INBOUNDMARKETING. For Beginners. Everything you need to know to get started.

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For Beginners

Everything you need to know to get started.

INBOUNDMARKETING

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Bill is a Certified 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.

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InboundMarketingAgents.com

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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

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What is Inbound Marketing?

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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

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Outbound Marketing consists of:

TV Commercials Direct Mail Billboard Advertising Trade Shows

Direct Mail Banner Advertising Print Media Non-measureable ROI

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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 efforts on outbound marketing and 10% on inbound marketing, and I advocate that those

ratios flip.

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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

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Why Inbound Marketing?

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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

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86% 46% 44%

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN, AUGUST 2011, TSEA.ORG, MARCH 2009, & EPA.GOV, NOV 2010

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82% of consumers search the Internet prior to purchasing a product or service

COST: Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing

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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 to outbound, while large companies are allocating 33% in 2012

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Inbound marketing channels cost less than any outbound channel.

State of Inbound Marketing, Hubspot, March 2012

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Inbound marketing tactics don’t just generate leads. They generate revenue.

State of Inbound Marketing, Hubspot, March 2012

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^Required^Resources

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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 each month?

How many leads do your currently generate per 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.

Inbound marketing is changing the way traditional marketing departments 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.

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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, building buyer personas, managing your SEO, measuring success and failures via analytics, and optimizing landing pages.

The components above do not include social media, email marketing, lead scoring, press releases, creating video content, and building new web pages.

You don’t have to start with all of these components, but it is important to

understand that you need a person or a team that can perform all of these tasks on a regular basis.

Most small businesses can’t afford a full fledge marketing department, but it is still critical that you have at least one member of your team that is dedicated to your inbound marketing strategy.

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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 you need to identify what your 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.

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4. BUILDING YOUR CUSTOMER PERSONAS

Many small businesses don’t know exactly whom they are selling too. You will want to know exactly whom you’re trying to sell to based on demographic

information. By defining these personas, you identify potential markets and will know exactly what you need to do to sell to them.

You will market differently to a 50-year-old male executive than you will to a 25-year-old female just out of college. By having developed your personas you won’t waste valuable time and money sending the same marketing messages to each persona unsuccessfully.

5. BRAND

What is your company all about? What are your goals? What is the company culture?

Your company brand is much bigger than your logo and your color scheme.

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Everyone within your company to be able to implement an effective inbound marketing strategy, as you will be communicating your culture, tone, and

commitment via your content, must share your company goals and identity.

Identifying your company brand is one of the first steps that should be taken before implementing your new inbound strategy.

Everyone within your company to be able to implement an effective inbound marketing strategy, as you will be communicating your culture, tone, and commitment via your content, must share your company goals and identity.

Identifying your company brand is one of the first steps that should be taken before implementing your new

inbound strategy.

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^SoftwareRequirements

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Your software needs will be determined by your

budget and the goals you have set forth previously.

Keep in mind that your budget needs to be inline with the goals that you have set and the software your choose will play a big role in the 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.

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1. INBOUND MARKETING SOFTWARE

There is a big difference between inbound marketing software and Google 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 that this software has to offer as the best in the industry.

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2. TASK MANAGEMENT/TIME TRACKING SOFTWARE

Time tracking and task management software is a component that most beginners neglect to implement, yet it is crucial to effectively manage your time and projects.

Blogging is a prime example that requires time tracking. A 400-600 word blog article should be written in one hour or less, but it will take a beginner much longer in the early stages. You need to track your time so you can become more efficient and identify the components that slow you down.

Inbound Marketing Agents uses TeamworkPM to manage all of our internal projects and time tracking for each project.

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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 to manage our sales funnel and customer lifecycle, which enables us to further customize our marketing and track our ROI.

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4. FREEWARE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

If you don’t have the budget for all of the software listed above that is ok.

What you need to start with is a manageable platform to host your website on like Wordpress.com. Wordpress will allow you to make in-house changes to your content and add a blog to your website for free or you can purchase a nice template for typically less than $200.00.

