3 Myths About Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is widely regarded as one of the most effective forms of marketing.

Inbound marketing is widely regarded as one of the most effective forms of marketing. The term first emerged as a buzzword in the midst of the online marketing frenzy, as marketers started to realize fully the value of the digital world in attracting leads, nurturing prospects, and even generating conversions without the hard-core sales methodologies of the past.

While some may believe that inbound marketing is just another one of those passing Internet fads, it's anything but. The concepts, methods, and best practices that comprise the core of inbound marketing aren't going anywhere as long as there's a need for marketers to reach prospects and buyers at critical junctions and touch points throughout the buying journey to influence decision making.

Consider the fact that consumers are increasingly tuning out traditional advertisements and the importance of inbound marketing--in which marketers engage consumers with relevant, intriguing information that educates or entertains, earning their interest instead of buying it--and the importance of inbound marketing becomes pretty clear. In fact, 84% of 25- to 34-year-olds bounce from websites when they encounter an intrusive or irrelevant advertisement, and 86% of people skip over television ads, according to an infographic by Voltier Digital.

Despite the growing importance of inbound marketing, there continue to be myths permeating the industry about what inbound marketing is, its effectiveness, and how it works. Let's examine three of the most prominent myths about inbound marketing.

1. Inbound marketing is free.

While it's true that inbound marketing can be more affordable than outbound marketing, it's not entirely free. You won't be paying for advertisements, but you'll still need to pay professionals to produce top-quality content, manage your social media presence, organize and host webinars, design compelling infographics, research white papers, and the like.

You'll also need to invest in tools such as inbound marketing automation software, CRM systems, and other tools of the trade that increase marketing productivity. In fact, Raka points out that "companies that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451 percent increase in qualified leads," and companies that automate lead management processes "see a 10 percent or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months."

"Yes, there's an investment required to do inbound marketing. But if done well, brands will see a return on that investment that can last for a long time. Unlike outbound marketing, where a paid advertisement lives only for a short period of time, inbound marketing has a longer shelf life. It's an investment that provides much higher returns over the long term," said Navin Nagiah, President and CEO of DNN Software. Inbound marketing is a complex function that encompasses multiple marketing channels and strategies, from SEO to content marketing, social media, and more; arming yourself with the talent and tools to get the job done is half the battle.

2. Quantity trumps quality.

In the early days of SEO, it was possible to produce an abundance of (let's be honest--crappy) articles stuffed with target keywords and rank for your desired terms in the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Those days are long gone, yet the notion that quantity is more critical to success than quality still permeates the inbound marketing industry.

Of course, inbound marketing is more than just content marketing, and it's more than just SEO. (According to the Content Marketing Institute's 2016 B2B Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends--North America report, B2B marketers are using an average of 13 different content marketing tactics--and that's just content marketing alone.)

But the belief that the best way to realize inbound marketing success is to do simply "more" of it couldn't be further from the truth.

Today's consumers are savvy. It doesn't matter whether your business is B2B or B2C; your audience knows when you're putting out poor-quality content or posting updates on social media for the sake of creating "more." Your audience wants quality; they want something valuable that engages, educates, and entertains--something that's so good that it compels them to share or hand over their email address just to get the rest.

It's like the, "If you build it, they will come," mentality common in the early days of the web. You simply can't skimp on quality in inbound marketing; you have to bring your audience to you and to do that you must stand out from the hundreds of other companies attempting to engage the same target market. Whether you're designing graphics, creating slide decks, or writing industry reports, cutting corners is the surest way to alienate your audience.

3. You can't measure the ROI of inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is one alternative to the traditional outbound advertising methods such as billboards or radio advertising. Interestingly, one of the common beliefs about inbound marketing is that it's not measurable, yet it's really radio, billboards, and similar traditional advertising methods that make proving ROI a challenge.

