Inbound Marketing Metrics

April 5, 2012 by · 2 Comments

Use metrics to drive the refinements of your inbound marketing system.

Much of what drives inbound marketing happens in the rigor of analytics and metrics. There is a process and cadence to driving results which we use with our clients.

As inbound marketing systems take root and the valuable content created for clients is getting found, the hard, continuous work of figuring out how to connect with a buyer, segmenting various buyer profiles and nurturing each segment has to be refined.

We work to keep our clients aware of how the systems are performing and here are some key components which help to drive towards success:

  • Key search results. Monitoring what phrases and keywords are being used helps to develop future content. This is critical for building the authority of a site for further search.
  • Social media effectiveness. The posts and interactions with people on social media is a key channel for visitors and leads. Looking for what posts create clicks as backlinks is a feedback loop for the ongoing management of how to position and what is valuable.
  • Conversion points. Watching what causes conversions and what is not working helps to see if the “breadcrumb” trail has flaws or works predictably. Reducing a bounce rate on landing pages requires relevant calls to action.
  • Subscriber engagement. As people want to keep up with the valuable content being offered, they need to be further nurtured and metrics on loyalty need to be identified. This requires driving further value at various timeframes to take advantage of the opt-ins from your subscriber lists.

These are a few of the metrics that an inbound marketing system requires. There are many more that require review daily, weekly or monthly depending on the change required. The key is to integrate a discipline into your sales and marketing processes that drives towards optimized buying processes.

What are some key metrics you review?

Filed Under: Blog, Inbound Marketing · Tagged: ,

Myrtle Beach Real Estate Inbound Marketing

April 2, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

The Hoffman Group works with real estate investors and residential home buyers in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Their buyer can be those that are local or out of state. The Hoffman Group hired AscendWorks to help with inbound marketing strategy and marketing automation systems.

Our team walked through a project scoping and set up a new vision for how a buyer would experience the brand and process for moving from interest to becoming a lead. We outlined these strategies for a website that would function to provide ongoing value for new and repeat visitors.

The Hoffman Group was excited at the prospects. We went to work on the design elements, framework and web programming to bring the vision into reality. Furthermore, a special agent CRM system had to be customized and integrated into the website for any new inbound lead activity as well as to show any real estate represented by agent. This was carefully captured for the specific requirements.

Today, there are ongoing marketing campaigns, communications and nurturing systems at The Hoffman Group’s website. Our team provides weekly and quarterly metrics and reviews which help to improve the processes a new visitor experiences. The lead generation for The Hoffman Group has been dramatically higher than anything in the past as they are getting found via online search and social media channels which were previously closed. New homebuyers have enjoyed researching home and financing options as well as tools which our team at AscendWorks provides ongoing.

The Hoffman Group has assets which persist forever now and continues to build a compound interest effect with the content pieces AscendWorks has developed to nurture, educate and convert leads.

Inbound marketing works to help The Hoffman Group get found. Marketing automation systems nurture and convert leads in a ready pipeline.

Filed Under: Blog, Case Studies ·

There Is No Magic Pill

April 2, 2012 by · 3 Comments

Looking for that perfect pill is elusive and deceptive.

If there were a magic pill for getting more business, someone would have found it, shared it and everyone would be taking it. The truth is that there is no magic pill. Getting new customers is hard work and a continual moving target. You might be tempted to enlist the gimmicks of SEO companies or social media spammers. It’s not worth it. Gimmicks have costs eventually.

Just recently, there was an outcry with the Google search engine algorithm change with Google Panda. The sites out there that were low in quality and merely focused on backlinking to artificially manipulate search rankings were filtered out. Those sites intent on providing value and substance rose in prominence. The gimmicks were completely sidelined.

