pages, easy to fill out contact forms) and convert leads to customers (figure out what stage in the buying process each customer is in and keep in contact with the lead)

11. Pick the best people to hire for inbound marketing. Hire ‘Digital Citizens’. Digital Citizens are those that have an RSS reader, read blogs, rank high up in Google, use Delicious, write their own blog, use social networks and update them regularly, and post videos on YouTube. Hire those who are very analytical since inbound marketing is all about measurements and data. Hire those with a large web reach. Make sure they have lots of content, have subscribers to their blog, many followers on social networks, etc. Finally, make sure they are content creators. If they create remarkable content that attracts others, they will spread good word about your company as well.

12. Watch your competition. Some of the best CEO’s and leaders tend to be more on-edge about what competition is doing, but this is a good thing.

For more information on Inbound Marketing, Hubspot created their own Inbound Marketing University.

Now, onto reading Steve Garfield’s Get Seen book!

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