What Happened to a Print Shop that Embraced Inbound Marketing Posted on June 1, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Victor Clarke has been the owner of Clarke Inc. for 20-plus years evolving it from strictly a commercial printing firm to an inbound and outbound marketing firm using marketing automation. We recently checked in with him to gain some of his marketing insight. Here’s what he had to say: Can you tell us about how you transitioned your business from a print shop to an inbound/outbound marketing firm? My 20-plus years of experience has taught me that bigger isn’t always better. The latest management fad is just that, a fad. Implement now, perfect later. I always thought that I wanted the big, fancy building as a monument to me along with dozens of employees to keep my monument humming along. I learned I not only managed 25 employees, but also their families and problems, too. I likely managed 100-plus people if you counted all the families involved with the business. The family problems became business problems, which became my problems. Bankruptcy was a distinct possibility if I didn’t change how I did things fast! I spent way too much money investing in the latest management theories and software in an attempt to be perfect. Nobody and no business can be perfect. A few years ago I sold my building and laid off most of the employees, but kept all my customers and brokered out the business. Now I spend more time, and less money, growing my business rather than investing in the latest fads. What were the most important real-world marketing lessons you learned while building your firm? Create an integrated marketing plan. Identify all of the many promotion sources in an integrated marketing plan before you start a campaign and highlight how they can link across media platforms. Consider, for example, how a print ad might direct consumers to enter a contest on your website, helping your website’s performance. Product packaging such as a rewards program also has a role to play in an integrated marketing communications plan. This could take the form of a rewards programs that allow consumers to “earn points” through purchases and taking part in an online community. Move away from transaction-based to relational marketing. Transactional marketing campaigns focus on the sales process for an item. Due to the strong emphasis put on the sale, it can be an overly aggressive hard sell that can put off the consumer. Relational marketing is more effective because it attempts to create a relationship between the customer and the salesperson or business that will build loyalty. An integrated campaign can build loyalty by engaging your database in ways that are not always a hard sell. What were the biggest mistakes that you made early on with your business? What did you learn from them? Forgetting this basic rule of accounting: “Profit is an opinion. Cash is a fact.” Years ago I left the financials to my accountant and rarely looked at my business financials. Now I watch my checkbook and accounts receivable like a hawk. What do you think are the most important skills or tools those in inbound/outbound marketing need to have? Find a true differentiator. Everyone has “quality products and great service” these days. What makes your products and services unique? Do you serve a specific niche? Do you have a different approach to a specific problem or technology? Define what truly separates you from the pack. Offer helpful information without a sales pitch. What do you think are the most overrated skills or tools? I believe the days of “old” selling styles using techniques like “The Puppy Dog Close” and the “Ben Franklin Close” are over. These techniques evolved when the sales person was in control of the information. Now customers are smart enough to see through this and may consider the salesperson an amateur. Today the customer has access to the same information as a salesperson. They can self-educate and will only speak to a salesperson when they have exhausted all self-help information. Today’s sales close is just the end of a process where you help the customer get answers and make an informed decision. How can marketing automation help small business owners? When most small business owners discuss client acquisition they think about hiring a salesperson. I’m willing to bet that 90 percent of sales hires end in failure. It’s not because the salesperson has poor skills or is lazy. It’s because most salespeople are awesome at objection handling and closing skills but stink at prospecting. To acquire new customers a business needs a constant stream of qualified leads. To grow your business don’t hire more people. Invest in marketing automation. And hire a great website designer to create a website that will attract, nurture and delight prospects driven to your site by automation. Prospects will qualify themselves as hot or cold leads to pass along to your awesome sales staff. How can businesses use marketing automation most effectively? 1. Provide Helpful Content Provide marketing content that helps the buyer by focusing on their areas of interest, rather than your background or how great you think your company is. Initially, their interest will be to solve a small problem, something they don’t need to hire your company to solve. But when your content gives them a viable solution, and they apply it, they start to see your company as a resource. This positions your business as top-of-preference and not just top-of-mind when your services or products are truly needed. 