Want more views, clickthroughs, shares, and overall engagement on your social media posts? You're not alone. According to the 2014 State of Inbound Marketing, 84% of marketers cited organic, top-of-the-funnel sources like social media, blogs, and search engines as rising in importance in 2014.
Posting visual content is one of the most important things you can do to improve your social media strategy.
Patrick Janelle has a dream job.
That's the first thing I thought to myself when I heard him tell the audience at Social Media Week NYC that he is a full-time Instagrammer.
Yup, that's right: Thanks to an extensive background in graphic design and a very high follower count, Patrick's full-time job is to do cool things and go to cool places, take beautiful pictures of his experiences, and post them to his personal Instagram account, @aguynamedpatrick.
“We’re in dire need of some SEO help,” said the owner of a small, successful business located in central Texas. “I can’t put my finger on what’s wrong, but something’s clearly amiss. No one’s reading or sharing the content on our blog, and the information we share on social media just sits there.”
It’s impossible to work in marketing without hearing grievances like this one over and over.
Being humble keeps you hungry.
– Christine Tsai, Founding Partner, 500 Startups (Click to Tweet)
Venture capitalists aren’t often known for their humility, but Christine Tsai represents a notable exception to the rule. A founding partner at 500 Startups and former Googler and YouTube leader, Christine is the embodiment of someone who brought growth to life as both an investor and an operator.
At first, creating buyer personas seems simple. They're just semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers, after all.
But when you actually get into the nitty-gritty of creating them, it's easy to get tripped up. One of the biggest challenges you are likely to encounter revolves around actually gathering the information you need to construct your personas.
I've always been in awe of growth hacking. Although I see a lot of different definitions surrounding this buzzword, I like growth hacker Aaron Ginn’s summation the best:
A growth hacker is someone whose passion and focus is pushing a metric through use of a testable and scalable methodology.
One reason I like this definition is because it hints at the how much entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals can learn from the depth of understanding growth hackers have about how companies grow -- and their ability to draw connections between how a company is performing, and the actions needed to lead to healthy, rapid growth that improve performance and set a company up for success.
This post originally appeared on Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.
People don't always come out and say what they really mean. Often, managers have to decipher how a department is really doing by studying the numbers, observing behavior, and paying close attention to the words their employees use.
This post originally appeared on the Sales section of Inbound Hub. To read more content like this, subscribe to Sales.
There are several levers sales leaders can pull to boost their teams' productivity. The tricky part is knowing which to prioritize. Should they double down on rep training? Implement new technology? Or would the organization benefit most from a compensation plan shake-up?
For ecommerce companies, shipping options have a big impact on conversion rates. In fact, 93% of online shoppers say that free shipping would encourage them to make more purchases online. And beyond conversion rates, shipping options can also be a lever to increase average purchase value and increase the lifetime value of your customers.
Marketers are constantly trying to grab the attention of their audience in new and innovative ways. This feat is made more and more challenging by the influx of data and data-related searches on the internet.
Let's play a little game of "Did You Know?" with the help of research from the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Since coming into existence in 2010, Instagram has given brands the opportunity to engage with their audience and tell their story through the power of visuals. The Facebook-owned app was one of the fastest growing major social networks in 2014, and is now home to more than 300 million accounts.
Brands with both a physical and digital presence make almost 30% more in revenue. Consumers report a higher level of satisfaction with brands that have both a brick-and-mortar and online store, according to a recent study. Legacy brands who once hailed shopping malls as their “mecca” are now having to close shop, and once-startup, online-only brands, including Warby Parker and Birchbox, are moving in and opening their doors.
The program began as it always did -- with a spritely, “Welcome to INBOUND Radio on SiriusXM channel 125.” Host Mike Volpe went on to introduce the day’s guests. First up was a prominent Stanford medical researcher, who’d made a breakthrough in Parkinson’s treatment thanks to the millions of iPhone and Apple Watch users who volunteered to have their health monitored through their mobile devices. “Giving away your health data is about as inbound as it gets,” observed Volpe when he wrapped up the interview from HubSpot’s brand new Cambridge recording studio.
This post originally appeared on Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.
You didn’t get into this business to spend your days arguing. Conflict resolution was certainly not in your job description when you started out as a designer, account manager, or copywriter. Instead, you daydream about quiet days agonizing over creative -- not being on stage in a courtroom.
But the reality is that you have to lead the charge for your agency, and that sometimes requires you to deal with hard-bargaining clients who want more work at less money.
If you’re a child care owner, director, or start-up who’s tired of struggling to find new ways to fill the enrollment for your daycare, then inbound marketing might be the golden ticket you’ve been looking for.
In this article, you will learn what stages a parent goes through when selecting a new child care facility and discover fresh marketing techniques proven to help you boost enrollment immediately with inbound marketing.
You all know The Old Spice Guy, right? The years-old "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign was memorable for many reasons, but one of them was that it gave Old Spice a voice. A voice that came through in every video, commercial, tagline, Facebook update, tweet -- you name it.
And do you know who is behind all of that marketing collateral?
You’ve read all the books, you’ve listened to all the top influencer podcasts, and you’ve analyzed case study upon case study. You’re sold and ready to start implementing an inbound strategy for your higher education institution. Now comes the tough part, selling your colleagues on the value.