In the early days of digital marketing, we didn't have the advantage of Big Data, but today practically any action you take online is measurable. Thanks to tools like Google Analytics, you can determine how many visitors arrived on your landing page and then converted to leads or paying customers. You can determine how many attendees participated in a webinar, how many users engaged with a Twitter chat, how many Facebook users watched a video, and even how many recipients clicked on a particular link in an email marketing message.

Everything is measurable, and that means ROI is easy to prove although the factors that one business uses to determine ROI may differ from the equation relied on by another. That's why it's critical to determine your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) before launching a campaign and identify the metrics used to evaluate performance.

Inbound marketing isn't free, but it can be incredibly effective for both B2B and B2C companies. However, if you're prioritizing quantity over quality or you're not measuring ROI, you're doing it wrong. Focusing on quality coupled with clearly defined goals and performance metrics, along with the tools to measure results, is the surest path to inbound marketing success.

Source : http://bit.ly/1mwo8cv

9 Crazy Tips to Become a Successful Entrepreneur in Half the Time

Being a successful entrepreneur means constantly learning new skills along the way. These tips are what makes the most successful entrepreneurs and can be lessons for any new entrepreneur to follow to ensure their own success.

1. EFFECTIVE PLANNING

Effective planning is an essential skill in all-successful entrepreneurs. Setting strategic goals will allow you to progress and develop any business. Planning means to plan your day effectively as well as being able to set goals that you want to achieve.

2. EXPAND BUSINESS

A one-man business can only do so much. Expand your business beyond your comfortably level; the problem with most businesses is they play it to safe. How can you scale your business?

3. WAKE UP EARLY

Successful entrepreneurs are people who are able to start their day early in order to plan their time effectively to get things done. The most important trait with any successful entrepreneur is showing up and when working for yourself this is a skill that is even more important to learn.

4. EXERCISE

Being your own boss can be stressful in itself. Look to exercise not only to keep yourself fit but also as a way to relief stress. Balance between fitness and business is an essential skill for success.

5. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Positive thinking always brings you one step closer to success. If you believe you will fail, then your mind begins to think of ways to make you fail. Don’t be afraid to think big but above all else it starts with believing in yourself first and then others will also gain confidence in you as well.

6. LEARN…LEARN…LEARN

Being successful means that you need to always find new ways of achieving goals. As you progress in your own business you will find that you gain a new set of skills and its extremely important that you not only sharpen your skills but continue to learn new things on a daily basis…success means that you are always learning.

7. LOOK FOR SOLUTIONS NOT OBSTACLES

Obstacles are a natural phenomenon when starting your own business. The most successful entrepreneurs look at obstacles as challenges that need to be overcome. When you face an obstacle, punch through it and don’t allow it to slow you down.

8. LEARN FROM FEEDBACK

Feedback is essential. This will teach you where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Even the most critical feedback will show you how you can improve and become better.

9. LEARN TO SAY NO

One of the most difficult things is to learn to say no. The most successful entrepreneurs are the people who are able to say no to those tasks that take up too much time or projects that don’t align with their purpose.

How many of these tips are you following on a consistent basis? The key is to create habits that produce success, it doesn’t happen over night but through practicing what other successful entrepreneurs are doing you will reach your own success.

If I can be of any help, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Source : http://bit.ly/1VuVMvf

7 Budget-Friendly Marketing Tips for Early-Stage Startups

Marketing a startup is not for the meek. There are several challenges to success, and the time, money and resources needed to implement them are often scarce in the early stages. This means it’s crucial to plan ahead and reduce the possibility of making a costly mistake.

As an entrepreneur, you always want to make the best use of your resources. Devising and implementing innovative marketing ideas will set you apart from your competitors and draw more customers to you.

Here are seven low-cost tips to help new startups market themselves effectively.

1. Understand Your Target Audience

As a new startup, it’s extremely important to figure out exactly who your target audience is. Only then can you design your marketing strategy to appeal to the people who will readily pay for your product or service. Think about who is most likely to need, want, or otherwise be interested in what you offer. Based on the answer, you can determine who your target audience should be. Some further tips:

Instead of thinking about who you’d like to sell to, think about who is looking for the kind of products or services you offer. Ask yourself how your offerings can solve their problems. Study your market, competitors, and leads and prospects that you’ve identified. Create customer personas, which should serve as in-depth descriptions of your potential customers’ psychographic and demographic data. You can then tailor your marketing to the specific needs of these personas.