2. Tailor Your Information to the Stages of the Buyer’s Journey It’s important to give the prospective buyer the correct type of information relative to their position in the funnel. For example, a prospect might still be trying to figure out how big or important their problem or challenge is. They aren’t going to make any buying decisions until they know the scope of the situation and have some criteria in place for making a choice. Trying to sell anything to a person at this stage is a complete waste of time, and they won’t appreciate the pressure. A piece of marketing content such as a checklist or a simple diagnostic tool can help them walk through the issue in a thorough manner so they understand what they are really up against. Then they are ready to enter the decision-making phase of their buying journey armed with the information needed to make value-based choices. And guess what, when that information was sourced from your website, it makes your company look like a really good option. 3. Get Up Close and Personal You should do everything possible to ensure your prospect’s experience with your company is a positive one. Do this by making your marketing personal. Personal means that emails come from real people in your company, not just the “info” email address. It can also mean they are connected on social media to people in your company, not just be following the company page. Most importantly, it means your help-based marketing content really addresses their needs and it’s delivered in a timely manner. This shows your business puts the prospect’s interests ahead of its own. 4. Use a Range of Media to Retarget As many as 90 percent of visitors to a website never convert to sales or clients. Most of them won’t return. If you retarget through advertising on a wide range of mediums you will be more visible and it may help entice visitors back to your site. Retargeting allows you to bring traffic back and convert it later on. Offer helpful content they can subscribe to or download when they complete a form. Then email them to come back to get more helpful information. You can see how this easily translates into the design of a marketing funnel supported by a drip email marketing campaign. If potential leads also see you on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ you may end up in their subconscious thoughts. Link posts on social media back to your website, ideally a landing page that will channel them down the next step of your funnel – for example, an ebook, promotion, trial or a purchase. What trends, headlines or innovations in inbound/outbound marketing are you most excited about or interested in right now? Why? Outbound products no longer exist to be the sole source of information for buyers, despite the fact that’s what we have done since 1439 AD. Don’t forget that print cannot possibly compete with nearly free and virtually unlimited digital storage space. Your outbound marketing exists to create awareness of your company. It exists to drive prospects to your website to capture them in your marketing automation system. It exists to act like your inbound marketing, but better. Why better? Have you noticed how many email messages fill your inbox every day? Have you noticed how many direct mail pieces you receive every day? If your email inbox and USPS mailbox are like mine it’s like a 50:1 ratio of emails to direct mail. Start using direct mail again because nobody else is. Your marketing is going to be noticed because there is a lot less competition for your attention. Start mailing printed newsletters with links or prompts to your website and blog. Create rack cards and flyers and banners that invite prospects to learn more by using QR Codes which make it easy to access your digital sites. Ah, the much abused and maligned QR Code! Used properly these things are gold. Don’t take your customers to a static home page when they scan it. Take them to a landing page to sign up for your blog, webinar, eBook, etc. and let marketing automation take over from there. Want to learn more about inbound marketing? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
Simple Tips to Make the Most of Inbound Marketing Posted on January 19, 2016May 27, 2016 by Nicci Troiani In the fast-paced and competitive small business environment, every second counts. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs spend way too much time worrying about ineffective marketing schemes instead of focusing on day-to-day business concerns. With an effective inbound marketing strategy, you can let prospective clients and customers come to you, instead of spending all of your time attempting to attract the attention of uninterested parties. If implemented incorrectly, inbound marketing can be every bit as inefficient as other marketing approaches; however, with a carefully-crafted strategy, it is possible to expedite the process and significantly grow your customer base — all with minimal effort. The following simple inbound marketing tips will make business generation easier than you ever imagined. Optimize Your Site Inbound marketing is all about search engine optimization, which is used to improve a site’s ranking on Google and other prominent search engines. The higher your site lands on Google’s front page, the more visitors it will attract. Carefully-researched keywords should be used in your site’s URL, in any content featured on the page, and in image names. Avoid the temptation to stuff your page with keywords; this could actually harm your search engine ranking. Instead, create relevant content that solves a problem for your ideal customer. Help Prospects Convert Your website is more than just an attractive brochure – it’s a handshake with new visitors that helps you to begin the sales conversation. As SEO drives traffic to your site, you should be able to capture qualified prospects with forms. Helpful resources can connect you with top-of-the-funnel leads, while a sales form can capture prospects who are interested now. Small businesses don’t need a super fancy website. Instead, focus on building a clean website that is simple to navigate and has a main objective of