When Val Fox, a director in Bentley University's marketing and communication department, wanted to implement Hubspot for their PreparedU program, one of the first things she had to do was “sell people internally” on the idea.
As a marketer, every day I hear something new. People are always trying to come up with the next big slogan or rhyme scheme. Due to the rigors of client demands and the drudgery of approval processes, when marketers are actually allowed to unleash their creativity on their colleagues and competitors, some pretty unusual terms get invented.
Understanding psychology is a crucial part of being a successful marketer. What I’ve discovered is that the most powerful advances in content marketing don’t come from “hacks,” “tricks,” or “techniques,” but from science-backed psychology.
One of the most powerful and interesting areas of psychology deals with excitement. How can content marketers get people more excited?
The first 100 days at a new company or in a new role are critical for your future success. To demonstrate your effectiveness and make your boss happy that they hired you, you should aim to achieve wins early and often. These wins could be as simple as showing your team that you are a curious, lifelong learner or as complicated as leading a team to hit aggressive goals.
To help you figure out make a splash at your new job, you should check out our new ebook: The First 100 Days: How to Succeed in Your New Marketing Job.
As savvy marketers, it's easy for us to get excited about implementing an inbound marketing strategy or writing our next blog post -- we know that the content we're creating will attract and generate qualified leads that will turn into customers.
And to fully implement our plan, we'll usually need to gain buy-in from other company stakeholders. Often, this will happen in our quarterly budget meeting.
Some things you think will be simple actually end up getting really complex.
Like those DIY fro-yo places. You walk in thinking you'll just get a scoop of a single flavor and a spoonful of your favorite topping ... but you always walk out with a full bowl and at least three toppings -- because how could you get Oreo crunch without getting gummy bears, too?
Or, ya know, your Google Calendar.
Even if you don't know Rand Fishkin by name, you probably have heard about some of the organizations he's co-founded (Moz, Inbound.org) or seen his Whiteboard Friday lectures. Or maybe you've heard of the acronym "TAGFEE," one he and Moz cohorts created to explain their code of conduct: Transparent, Authentic, Generous, Fun, Empathetic, and Exceptional.
Recently, Rand hosted an Ask Me Anything session on Inbound.org, and it was like a Whiteboard Friday on steroids.
Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or just interested in the startup world, you've probably heard of the reality TV show Shark Tank.
For those of you who need a refresher, here's the premise: Each episode features four promising entrepreneurs from all walks of life who pitch their various businesses to a panel of five, cutthroat "sharks" -- self-made multimillionaire and billionaire investors.
This post originally appeared on Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.
The beauty industry was built by women and men from modest backgrounds. They were door-to-door sales people, wig makers, and chemists who grew their empires during a period of changing attitudes on beauty and women's role in public.
While you've probably seen the hashtags #throwbackthursday and #TBT thrown around, you might not have tried using them much. Used primarily on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, Throwback Thursday posts can liven your marketing campaigns up and generate real results -- that is, if you know how to use them right.
To help you figure out how to navigate this trend, we pulled together everything you need to know about using #TBT in your marketing.
Like many other marketing channels, email is constantly evolving -- and it's up to marketers, sales reps, and other professionals to stay on top of these changes. Ask yourself: Are your email campaigns optimized based on current, relevant data?
To help you put your best email foot forward, we collaborated with Market Domination Media to create the infographic below.
Are you ready to build your dream team of inbound marketers? Do you know what roles to fill and how to find the best people for the job? Hiring inbound marketers is fairly new and uncharted territory for many businesses straying from traditional marketing and adopting more inbound-driven, web-based marketing tactics.
Just recognizing the need to invest in inbound marketing is step one. The next step is assembling an all-star cast of marketers -- a team of lean, mean, digitally fluent, content-creating machines to take your marketing to the next level.
Can you imagine what the very first website looked like? It was nothing like what we have today. No images. No CSS. No parallax design.
Though there's much more we can do with web design today, it's fun to take a look back at where we came from. In the infographic below, AmeriCommerce takes us through the exciting history of web design from 1990 to present.
We all have a favorite store or restaurant; the one that every time we walk in the staff knows our name, our order, and that we like our martinis shaken, not stirred. This personal connection is what keeps us coming back. But how do you achieve that same personal feel in ecommerce?
In the shifting sands of SEO, there’s one constant: It’s much better to top the SERPs than it is to rank on page two. How much better? Nearly 800% better.
And, as you’ll see in the tables below, when it comes to ranking in search, publications -- that is, actual news sites -- still do it best. The inbound marketing movement, however, has helped bridge the gap that divides brands and publications.
How often should you post to your social media accounts?
For many marketers, this question is tough. Here’s why: Social media is a very flexible and fluid part of your marketing strategy. It’s not easy to draw the line between how much you could be posting and how much you should be posting.
Perhaps one of the most challenging parts of making an impact on social media is coming up with something profound in 140 characters. That’s right; I’m talking about the tweet.
A tweet is short, sweet, and to the point. And crafting one often leaves us staring blankly at that little blinking cursor, hoping for a way to rephrase the tweet to let up some characters for an image, a link, or that ever-essential hashtag.