Do The Real Work

The truth is that you do not create something and it just works to get found, convert leads and increase revenue. It is a continual process of refinement, management and hard work. To separate yourself in a world of noise and reach your audience, there is continual, relentless work that has to be done regularly. Here are some of the continuous activities:

  • Creating valuable content. Your content has to connect and become increasingly relevant. People are searching for answers. You must become that trusted and accessible resource to get found.
  • Implementing systems. Your process flow and systems for how a buyer experiences your brand and moves through an integrated experience has to be continually refined. The touchpoints, offers and timing need to be engineered with precision.
  • Analyzing data. Seeing what works and what does not has to come from specific, real-time metrics that reveal how you are found and what people do on your systems. There is a feedback loop that needs to manage your next campaigns. The work never ends.
  • Connecting with your audience. What happened a week ago becomes increasingly irrelevant. We live in a real-time world. Your audience’s attention is on the present. You have to continually connect with what matters to them and helps them to achieve continual success.

Process and continuous improvement is the focus of organizations that stand out and connect. If you are a mere static picture in today’s dynamic world, then the traffic and engagement your competitors who pay the true price of continual engagement will be costly.

Stop looking for a magic pill and do the work or hire a team that gets it done over the long term. There are no shortcuts.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Inbound Marketing · Tagged: , , ,

3 Google Apps Gmail Shortcuts To Master

March 28, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

You can have a zeroinbox! Move fast!

Many of our clients struggle to keep up. We want to share a quick productivity tip to help you move through your inbox quickly. If nothing else, take 5 minutes to improve the rest of your habits going forward for moving quickly through the daily email you experience by using these shortcut keys in your Gmail:

  • # - This is delete emails. As you move through your email, hit this key much. Most of your email is junk.
  • “s” - Star items you need to respond to, act on or review later but that would take too much time now. Then hit the next key:
  • “e” - This archives any of email and removes it from your inbox

Learn these three keys. Every email has to have one of these shortcuts applied. If you don’t it’s because you did not make an executive decision.

Let us know how it works for you.

Filed Under: Blog, Google Apps · Tagged: , , ,

Why Websites Fail To Convert Leads

March 26, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Let’s start with this premise – people don’t want to be converted. It’s not why they visit your site. It is what you may have in mind, but noone wants to be sold or converted.

This is the conundrum. Most websites, while they may be well-designed, are focused on the Buy Now customer. It is the person with urgency and pain today. It is a rather small subset of potential buyers.

The greater majority are in the Buy Later, Learn Now category. Buying is a process. It happens when someone starts to focus on solving a problem. They get online and start researching and learning for themselves the very questions they should even be asking. If you are in a complex industry, the cycle is long as your potential buyers get comfortable and orient themselves to information they are alien to in their daily lives and work.

Typical websites fail to convert leads and here are some things you can focus on to avoid the pitfalls of missing your buyer:

  • Brochure design. Marketers got in the business of website design and it shows. They present the company, the products and the content in a brochure format. It’s static and hyped. Compare this with sites that engage you and lead you down a process of learning. We ignore the hype and are trying to learn something.
  • Vanity. Talking about yourself and how you great you are does little to build trust. Telling your story and helping people understand how you work and do business goes much further in building trust. Talk about the customers’ problems specifically and concretely. That builds your credibility and shows you care.
  • No growth. Your content in the form of knowledge sharing and resources should be continually and regularly growing. If it is not, then you become irrelevant. It’s a one and done visit, especially as someone is just learning. You have the opportunity to be an authority on your industry, product or marketplace. Be that hub and the connection increases. Your brand is no longer a stranger.
  • No follow-up. When someone is searching, they forget where they have been. If they were interested in your content and information, then what keeps them engaged or connected? Your site has to have marketing automation to nurture the relationship based on their preferences and behaviors. Otherwise, it is just a forgotten experience.

There is no shortage of badly designed or managed sites. Hopefully, your own systems can improve as you incorporate just these few strategies for your web presence. It is the art of turning a stranger into a friend by continually positioning and providing value in a one-to-one fashion.

How can you improve? Feel free to comment below.