connecting with your ideal customer. Harness the Power of Social Media Inbound marketing efforts should not end with your company’s website. In today’s connected world, businesses can benefit from a presence on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Depending on where your ideal customer hangs out online,, your business could also benefit from maintaining an active Instagram or Pinterest account; however, the pursuit of a social media presence need not hog all of your time and resources. A strong presence on a select group of networks will allow you to better connect with existing clients and customers while also attracting the attention of new consumers. Publish Testimonials and Reviews If you’ve managed to build up a small, but very enthusiastic customer base, consider asking these satisfied individuals for feedback. They will be all too happy to have their input featured on your website or social media pages. A few favorable testimonials can go a long way toward establishing confidence among those unfamiliar with your brand. Nurture New Leads As you connect with visitors coming to your website through SEO, social media and other channels, you can keep the conversation going through email nurturing. Not everyone is ready to enter thesales process today, but they will be down the road. With email campaigns, you can automatically stay in touch with prospects to become a trusted resource, and eventually their first choice when they are ready to buy. Track Metrics Inbound marketing often involves some element of trial and error, as it is impossible to know exactly what works until you test it. Once these initial steps have been achieved, it is important to keep an eye on website analytics, which will tell you how visitors find your website, how long they stay there, and whether their browsing sessions result in conversions. You can also track lead source in your CRM to report on which channels are actually converting into customers. The best inbound marketing strategy is simple and straightforward. A good website and strong social media presence will help you to attract new leads. Email nurturing continues the conversation, turning more of your leads into customers, and tracking metrics ensures you’re focusing on the right inbound strategies for your business. When customers come to you through inbound marketing, you can avoid time-consuming marketing initiatives and instead focus on the activities that matter most to you.
Four Things You Didn’t Know About Marketing Automation Posted on October 27, 2015June 18, 2018 by Jessica Lunk Running a small business requires being ultra resourceful when it comes to managing your time and your budget. We know you’ve got limited bandwidth, but we also know that neglected leads result in a dry profit pool down the road. No worries – marketing automation is here to help. Here are four important things you might not realize about marketing automation and how it can boost productivity for your small business. 1. ROI May Take Time – But, Your Patience will be Rewarded! Focus Research found that 75% of companies using marketing automation see ROI within 12 months and see positive results even sooner. This is both a very quick and very slow period of time to wait to see your investment bring about profit. Too often, when a new tool is implemented, companies are impatient to see immediate results. It is important to realize that the ROI is measurable and real, but it may take time to create the kind of impact that moves your audience towards purchase decisions. In the long run, this is a short-term investment that will pay out in a great way for the company if implemented correctly. 2. Your Leads are Segmented While 61% of B2B marketers send all of their leads straight to sales, only 27% were found to be qualified, according to MarketingSherpa. This is why it is so important to analyze the position of leads and then nurture them accordingly. Yet, gathering the right data to sort and segment leads would require exorbitant amounts of time and energy from your marketing team that they just don’t have. Instead, marketing automation systems gather information and do all the sorting for you, putting your leads in the right buckets. And once you’re leads are segmented, you’re on your way to nurturing them with personalized content to achieve a 20% higher level of sales, according to a report by DemandGen. 3. Your Leads are Nurtured Marketing automation tracks your leads’ activity and determines their sales potential every step of the way. With leads properly segmented, you can meet each lead where they are in the sales funnel and take the right steps to direct them toward conversion. Marketing automation software automatically nurtures your leads by sending them personalized content they value, instead of slamming them with sales tactics and generic taglines. This lead nurturing approach is exactly why most companies see excellent results within several months of implementing their system. 4. Your Costs are Lowered When companies implement a nurturing strategy and automate mundane processes, they save money. Employees don’t have to do the mindless work of sorting through lead behavior, they can focus on answering questions and cultivating relationships. Allowing the work to be done automatically means a faster and more efficient process for everyone. Forrester Research found companies that excelled at marketing automation were able to generate 50% more leads ready for sales at a 33% lower cost. When a software system can do the busywork, your employees are freed up to work on tougher tasks that have a bigger impact on your business. Are you ready to move towards solid and sustainable growth? Marketing automation is an important next step. Get on board now and ride the wave of marketing automation’s newest trends for successful brands.
