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INBOUND MARKETING 101:Becoming Magnetic to Today's Consumers

CRAIG KILGORE: Inbound Marketing Manager

Experience: Mainstreethost, 8 years

Education: BA in Economic Crime Investigationfrom Hilbert College, 2006

What I like most about digital marketing:Strategy development, business consulting,fast-paced, constant change, results driven,connecting the right people with the rightbusinesses, content strategy

Email: ckilgore@mainstreethost.comTwitter: @ckligs

DAVE PERRY: Inbound Marketing Specialist

Husband to my awesome wife,Amy, & we have 2 awesome kids:(Ella (5) & Ryan (11 months)!

Employed at Mainstreethost forapproximately 8 years.

I love all things sports:especially the Sabres, Bills & ofcourse the Boston Red Sox.

And... I just might have the bestboss in the world (Raise please!!)

(AKA D.P.)

Email: dperry@mainstreethost.comTwitter: @Dave_Perry7

JESS MARRANCO: Inbound Marketing Specialist

I love:

Employed at Mainstreethostfor 3.5 years

Cooking when I canTrying to be artisticDog: Bruno, Cat: BinxSocial media, blogging,brainstorming ideas andinbound marketing (duh).

Why I chose marketing:I’ve always been interested in what draws me to products & businesses. What wasthe strategy behind it? Growing up, I always loved to write, and at Mainstreethost,my eyes were opened to the multifaceted world of marketing, which I’m nowextremely passionate about.

Email: jmarranco@mainstreethost.comTwitter: @JessMarranco

KIM SPEIER: Inbound Marketing Specialist

My Favorite Things:

University of Pittsburgh Grad - Class of2013

Watching sports, skiing,travelling, blogging, social media

Why I Chose a Career in Marketing:Drawn to how brands establishthemselves & maintain theirimage among consumersThe psychology behind buyerbehavior & how we can impactthat

Email: kspeier@mainstreethost.comTwitter: @krspeier

WHO IS MAINSTREETHOST?

Today, our operation has grown to employ over 200 marketing professionalsworking with more than 4,000 small, medium-sized, & large businesses.

Mainstreethost is a digital marketing agency offering everything you needto attain & maintain a successful online presence, since 1999.

WHAT DOES MAINSTREETHOST DO?Our digital marketing services include:

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Paid search advertising (Google AdWords, FacebookAdvertising, etc.)

Social media marketing

Content marketing

Inbound marketing strategy:(Proven effective in attracting leads & turning theminto delighted customers)

INBOUND 101: Overview of Inbound

What is Inbound Marketing?

At its core, inbound marketing is about providing valuable information for your bestprospects as they search online for services, solutions, technologies, applications, prices,varieties, locations, answers, insights, products – all the things they need to know beforedeciding who they’ll buy from. Content addresses each prospect type and answers theunique questions he or she asks at the various points in their purchase cycles.

PHASE 1: Attract

First step in the Inbound Methodology

Bringing new people to your website and getting them to interact with yoursocial media

Focus:

Buyer Personas:Who the ideal customers are, separated into groups by buyer behavior &personal attributes

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly!

PHASE 1: Attract

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical part of attracting website visitorsMake your website easy to find in search engines by including keywordsWebsite layout contributes to SEO score as wellFocus on complete website optimization, not just SEO

Example: Search “SEO Companies” in Google, Mainstreethost is the first result

Choose 1 topic per postFocus on targeting buyer personas, not search engine resultsInclude images or graphics to draw the reader’s attentionBring readers to your website and progress down the Inbound MethodologyPromote via social media, email marketing

Blogging best practices

PHASE 1: Attract

Our blog:

Our Twitter:

PHASE 1: AttractSocial Media can be used in any of the Inbound Methodology steps,but is especially important for the attract phase

Foster connections with prospectivecustomersContent is most important andtiming/distribution is a close secondUnderstand the personalities of eachsocial media site & customize contentaccordinglyNot just about posting your owncontent; be sure to “like,” “follow,” &“share”content from others (just avoidcompetitors!)Don’t make all of your postspromotional/salesy to generaterapport

Our Facebook:

PHASE 2: Convert

PHASE 2: Convert

You’ve done all the hard work to bring a qualified stranger to your website.They’re now considered a visitor, and our goal is to convert them into a lead.

