In this eBook, Bill will share with you everything you need to know to start inbound marketing for your business.
For Beginners Everything you need to know to get started. INBOUNDMARKETING 2 Bill is a Certied Inbound Marketing Specialist with Honors with 18 years of marketing experience. Not only is Bill an Inbound Marketing Specialist, but also has been a successful small and medium sized business owner in multiple industries since 1994. With a marketing degree from UCLA and a team of inbound marketing agents behind him, Bill founded Inbound Marketing Agents to help small and medium sized businesses close the marketing gap on larger companies at a fraction of the budget. In this eBook, Bill will share with you everything you need to know to start inbound marketing for your business. 2 InboundM arketingAgents.com 2 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. What is Inbound Marketing? 6 2. Why Inbound Marketing? 9 3. Required Resources 14 4. Software Requirements 20 5. Getting Found 26 6. Lead Generation 31 7. Converting Leads to Customers 34 8. Measuring Results 38 2 3 InboundM arketingAgents.com 1 What is Inbound Marketing? Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing Inbound marketing primarily uses the Internet to distribute compelling content that attracts prospects and builds trust with clients within your sales funnel. Outbound marketing pushes marketing messages to prospects via billboards, television, direct mail, telemarketing, and tradeshows, which disrupt your prospects daily schedule. Inbound Marketing consists of: Blogging Email Marketing Premium Content (eBooks, Whitepapers) Social Media Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Webinars Closed Loop Marketing Content Distribution Analytics Measureable ROI 5 Outbound Marketing consists of: TV Commercials Direct Mail Billboard Advertising Trade Shows Direct Mail Banner Advertising Print Media Non-measureable ROI 6 7 Rather than doing outbound marketing to the masses of people who are trying to block you out, I advocate doing “inbound marketing” where you help yourself “get found” by people already learning about and shopping in your industry. In order to do this, you need to set your website up like a “hub” for your industry that attracts visitors naturally through search engines, the blogosphere, and social media. I believe most marketers today spend 90% of their eorts on outbound marketing and 10% on inbound marketing, and I advocate that those ratios ip. 7 InboundM arketingAgents.com 8 The best analogy I can come up with is that traditional marketers looking to garner interest from new potential customers are like lions hunting in the jungle for elephants. The elephants used to be in the jungle in the ‘80s and ‘90s when they learned their trade, but they don’t seem to be there anymore. They have all migrated to the watering holes on the savannah (the internet). So, rather than continuing to hunt in the jungle, I recommend setting up shop at the watering hole or turning your website into its own watering hole.” –Brian Halligan, CEO, HubSpot 8 InboundM arketingAgents.com 8 2 Why Inbound Marketing? 8 Leads generated by inbound marketing cost 61% less than outbound marketing leads. % OF PEOPLE WHO SKIP TV ADS % DECLINE IN TRADE SHOW SPENDING % OF DIRECT MAIL NEVER OPENED • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 86% 46% 44% SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN, AUGUST 2011, TSEA.ORG, MARCH 2009, & EPA.GOV, NOV 2010 10 [...]... 2012 InboundMarketingAgents.com 13 Inbound marketing channels cost less than any outbound channel State of Inbound Marketing, Hubspot, March 2012 InboundMarketingAgents.com 14 Inbound marketing tactics don’t just generate leads They generate revenue State of Inbound Marketing, Hubspot, March 2012 InboundMarketingAgents.com 3 3 Required Resources 16 Inbound marketing is changing the way traditional marketing. ..11 COST: Inbound Marketing vs Outbound Marketing 82% of consumers search the Internet prior to purchasing a product or service InboundMarketingAgents.com 12 Inbound marketing costs 61% Less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing The average company marketing budget spend on social media & blogs has increased by 3X in three years Small businesses are allocating 14% of their marketing budget... efficiency of your inbound marketing campaigns Below are our recommendations for software to execute inbound marketing, but if you have little or no budget there are also solutions you can implement to get started and then work your way to these platforms We will note these options at the end of this chapter 23 1 INBOUND MARKETING SOFTWARE There is a big difference between inbound marketing software... dedicated to your inbound marketing strategy InboundMarketingAgents.com 18 This individual can work with an inbound marketing agency, like INBOUND MARKETING AGENTS, to support, educate, and teach this person the process and supplement services that your company can not complete in-house 3 GOALS You now know what your business will need and where you currently stand with your current marketing plan Now... month and how many convert to customers? You must understand this so you can understand what needs to be implemented with your new inbound marketing plan InboundMarketingAgents.com 17 2 DEDICATED PERSON TO HANDLE INBOUND MARKETING Inbound marketing consists of multiple marketing channels all being utilized at the same time to increase website traffic, generating leads, creating compelling content,... goals and benchmarks will be for your new inbound marketing plan How many new leads or customers do you need each month? What verticals within your current client base do you want to grow? What decisions need to be made to achieve these goals? Once you have this information in place you can accurately plan your inbound marketing strategy to specifically target your goals InboundMarketingAgents.com 19 4... you down Inbound Marketing Agents uses TeamworkPM to manage all of our internal projects and time tracking for each project InboundMarketingAgents.com 25 3 CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT Small companies with smaller budgets won’t need CRM in the early stages, but for medium to large companies this is an essential investment to close the marketing and sale loop to track your ROI We use Salesforce.com... operate and consists of numerous components to be successful You need to identify a few key resources to be sure inbound marketing will be a good fit your company and your brand 1 ANALYZE YOUR CURRENT MARKETING Before you decide to jump into inbound marketing, you need to know where your current marketing plan stands Do you have a website and can your team work with it? How many visitors do you generate... Analytics or social media software or apps Inbound marketing software gives you all of the tools to track the success of your marketing like analytics for traffic, leads, lead conversions, click through rates, social media, email marketing, and more HubSpot brings your entire marketing world together in one powerful, integrated system Integrating HubSpot into your marketing allows you to reap the benefits... share one of the first steps that should taken before implementing your new inbound strategy identity Identifying your company brand is one of the first steps that should be taken before implementing your new inbound strategy InboundMarketingAgents.com 4 Software Requirements 22 Your software needs will be determined by your budget and the goals you have set forth previously Keep in mind that your budget