Wordpress is also compatible with hundreds of widgets that will allow you to integrate landing pages, forms, social media sharing, and much more. We recommend that you consult an inbound marketing agency prior to making any

changes, as there are many options to choose from. ²⁶

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Getting Found

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How to Drive More Traffic to Your Site

Getting found is the first goal that must be accomplished within your inbound marketing plan. Website traffic is what converts into leads, and then customers.

Remember, if Google can’t find you, neither can your customers.

Increasing traffic is a difficult and time-consuming process that doesn’t happen overnight. If some “Marketing Guru or Ninja” tells you they can double your traffic in a month you probably want to hang up the phone.

It doesn’t happen. To properly and safely increase your website

visitors, you will need to implement multiple marketing channels that are beneficial to gaining visibility.

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1. BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS

Blog. Blog. Blog. We have heard this mantra for the last few years, but do you believe in it? If you don’t, you better start because blogging is the cornerstone for inbound marketing and the single channels that creates content to be

distributed via social channels, bookmarking sites, press releases, and most importantly Google loves it if done correctly.

Selecting the right platform is critical. This is why we use the HubSpot platform as it is pre-configured for on-page SEO, subscriptions, scheduling, and analytics that takes a lot of the hassle out of blogging.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Many non-marketers think that social media is just about Facebook and seeing the picture of what

your friends had for dinner.

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3. VIDEO MARKETING

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet behind Google and people love to watch video. It is very important to communicate your message in a quick, and succinct message that is visually appealing for your customers to connect with.

Generating visual content for your business will attract leads and customers while increasing your visitor’s time on your site which Google loves and is easier to create than writing a full-length blog article.

We are here to tell you as a business owner that if you feel the same way you are missing the boat.

Social media is one of the most crucial elements to increase your following,

brand, and traffic to your site. Social media also provides you the opportunity to engage in dialogue with your followers, visitors, and fans, which can be used to migrate them through your sales funnel via social nurturing.

3. VIDEO MARKETING

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet behind Google and people love to watch video. It is very important to communicate your message in a quick, and succinct message that is visually appealing for your customers to connect with.

Generating visual content for your business will attract leads and customers while increasing your visitor’s time on your site which Google loves and is easier to create than writing a full-length blog article.

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4. PRESS RELEASES

How do your currently get your message out to large numbers of potential customers nationwide or globally?

A press release is a powerful way to get your message out to the masses and if done right, you can also benefit your SEO and generate immediate leads for under $200.

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^Lead^Generation

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Lead

Generation

Now that you have targeted traffic visiting your site on a daily basis it is time to start converting your site traffic to qualified leads. To convert visitors to leads you must have compelling Calls to Action, Offers, and Landing Pages.

1. PREMIUM OFFERS

No, we aren’t talking about deep discounts or coupons.

We are referring to offers that appeal to your potential customers. Compelling content like free white papers, videos, eBooks, and webinars can dramatically increase your lead generation and build your trust and authority as an industry thought leader.

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2. CALL TO ACTION

Now that you have a premium offer ready to go, you must create a compelling Call to Action that will entice your visitors to click on and get them to your

landing page.

Use graphical and appealing call to action that your visitors can easily

identify and connect with to get them to click through to your landing pages.

3. LANDING PAGES

Your compelling CTA has driven a visitor to your landing page, now you have to entice the visitor to give up their contact data to download the premium offer.

Using attractive graphics on your landing pages is very important to increase conversion rates as well as testing your forms to qualify your leads.

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Converting Leads to Customers

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Once you’re generating leads, you now need to make the sale!

By using proven methods such as lead generation and

email marketing, you can effectively push your leads down the sales funnel and more towards using your company for your product or solution.

This is the process in which your marketing team hands things over to the sales team, and the sales are made. By having steady communication between marketing and sales, you can implement your buyer personas in order to convert more of your leads into sales.

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1. LEAD MANAGEMENT

An effective lead generation strategy is one with clear goals and objectives.