Marketing: Connecting People & Ideas Posted on December 3, 2014 by Travis Arnold A Guest Post by Eric McCarty of ITD Interactive Let’s whittle “marketing” down to its lowest common denominator. What is this marketing business about, at its core? Every marketing endeavor, regardless of which form it takes, is about connecting people and ideas. You have a product or service that makes another person’s life better. That is, in its purest form, an idea. In marketing, you need to plant that idea, that knowledge of a potentially improved life, into the mind of your prospect. How Thoughts Became Chicken Sandwiches The first best-selling “self help” book ever published (over 10 million copies) – Think And Grow Rich – had this message at its core: thoughts are things. They are real. Though you cannot touch them or hold them, they are capable of changing people’s lives and producing things that you can touch and hold. Ever enjoyed a Chic-Fil-A sandwich? You can thank, in part, Andrew Carnegie, the steel industry magnate who commissioned Napoleon Hill to interview the world’s leaders and write Think And Grow Rich. Truett Cathy read the book and said it influenced him to help build Chic-Fil-A. Carnegie’s thoughts influenced Hill’s thoughts which gave Cathy ideas and, voila, you enjoy a chicken sandwich. Thoughts turned into things. Notice that there were real people involved in this process. Truett Cathy read the book because of the people who were interviewed for it and because Carnegie commissioned it. He had trust in those names. Names Names Names Trust in people goes a long way in connecting people and ideas. That’s why you have names like Richard Petty and Johnny Bench endorsing Blue Emu (one of our clients). Blue Emu knows that people trust Richard and Johnny. They want to plant the idea of soothed sore muscles (without the stink) into your mind because you trust Richard and Johnny. Blue Emu is connecting people and ideas and turning thoughts into things. There’s something mysterious about names. Another famous Carnegie (Dale) wrote about the importance of names in How To Win Friends And Influence People. “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Have you ever noticed how you can skim a page of text and find your name instantly out of all the other characters on the screen? It’s your own name. It’s magical. It’s important because you are important. The most successful small-town newspaper publisher, Hoover Adams of the Dunn Daily Record in North Carolina, had a mantra of “names, names, names”. He told his reporters he would print the phone book if he could, just to get more local names in his paper. That principle guided the decisions of his editors and reporters and created incredible success. Think about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. A major component of the success of that campaign was the use of names. In each video, the participant mentions three names. “I challenge Jessica Lunk, Erin Posey, and Lindsey Stroud.” If your name is used it gets your attention. Pete Frates, who started that campaign, understood the importance of names. That’s great, you say, but how can I use this knowledge to make my business better? I don’t know any celebrities who would want to endorse my ideas, products, or services, so what’s the point? Why Does It Matter To Me? Remembering that thoughts are things and that names are important can open doors you didn’t think you could open. I can prove it. We just published an infographic called Marketing Blog Writing Styles that got shared by six top marketing bloggers – David Meerman Scott, John Jantsch, Pat Flynn, Derek Halpern, Marcus Sheridan, and Spencer Haws. And only one of them had ever heard of us. Those were names that our prospects trust and we got a lot of traffic from it. How did we do it? We connected their names and ideas. The idea was to take information that is already out there, connect names to it, and turn it into actionable content. It’s about connecting people and ideas. I wondered if it was a trend to break paragraphs up often. I see that a lot of top marketing bloggers hit the enter key quite frequently. That is something that could be measured with real numbers and it was just sitting there, waiting to be analyzed. With a few simple tools, I was able to compare sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, words per post, and characters per word of 12 big-name bloggers in our industry and track their style changes over a 3-year period. Why is that important? Because these folks are successful and we would do well to see how they do things. One of the big takeaways is that nearly all of these guys use short paragraphs. The median was less than two sentences per paragraph. Is that actionable information? Yep. You may have noticed I’m averaging close to two sentences per paragraph in this post. I