Don’t stop after you’ve identified your audience. Keep the work going to stay on top of current trends in your industry. Create a way to track your sales, networking, customer service, requests for information, etc. so you can continually focus on improvement.

2. Build Strategic Partnerships

It’s easy for startups to get lost in the crowd and go unnoticed. More than 386,400 are founded in the U.S. every year. But by building strategic partnerships with other well-known companies in your field, you can maximize your presence and market your startup more effectively.

One type of partnership involves syndicating your content on other websites, as well as collaborating with relevant sites to create compelling content. To start doing this, identify companies that have users you want to reach, and that could benefit from working with you.

Partnerships have played a key part in helping us build our brand. We’ve developed relationships with popular news and auto websites and work with them frequently to create original, data-driven content that benefits their readers and gives our company more exposure.

3. Share Your Expertise for Free

You’re an expert in your field, so it’s time to share that knowledge with others in a helpful way: a free seminar, webinar, blog, guest post, or even a series of tweets.

One of the ways our company does this is by analyzing millions of data points and discovering interesting, surprising insights about cars. We publish these studies to share what we’ve learned with other people who are interested in cars. This has significantly helped elevate our company’s exposure – more than 100 media outlets, including publications, TV programs, and radio stations have covered our studies!

4. Listen to and Engage Your Social Media Followers

Social media can be used for a lot more than just “advertising” your startup. In addition to communicating with your audience, your social media pages can be used to provide value and genuinely connect with them. Make an effort to find and share useful information to engage your customers. Make them feel like valuable members of your brand’s community. We use our data and content to answer questions and help social media users whenever we think we can add value. If you run into critics, don’t be hostile. Approach complaints with positivity and use them as an opportunity to showcase your startup’s commitment to customer-service and expertise, and you’re sure to win your critics over!

5. Add Value Through Email Marketing

Email marketing is not the same as spamming your customers’ inbox. Joke a side, when used properly to help and provide value to users, email marketing can work wonders for promoting your startup.

Successful email marketing campaigns have a well-planned schedule so that people will know when to expect your emails and can look forward to updates from you. The trick to keeping this going is to focus on your target audience when deciding on the emails’ theme, template and content to ensure what you send them will be helpful.

Our company uses emails to make the process of looking for a car more efficient. Users can sign up for alerts, and we email them whenever we have newly-listed cars that match what they’re looking for. Users who sign up for our alerts are two to three times more likely to contact the sellers of cars on our site than non-alert users.

6. Network, Network and Network Some More

One of the biggest factors contributing to the successful marketing of any startup is networking. Knowing the right people in your industry can put you on the path to success. So be sure to carry your business card with you and be ready with your elevator pitch at all times.

Actively seeking out opportunities to talk about your startup will go a long way in building awareness. Conferences and networking events are great places to connect with key influencers, spread the word about what you’re doing, and learn more about your industry.

7. Start Using Video Today

YouTube has over a billion visitors every month. Facebook users watch 8 billion videos a day. You don’t have to have access to Hollywood producers to create a shareable online video. Look at the audio and visual resources you have, and think about what type of video would be helpful and informative to your audience. Can you make a professional, informative video sitting in your office? With some trial and error, probably yes. There are plenty of free slideshows and video editing software that will help.

Last Words

For a new startup, marketing can feel like a challenging game that’s difficult to master. Using these seven tips will help jump start your marketing efforts with little to no strain on your company’s budget. You’ll have the basics such as social media and networking covered, and your startup will stand out for its focus on providing real value for customers, followers and other industry professionals.

Source : http://bit.ly/1jm1AcZ

3 things you're doing on Facebook that make people dislike you immediately

We all love to hate the Facebook friends who use their status updates to describe in detail the almond crunch granola they had for breakfast. 