Filed Under: Blog, Inbound Marketing · Tagged: , , , ,

Why Your Story Matters

March 19, 2012 by · 1 Comment

The stories that help make it matter.

The world is crowded. This goes for brands, products and services.

I am running another half marathon soon and needed running shoes. Try searching for running shoes. You will find a ton of results. What stands out? Most don’t. It’s a list of boring companies, boring brands and a bunch of technical features.

Zappos, the company that delivers happiness, is near the top, for good reason. Their story is about the owner’s passion for customer service. It comes out and lives in their culture and interaction with the market.

New Balance shares about the Minimus approach. Videos and articles on regular people who choose to keep it simple and have success avoiding injuries invites me in to something different than I hear elsewhere.

Merrell helps me think about getting outside and going barefoot. It resonates. I love the outdoors and finding ways to do cool stuff. It inspires me.

What if the shoes were swapped? The story still sticks, though they are different. The story is much of what I buy and that gets me thinking. I don’t buy right away, but I’m engaged. I keep coming back and identify with people that represent me or my dreams. Eventually, I buy the Merrell’s.

All the shoes have an upper, midsole and outsole for tread. That’s the commodity. How it’s put together, what people think and how the story is told is what makes it unique. The companies I look at all have different stories.

Your industry may not be a shoe brand. But if you are just mimicking what your competition is doing, then what gives an anonymous buyer any reason to engage? You look the same. What makes you unique is your story around your value offering. Share this with me in a powerful, compelling and consistent way and you get my attention. Get enough of my attention and I come back to engage and want more.

How are you telling your story? What is it?

Filed Under: Blog, Inbound Marketing ·

Marketing Automation For Lead Conversion For UK’s WANdisco

March 15, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

WANdisco provides software which is used by half of the world’s software developers. Their software enables groups to work on the same source code regardless of location. On a daily basis, their inbound marketing leads come from all over the world with thousands of visitors every month to their landing sites.

Our team was hired to work with the WANdisco team in San Ramon, CA and Sheffield, England. The inside sales team had too many leads to cull through and our focus was on creating lead scoring and lead nurturing campaigns which would qualify and surface the likeliest candidates for sales engagement.

We worked with two major systems – Loopfuse marketing automation and Salesforce.com – and started with strategy to develop the specific buying process. In our project work, we created the targeted buyer profiles which WANdisco sought and segmented various scoring criteria based on flow diagrams that captured how a lead would move through a qualification life cycle.

At certain decision points, lead nurturing would be used to provide valuable content to an unready buyer. As the lead nurturing content was consumed and the digital feedback from the recipients was measured, Salesforce.com triggered the inside sales team for follow up on the ready leads.

We customized Loopfuse with design elements, content and logic triggers for driving the strategy we worked with WANdisco management on. We tracked all the complexity in our project management system and delivered according the schedule and budget our teams agreed upon.

We continued in an advisory role with various lead nurturing strategies to augment the marketing automation campaigns that were geared towards specific demographics and campaigns.

Helping to simplify the complexity involved within the design and implementation of marketing automation and sales process was a large part of our work that helped WANdisco move their systems towards higher levels of success.

 

Filed Under: Blog, Case Studies ·

Dealer Marketing Strategies Increase Monthly Marketing Campaign ROI

March 12, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Marketing Automation system and contest which drives leads

David Stanley Ford is based in Oklahoma City, OK and is a regional Ford dealership. The typical dealership is caught in the relentless cycle of having to refresh its monthly pipeline of customers with traditional, interruption marketing tactics. AscendWorks helped David Stanley Ford with an inbound marketing strategy which helped their marketing dollars become much more effective for converting prospects into leads.

Customer Stories

David Stanley Ford’s customers were largely detached as the car buying experience was typically transactional in nature. AscendWorks created a new vision for capturing the stories, passions and fanfare of customers with stories based on marketing campaigns for contests and prizes. We built an exchange of value into the customer experience. Those leads that were unprepared to respond to the typical “buy now” marketing blasts of direct mail, tv, radio and billboards could now participate and get drawn into a more personal and social experience.