now think about it consciously. The median word count per post is nearly 1,000. Is that actionable information? Yep. This post is over 1200 words. “Epic” posts (1,000 words or more) tend to get more trust and shares. Let’s do epic posts. So I had names and ideas but how would I connect them to get lots of exposure? I knew two things. These guys would be interested in their own stats. They write for a living (partially) and probably have no idea how many words per sentence and sentences per paragraph they average. If I were them, I would be interested in that data. (Nearly all of them who tweeted the infographic used the word “interesting” in their tweets.) These guys would be interested to see where they stood in comparison to other folks they respect and admire. If my name was mentioned in connection with some other top bloggers, I would want to share it because it puts me in their league. We intentionally used some with huge followings and some with moderate followings. The guys with moderate followings would really like being included! (All of them are worth following, in my opinion.) With an infographic we had the opportunity to use not only names but faces and we didn’t have to ask them for their profile pictures. Those are public. Here’s what it looked like: Next we had to figure out how to let these guys know that we included them in our infographic and hope they would spread it around. Then, if it’s worthwhile, their followers would spread it further. We took the time to find out where these guys interact online and connect with them in that arena. Some specifically said email on their website, some said twitter, some didn’t say but we saw that they responded to blog comments or tweets. So we went wherever they hang out and dropped a note. The result was six of the twelve made tweets to their combined 300,000 twitter followers. And their followers tweeted as well. Connect People & Ideas Notice that I’ve included the names of 17 real people in this post. Hopefully that made it more interesting, more real, and built trust in the ideas I’m trying to convey. Understanding the mysterious power at the intersection of people and ideas can change your business and make the world a better place. Marketing is connecting people and ideas. Connect your ideas with people and think your way to success. About the Author Eric McCarty is Marketing Director for ITD Interactive. He has launched several online businesses and participated in and judged at several Start-Up Weekends. A proud husband and father, he enjoys reading, running, and learning.
Modern Marketing is Inbound Marketing Posted on June 2, 2014June 24, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Maybe you have tried outbound marketing methods such as cold calling, direct mail or advertising to reach prospective customers and haven’t seen the results you would like. While these outbound methods have their place, they are becoming less effective as a stand-alone strategy. Outbound marketing methods used to work. Consumers had fewer choices of what they could purchase and how they could purchase it. They couldn’t go to Amazon to buy organic toothpaste in bulk. Instead they were restricted to the choices at the corner store. In traditional scenarios, marketers drove the conversation. They controlled the market, the message, and the channels. But things have changed… Today, consumers are driving the conversation and have a plethora of options when it comes to buying products and services. There are infinite channels through which we get information. We are no longer limited to traditional media, like television, print ads and radio. Because of the explosion of channels, it’s more and more difficult for marketers to interject their message without getting tuned out. Voltier Digital recently reported that, on average: 86% of people skip through television commercials 44% of direct mail is never opened 200 million Americans have registered their phone numbers on the FTC’s “Do Not Call List” Why? First, people don’t want to be interrupted in the middle of their busy day with pushy sales and marketing tactics from a business they don’t know or trust. Secondly, the growth of the internet has changed the game, forever. Did you know that 9 out of 10 people research online prior to making any significant buying decision? In their research they will visit your website, your competitor’s site, industry portals, social media and online review sites. People want to buy; they don’t want to be sold. So with all the static and noise your prospects hear every day and their ability to tune you out so easily, what is a busy small business like you to do? It’s time to turn up the dial on Inbound Marketing. Inbound marketing or “Permission Marketing”, as best-selling author and marketing guru Seth Godin has coined, has quickly become one