But as it turns out, that's only the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of habits that can turn off your Facebook friends and potential friends, even on a subconscious level.

Below, we've highlighted three common, research-backed Facebook behaviors that people find off-putting.

1. Sharing too many photos 

You may want to think twice before posting a dozen photos of your baby niece taking her first steps.

In one study, researchers looked at the Facebook behavior of about 500 people around age 24. They asked them to fill out questionnaires about the quality of their relationships with different people in their lives: friends, close friends, colleagues, relatives, partners, and general Facebook friends. 

Then they asked participants to indicate how often those people posted everything from selfies, to family photos, to pictures of friends on Facebook. 

Two interesting findings emerged. One, people tend to have less supportive, intimate relationships with family members when they post lots of photos of friends. And two, people tend to have less supportive, intimate relationships with friends when they post lots of photos of family.

In other words, instead of releasing that baby photo to the masses, consider texting it to your sister instead.

As study co-author Ben Marder, Ph.D., put it: "Be cautious when sharing and think how it will be perceived by all the others who may see it. Although sharing is a great way to better relationships, it can also damage them." 

2. Having too many or too few Facebook friends 

Consider taking the time to prune your Facebook friend list — or to add some more connections if that list is looking sparse. Research suggests there are perils to having too many or too few friends. 

In one study, researchers asked about 150 college students to look at fictional Facebook profiles and decide how much they liked the profiles' owners. The study took place in 2008, and the students had an average of 395 friends each.

Results showed that the "sweet spot" for likability was about 300 friends. Likability ratings were lowest when a profile owner had only about 100 friends, and almost as low when they had more than 300 friends.

As for why 300-plus friends could be a turn-off, the study authors write, "Individuals with too many friends may appear to be focusing too much on Facebook, friending out of desperation rather than popularity."

On the other hand, the researchers acknowledge that if you look at a population where the most common number of Facebook friends is 1,000, the sweet spot for likability could be 1,000.

Keep in mind, though, that one survey found that the average number of Facebook friends among adult users was 338 in 2014.

Interestingly, the study also found that participants weren't consciously aware that they liked people less when they had too many or too few Facebook friends. 

3. Posting a close-up profile photo

It doesn't matter how gorgeous you are — it's somewhat awkward to post a profile photo in which there's barely any space between your face and the camera.

In one small study, 45 participants looked at grayscale photos of 18 unfamiliar white men, displayed on a computer. They were asked to rate each person on trustworthiness, competence, and attractiveness.

Results showed that faces photographed from within what the researchers call “personal space” (45 centimeters, or about 1.5 feet) were rated lower on all measures than faces photographed from at least 135 centimeters, or about 4.5 feet, away.

Bottom line: It's easy to thoughtlessly post an entire photo album or send friend requests to your entire company — but doing so can have some negative consequences for your relationships. So be as cautious online as you are in crafting your persona IRL.

Source : http://read.bi/1Sh0CuT

5 Pinterest Demographics Facts Marketers Should Know

Last week Pinterest announced that they have reached a whopping 100 million monthly active users. To put that into perspective these are the most recent user stats for other popular social media networks:

While Pinterest may not be the most popular social network , it is amongst the top 5 in the world. Pinterest is also the biggest social site being predominantly used by women.

Some marketers ignore its importance because their business is not targeted toward the female demographic. This is a big mistake. The social network has grown in popularity amongst other demographics, and is proving a valuable resource in many industries.

Here are 5 reasons to monitor Pinterest demographics so you can make an educated decision on whether Pinterest data is important for your market research:

Fact #1: Men Are Now Pinterest’s Fastest-Growing Demographic

In November 2014 Pinterest announced that men were their fastest-growing demographic. In fact, in emerging markets sign ups are an even gender split of 50% men and 50% women. (Techcrunch)

Fact #2: Pinterest Attracts Users From All Income Levels

In 2014 there was a significant increase in Pinterest users whose income levels were below $30,000 and above $75,000. The easy-to-use social media platform caters to people of all income levels. (PEW Research Center)

Fact #3: Pinterest User Numbers Have Doubled Since 2012

We  Pinterest had hit a 100 million user milestone. But did you know that in 2013 they had only 70 million? Alongside Instagram, Pinterest has doubled its usage since 2012, and now counts 31% of online adults amongst its user base.