AscendWorks managed the social media communications as well as indexed content to drive inbound leads. Thousands of new leads were generated from the ensuing strategies. We provided metrics to help our team analyze buyer movements as well as inform the management team at David Stanley Ford of how the inbound marketing strategies were evolving.

With each iteration, specific steps in the buying process were tweaked and readjusted to drive lead conversion.

Sales Leads

Ready sales leads were segmented and funneled to the sales team. AscendWorks constructed sophisticated lead nurturing campaigns for leads based on their timeframe for their next purchase and their preference in automobile. Our team built dozens of communication pieces with specific high quality design elements to nurture the customer and create brand trust with the David Stanley Ford name.

The logic in the dealer marketing automation system helped to drive lead conversion which was measured and captured in the ongoing metrics reports with the customer. Over time, the return on investment could be seen along with a growing pipeline from a marketing funnel which nurtured leads over the next six months readying them for specific follow-up and sales.

David Stanley Ford aligned their other marketing campaigns from outbound marketing to the marketing automation site we developed to convert leads into ready buyers.

The rigorous ongoing work of delivering new creative pieces and campaigns which convert leads from marketing campaigns, social media and Google search keeps a growing funnel of leads for the David Stanley Ford sales team.

Meanwhile, they have a growing asset which helps them to get found and has created a viral effect among its customers. The stories continue to live on. The marketing automation system works 24/7 to identify, measure and convert leads based on their buying profile.

David Stanley Ford experienced a way for increasing their effectiveness with other marketing channels while having a more intimate relationship with their audience of future and past buyers.

Filed Under: Blog, Case Studies ·

The Size Of Your Database

March 9, 2012 by · 1 Comment

The size of your database holds all the potential for continuous sales. It’s hard to look at the size of our databases if we are so focused on an end sale. We see selling as an event rather than a process. It’s not good thinking or strategy for the long-term. When times are dry, the lack of a system will show.

Unless you are in a transactional business where you do not necessarily know your customer, consider focusing heavily on growing your sales database. It is a key asset for your business. It provides the flexibility to make your inbound marketing strategies work.

Here are some ways to get the ball rolling:

  • Subscriptions. This means you have ongoing content in your corporate blog or newsletter. Make it valuable and enticing to where someone wants to subscribe. Put the names in your CRM system as well as your marketing system.
  • Calls to action. These are resources that visitors can download. Help people with the problems they are seeking to solve.
  • Contests. Entice people with something of value that they care about.
  • E-courses. Provide drip training that teaches on a specific topic to help your subscribers apply something technical or learn something new.
  • Social media. Make it easy to connect and use it as a seque for taking a next step to email you or opt into other inbound marketing processes.
  • Networking. Every business card needs to go into your CRM and labeled. Use good segmentation to reference later.
  • Forums. Be helpful and provide specific value on your main site or by email. It is making a connection and a difference.

If you do not have a database, then there is not opportunity to be creative with nurturing or engagement later with your marketing.

What are some ways you can apply this or you are applying it?

Filed Under: Blog, Inbound Marketing, Sales Process ·

Throw Out The Noise

March 8, 2012 by · 1 Comment

With inbound marketing and marketing automation as such buzz words, there are software companies chomping at the bit to enroll people in their goods. The problem we always find is that there’s more noise than results. Lots of features, but little results.

The real things that matter is a lot of hard work and strategy. We try to do it with less rather than more. Shiny new toys that don’t get results waste bandwidth and time.

It’s laughable to watch how easily the masses are swayed. The ingredients for success are to ensure you are getting found by being substantive, working hard, being consistent and building something. It is a game of momentum, perseverance and talent.

What kind of noise can you eliminate to get better?

Filed Under: Blog, Inbound Marketing ·