How do we do this: Calls-to-Action, Landing Pages, Forms

PHASE 2: Convert

PHASE 2: Convert

PHASE 2: Convert

PHASE 3: Close

You’re almost there. You Attracted the strangers, Converted them in a Lead& you’re now ready to Close.

PHASE 3: Close

Here are a few ways to Close Leads

CRM - Keep track of the details. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems facilitatesales by making sure you have the right information at your fingertips.

Closed-loop Reporting - How do you know which marketing efforts are bringing in the bestleads? Is your sales team effectively closing those best leads into customers? Integration withyour CRM system allows you to analyze just how well your marketing & sales teams areplaying together.

Email - What do you do if a visitor clicks on your call-to-action, fills out a landing page, ordownloads your whitepaper, but still isn’t ready to become a customer? A series of emailsfocused on useful, relevant content can build trust with a prospect and help them becomemore ready to buy.Marketing Automation - This process involves creating email marketing & lead nurturingtailored to the needs and lifecycle stage of each lead. For example, if a visitor downloaded awhitepaper on a certain topic from you in the past, you might want to send that lead a seriesof related emails. But if they follow you on Twitter & visited certain pages on your

PHASE 4: Delight

PHASE 4: Delight

Last phase of the inbound marketing methodology!

Why it's important:Once you make a friend, you still need to put effort into that relationship orelse it will fizzle out and you’ll drift apart.

How it works: Relationships go both ways, including a business-to-customer relationship.This phase is all about consistently delighting your customers with contentyou know they’ll love and find useful. By delivering this relevant and timelycontent to your customers, they’ll (hopefully) “fall in love” with yourbusiness and become advocates/promoters.

Tools utilized in this phase:

Surveys - If you want to know what your customers are looking for fromyou, what better way to find out than by asking them? Surveys show thatyou care about what you’re delivering to customers, and their feedbackprovides you with the information needed to do just that.

PHASE 4: Delight

PHASE 4: Delight

Awesome, relevant content - Content that separates your customers from yourvisitors is very important. Your customers should be treated like VIPs and, if they’vealready invested in your business, they don’t want to be prompted to begin thejourney all over again. Smart content is about understanding whom content is beingdelivered to and personalizing it for them; becoming more intuitive.

Landing pages - suggest new products, give exclusive offers to customers, etc.

Blog content - answer FAQs, provide useful information that assists in any painpoints that customers may experience, etc.

Emails - exclusive email offers, blogs that are relevant to customers, customersurveys, and suggested products you think they might like.

PHASE 4: Delight

PHASE 4: DelightSocial Monitoring -Social media issynonymous withcustomer servicethese days.Customers take toTwitter, Facebook,Google+ and more tovoice their concernsas well as praise foryour business.Takethe time to look intoissues, sharerelevant and helpfulcontent, resolveproblems,answerquestions andjust say ‘thanks’.

MAINSTREETHOST: Under Inbound MarketingOn March 4th, 2013, we launched a redesigned website and around this time beganleveraging marketing automation software. Compared to the 20 or so months prior, we:

Revenue attributed to Inbound Marketing efforts grew over 75% year-over-year.Inbound leads are up over 50% year-over-year.

WHAT CHANGED TO GET US HERE:

Redesigned website (with inbound marketing as the driving force)

Content strategy

Social media strategy

Email marketing strategy

Long-form content creation (good for brand awareness as well as lead generation)

A lead nurturing process

Marketing and sales alignment

ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL LANDING PAGE

(SOURCE: UNBOUNCE)HTTP://UNBOUNCE.COM/LANDING-PAGES/7-ELEMENTS-OF-A-WINNING-LANDING-PAGE/

LANDING PAGE EXAMPLES

LANDING PAGE EXAMPLES

LANDING PAGE GROUP EXERCISE

There will be 4 groups of 5Each group will wireframe an "offers" landing pageYou have 20 minutes to complete your wireframeEach member of the winning group gets a P.F. Changs gift card! (Aw, yeah.)