of the most effective ways for small business to drive new business. Inbound marketing is based on attracting prospective customers to your website by having a strong presence on search engines (like Google), your blog, and social media. Inbound marketing is about making it easy for prospective customers to find you online and the value your products or services offer them. Contrast this to outbound marketing, which is about pushing your products and services to a mass audience and interrupting them to sell them. The Bottom Line: Modern marketing is all about attracting new and repeat customers through inbound channels. Inbound leads are often more qualified and the most inexpensive cost per lead because they found you based on their own research and buying path. In fact, inbound marketing costs on average 62% less than traditional outbound marketing (Source: Voltier Digital Infographic). So what are the next steps to generating leads through inbound marketing? Check out our guide, “Getting Found: The Small Business Guide to Online Marketing” to learn how to use your website, blog and social media to attract more customers.
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing Posted on December 4, 2013June 24, 2016 by Lindsey Stroud Often when meeting with clients, I am asked the question “What exactly is inbound marketing?” There tends to be confusion surrounding inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing. I’ve searched high and low to find a comprehensive infographic to explain the key differences between each! To recap some common differences: Inbound Marketing focuses on getting found by people searching for what you offer while Outbound Marketing focuses on pushing the message out to people Inbound Marketing typically uses Search Engines, Blogging, Social Media, and Opted In Email Lists to drive sales, while Outbound Marketing focuses on Advertising, Trade Shows, Direct Mail, and Cold Calling to drive sales Inbound Marketing is cost effective, while Outbound Marketing can be costly
How a Small Business Can Make Every Day “Small Business Saturday” Posted on November 16, 2012 by Lindsey Stroud If you haven’t yet heard, Saturday November 24 is “Small Business Saturday,” a day American Express started a few years back with the hope that consumers would “shop small” the Saturday of the busiest shopping weekend of the year. The day has since then taken off – attracting positive publicity and adding eager participants each year. In an effort to help small businesses better market themselves, American Express even provides the essential marketing material needed to be successful for the day. From store-front signage to social media templates, small businesses can quickly gain access to marketing resources that they otherwise might not have had access to. How does this apply to your small business? Well, we want to share 3 marketing strategies you can adopt from “Small Business Saturday” so that every day you are converting consumers to long-term customers. 1) Use Social Media to your Advantage: Social Media is easily one of the most cost efficient and effective marketing tools of our time. Click here to check out this really informative info graphic regarding the 2012 Social Media Statistics from Digital Buzz. http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/social-media-statistics-stats-2012-infographic/. As a small business, you’re in a great position to build relationships through interaction, educate your followers with useful information, and provide great customer service responses. 2) Create a Cohesive Brand Identity: If you take a closer look into the marketing material American Express provides small businesses, you will notice a consistence image throughout. You can apply this same concept to your business. Nothing is more confusing than a business without a clear focus. From your distinct business personality to the colors in your logo, everything should be cohesive and make sense. If you want your brand to convey the story you want to tell and make sense to those you are telling it to, you need to develop (and stick) to a clear identity. 3) Educate through Email: Email is not only a great way to follow-up with your leads and customers, but it is also a great avenue for educational marketing. When you are communicating through email, have a clear objective in mind and also make sure to provide some form of value to the person on the receiving end. If you are corresponding through email on a regular basis, make sure to throw in some return for your subscribers– rather it be a piece of useful information they didn’t previously have or some form of coupon/reward/special offer. Go forth Small Business Saturday, every Saturday, and essentially every day with the objective to better your marketing strategy and drive more long-term customer loyalty!