Fact #4: Half of Pinterest’s Users Are International

According to an article published by Venture Beat, 45% of Pinterest users come from outside of the United States.

Fact #5: Popularity Boom Amongst Older Generation

Pinterest is extremely popular amongst young people. 34% of online 18-29 year olds, and 28% of 30-49 year olds use Pinterest. But it is the older generation of internet users who have most recently taken to using Pinterest. Between 2013 and 2014 Pinterest saw a growth of 14% in users aged 50-64. This places Pinterest behind just Facebook and LinkedIn for social media usage within the 50-64 year age group.

Want to know more about Pinterest?

Knowing Pinterest demographics gives you the power to target the right market during advertising campaigns. 

Source : http://bit.ly/1FLrNwo

The Real Unicorns Are Female Angel Investors

Despite the attention over the past year, the lack of diversity in tech — both in race and gender — has not markedly changed. Only 3 percent of tech CEOs are women, and just 15 percent of startups have at least one female founder.

Most agree that something needs to be done, but much of the attention is misplaced into a caricature. You see the issue raised on SNL and the other late-night shows — and then there is the hyperbole that penetrates into pop culture (see HBO’s Silicon Valley).

To be fair, programs have popped up to teach women how to code, while others drive awareness of the developer career path for adolescent teen girls. Even some VCs have developed funds for women or minority-owned startups — Golden Seeds and 500 Startups among them.

What’s missing in these solutions? The role of women as angel investors — not just founders or developers.

Women make up just 4 percent of venture capital partners. And though the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research said there are more than 50,000 female angel investors, my experience from raising $1.2 million in seed funding in Chicago suggests otherwise. I sought a female angel — but could not find her. I asked all of the contacts I met for a recommendation. They all said, “I’ll think about it,” but never got back to me. I do have one female investor, who I am thankful for, but even she backed us alongside her husband.

To get more women in tech today, we need women investors.

Women investors are important because they signal to women You belong here. In a study co-authored by MIT economist Esther Duflo, she saw that an increased presence and visibility of female politicians in local government raises the academic performance and career aspirations of young women in India. “[MM1] We think this is due to a role-model effect: Seeing women in charge persuaded parents and teens that women can run things, and increased their ambitions,” said Duflo, a co-founder of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

To get more women in tech today, we need women investors — and we need them early in the process. That means female angel investors.

Progress is being made. Over the past decade, women have begun taking more leadership roles in business. As a result, women are excelling financially. The number of wealthy women in the U.S. is growing twice as fast as the number of wealthy men. And by the next generation (or perhaps sooner), more families will be supported by woman than men.

But more wealth will not automatically translate to more angel investors. Women tend to be more conservative investors that may even lack confidence, a critical element in becoming an angel.

We haven’t yet tapped into that next wave of female angels.

That’s why groups like 37 Angels andBroadway Angels — groups of women angel investors who fund early stage startups regardless of the founder’s gender — are critical. 37 Angels, for example, requires its members to be active investors, making at least one $25,000 investment each year from the 35 to 50 companies it finalizes as candidates each year.

But as great as those networks are, they don’t do much to drive awareness of angel investing and teach women to make the leap from investing in stocks and mutual funds to investing in early stage startups. The Pipeline Fellowship is one group that is trying to make a difference with a six-month angel investing bootcamp. And in four years, Pipeline boasts more than 100 graduates — it’s a start, but not nearly enough to make a dent in the deficit of women angel investors.

We haven’t yet tapped into that next wave of female angels — the ones currently succeeding in Corporate America. If that happened, we would see more female founders.

Source : http://tcrn.ch/1FbJpRW