Don't forget to give your landing page a title and subtitle Be sure to let visitors know what they're downloading and why it's valuableBe clear and concise in your messagingUse relevant imageryInclude social share buttonsThink about the information we want to collect via the form / form fields

TIPS:

May the best group win!

DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS & RESOURCESAm I Responsive?: http://ami.responsivedesign.is/

Input your website’s URL and the tool will determine if the site isresponsive/interactive

BuiltWith Technology Lookup: http://builtwith.com/Website profiler, lead generation, competitive analysis and businessintelligence tool providing usage analytics

Graphic design tool for social media, email marketing, blogs, etc. for peopleof all skill levels

Canva: www.canva.com

Copy and paste Word documents to convert to clean HTML text

Software designed for note-taking and archiving text, webpages, images,and other files

Convert Word Documents to HTML: http://word2cleanhtml.com/

Evernote: https://evernote.com/

See who is tracking your website, even those visiting anonymouslyGhostery: http://bit.ly/VPMNwe

DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS & RESOURCESGoogle Analytics: http://www.google.com/analytics/

Manage marketing campaign performance, visualize your audience, andsee how they interact with your marketing materials

Google Keyword Planner: https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner Plan search campaigns and determine which keywords will maximizeexposure when prospects are looking for what you offer

Input your website’s URL and the tool will determine if the site is mobile-friendly

Google Mobile-Friendly Test: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly

Data, tools, and diagnostics for a Google-friendly site

Educational resource for founders and entrepreneurs that are trying togrow a startup

Google Webmasters: http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Growth Hacker: https://www.growthhacker.tv/

Inbound marketing platform that manages the entire marketing process,from attracting visitors to closing deals

HubSpot: http://www.hubspot.com/

DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS & RESOURCESIconosquare: http://iconosquare.com/

Tool designed to track and improve your company’s presence on Instagram

IFTTT: https://ifttt.com/Create powerful connections through one statement: If this, then that

Enter a URL and test the webpage load timePingdom: http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/

Looks at different URLs for your homepage and checks your on-page SEO

HTTP header and redirect checker for SEO, flagging any potential errors

Ragepank Redirect Check: http://www.ragepank.com/redirect-check/

Redirect Path: http://bit.ly/11rQSJp

Track URL shares, likes, tweets, etc.

SharedCount: http://www.sharedcount.com/

Sidekick: http://www.getsidekick.com/ Track email campaigns from your inbox by seeing who opens and clicks onyour emails

DIGITAL MARKETING TOOLS & RESOURCESSocialmention: http://www.socialmention.com/

Real-time social media search and analysis of trending topics

Trello: https://trello.com/Organize your projects into boards to show what is currently being workedon and where you are in the process

Dashboard to manage multiple Twitter accounts and follow specific trends

Express your brand’s personality consistently across devices by usingattractive text, images, and borders

TweetDeck: https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/

Typecast: http://responsive.is/

Free SEO toolsVirante: http://www.virante.org/seo-tools

W3C mobileOK Checker: http://validator.w3.org/mobile/ Input your website’s URL and the tool will determine if the site is mobile-friendly

CONTRIBUTE TO MAINSTREETHOST'S BLOG

Head over to http://blog.mainstreethost.com/contribute and fill out the form.

In the “Why do you want to write for Mainstreethost field”, put “Canisius CollegeRequest”.

We’ll handle these requests on a priority basis.

Contribute to a successful, growing digital marketing blog thataverages about 30,000 page views per month and has doubled in

traffic since last year!

Websites we've been featured on: Lifehacker, HubSpot,KISSmetrics, Entrepreneur, SocialMediaToday, and more!

How?

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR A DIGITAL MARKETING CAREER

Stay up-to-date on industry happenings

Become certified! (HubSpot, Google AdWords,Google Analytics)

Write and market content

Network

Signup for Codecademy and practice code

Get active (professionally) on social media

ALWAYS BE LEARNING

ANY QUESTIONS?