INBOUND MARKETING BLOG

Lead Generation Online Is Most SMB's Primary Objective

• By Donny Kemick

4 Reasons You Need A Website Redesign and Inbound Marketing

• By Donny Kemick

3 Reasons SMBs Don't Actively Use Marketing

• By Donny Kemick

When we meet with new potential clients we always ask what primary business objectives they are trying to achieve through web marketing. Nine times out of ten, the answer is increase leads or sales. Often, the a lack of new leads or sales is what they define as one of their primary challenges. When we dig a little deeper on what their current efforts look like, it doesn't take much time at all to see that they have no true marketing of their brand, products or services. So we ask, why is that? Here are the common reasons: 1 - We Don't Have The Expertise In-House Remember, I'm talking about small-medium sized businesses. Not large enterprises. Small to medium sized businesses. Most of the prospects we meet with do not have a full time marketing person, let alone department. It's usually a task thrown on the sales person or sales people, or a random person in the organization, like the HR Manager. The obvious issue is that none of those titles are the best solution for a marketing ...

Is Your Website On a Desolate Island? How's That Going?

• By Donny Kemick

Repeat after me... "I don't need a website, I need web marketing." Say it again. Again. Again... You get the point? The difference may not be clear to you yet. The difference between a website and web marketing, is like the difference between tactics and strategy. Your web marketing efforts should entail a strategy of some kind, with your website being one of the tactics you are employing as part of the overall strategy. Confused? That's ok! Let's get unconfused... Think of it this way. A website is one tool in the web marketing toolbox. Unfortunately, that tool is no longer enough to do the job on it's own. It needs some complimentary tools to be effective. At minimum, you need prospects to find your website when they are looking for the solution you offer to their problems. At minimum, you need to be available in the main "feeding grounds" for solutions that your prospects use. SEO - Search Engine Optimization Guess what. People use Google a lot. So much so, that you had better ...

Using Content Marketing For A Powdered Metal Company

• By Donny Kemick

We all want to generate more leads, prospects and sales, right? Whether you are a manufacturer, rural tourism promoter, service provider or non-profit, you are all looking for more leads, prospects and sales. Your sale may be a donation or an actual exchange of money for goods/services. The bottom line is, you want to generate more leads and prospects that convert to sales.

A MUST READ About Digital Marketing Strategy

• By Donny Kemick

This morning I came across a lengthy article that I would categorize as a MUST READ for any small business or organization with a website and a desire to have your web presence produce results for you. The article, which is a borderline manifesto entitle, 'One Trick Ponies Get Shot And other stories: Digital marketing strategy done right', speaks at length about what a true digital marketing strategy is, and is not. It speaks to many marketing fundamentals that a lot of small businesses just don't know. I would go so far as to say many medium sized businesses don't know these fundamentals. At least that has been our experience. 8 Properties of a GOOD Marketing Strategy http://www.portent.com/onetrick/#chapter2 This section hits on what so many businesses miss with their website redesign or implementation of the various web marketing tactics, overarching business objectives. The Marketing Stack: Organizing Your Strategy http://www.portent.com/onetrick/#chapter3 This section does a ...

Get Content Marketing Ideas Using Feedly

• By Donny Kemick

If you're looking for an inexpensive way to market your business that really connects with your ideal buyers, content marketing is your answer. Need a refresher on content marketing? We have a whole category on this blog about it here, including a 'What Is Content Marketing?' post.

6 Steps For Handling Content Marketing Leads

• By Donny Kemick

With all this talk of content marketing and landing pages, an obvious question might be, "What do I do when someone opts-in or downloads a piece of content from my site?". Great questions! It's a question that will likely be a bit different from one company to another, but here's a basic list of tasks: 1 - DO NOT CALL THEM UP AND TRY TO SELL THEM Did you hear me scream that? I hope. I don't want the engaged website visitor getting a restraining order against you. You're welcome. Aggressive sales people may think that simply visiting your website makes a person a qualified lead that the sales team should pursue. They aren't. If someone downloads a resource from your website, it simply shows that the web visitor has now engaged with your content. They may open it, and decide that it wasn't what they thought it was. They may love it. Hopefully the latter is true and they tell everyone they know that would benefit from the content to go get it (via email, social media, etc...). The main ...

What is Content Marketing?

• By Donny Kemick

I can admit that we sometimes use terms and phrases on our blog that you may not totally get. Guilty! For that reason, I want to be sure that you are super clear on what Content Marketing really is. Defined by the Content Marketing Institute:

13 Step Content Marketing Quick Start List

• By Donny Kemick

Question. When you think about establishing a content marketing strategy, do you equate that to a large investment of time and energy? I think any time you include the word strategy with a task, most people automatically envision a huge project involving hours of documentation, research and policies. While that can certainly be the case for some strategies, your content strategy doesn't need to be that complex. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably wrong. Your content marketing strategy can be as simple as a basic list of items that anyone creating content for your organization has access to and understands. By knowing and committing to this list, you'll be light years ahead of many of your competitors. Here's a Simple Content Marketing Kickoff List: Make the decision that content marketing is a must, not a should. Identify your internal content marketing team and kick off the efforts on the right foot. Understand fully why your clients buy from you and how you help solve their ...