The idea isn’t to generate leads and forget about them. Instead you want to focus on pushing your lead further down the sales funnel in order to further qualify them as sales ready.

Once a visitor converts into a top-of-the-funnel lead, you’ll want to engage in a lead nurturing campaign that aims to work them further down the sales process. Using email marketing best practices, you’ll be able to more effectively reach and market to these leads.

2. LEAD INTELLIGENCE

How well do you know your stats?

One of the key characteristics of an effective inbound marketing campaign is the ability to measuring everything. Mastering your lead intelligence will give you greater insight into how to execute your marketing.

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Where did your leads come from? What offers did they download? What pages and blog articles are they

viewing?

By knowing this information, you’ll be able to more effectively market to them to help nurture them further down the sales funnel.

3. LEAD NURTURING

Lead Nurturing is an extremely necessary process in which you take your leads and send them user-specific content that converts them into sales. Using your inbound marketing software, you can analyze the process in which users became leads, and use this information to send them content that is specific to them.

You can create a campaign suited to their specific characteristics, making them more likely to use your company’s solution. Lead nurturing campaigns can drastically increase your lead-customer conversion rates, and create more business for your company.

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3. EMAIL MARKETING

Your leads love getting interesting content!

So keep sending it to them!

The more content that you send your leads that you know they want to read, the more likely they will come to you when it’s time to buy.

Email marketing is critical to any marketing program, but using email marketing that is integrated with an inbound marketing program allows you to take

advantage of technology and trends to help you get far more value out of your lists of prospects, leads and customers.

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Measuring Results

You can do everything in your inbound marketing perfectly, a powerful SEO strategy, Social Media, Visual Content, Email Marketing, and have great landing pages, but how do you know if it’s

working? You need to track your results!

Your inbound marketing software has analytics that allow you to track how much traffic is going to your site, how much traffic is being converted into leads, how many customers you’re gaining, and much, much, more.

With all this data, you can easily make educated decisions for the future of your campaign, and run a fully optimized inbound marketing campaign.

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1. MARKETING ANALYTICS

By using HubSpot, you can track the results of everything on your website,

including traffic, leads, lead conversions, click through rates, and more. Anything that’s measurable about your website’s marketing progress can be found using the tracking software. You can use this information to make educated decisions on the campaign to further the success even more.

2. A/B TESTING

A/B Testing is a great way to improve your marketing campaign, as it tells you what is performing better throughout various aspects of your website.

Between landing pages, calls-to-action, and emails, A/B testing allows you to make educated decisions regarding different pieces of your site.

By utilizing HubSpot, you can perform many A/B tests to compare parts of your site and see which performs better, and what needs improving. Comparing

things like which calls-to-action perform better, what offer produces more leads, and which landing page is working better, can give you valuable information on the effectiveness of your site.

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3. MARKETING ANALYTICS

Closed-Loop Reporting is one of today’s most essential tools for the inbound marketer.

One of the most important tasks in today’s inbound marketing world is to close the gap between sales and marketing, and closed-loop reporting does just

exactly that.

You can see where each and every lead comes from, what offer they’ve downloaded, and where in the sales funnel they are. Then you can use this

information to send them targeted content relevant to them and increase your chances of making a sale.

By using HubSpot, you can utilize closed-loop reporting to custom-make a lead nurturing campaign that is sure to increase sales and revenue. Developing buyer personas is critical; as by knowing what kind of content your leads prefer, you can effectively push them down the sales funnel more quickly and efficiently.

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4. AUTOMATED REPORTS

By using HubSpot, you’ll get weekly and monthly reports emailed to you

regarding all of the analytical information regarding your traffic and leads you could ever want.

Included in the report will be a breakdown of your traffic and leads, a content summary and an SEO summary that will give you a good idea of what’s

performing well and what needs work.

That’s great, but how do you

expect me to do this on my own?

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Inbound Marketing Agents is a full service inbound marketing agency that specializes in all services

listed in this eBook. Talk to an expert today!

If you learned something valuable, please share using the links below.

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