maine web development, web design, internet marketing

As I mentioned before, Inbound Marketing is the term for the types of marketing efforts where you are being found by consumers when they are researching information. With that said I have seen more than a few ears perk up when I mention email marketing as a part of one’s Inbound Marketing strategy. “But email is actually going OUT how is it a part of INbound marketing?”.

A few things:

• How did you build your email list?
  If someone is searching for an answer, solution or product online and they stumble across your website (due to your website’s original content and Search Engine Optimization),  decide you are a thought leader in this field and sign up for your newsletter using the user conversion piece on said landing page – then that is Inbound Marketing.If you build your list at conferences, meetings, your show room etc. with genuine people who are interested in receiving more information about your products and value those emails from you, that is also Inbound Marketing.
• Do you segment your lists? Are your loyal customers in one group, prospects in another, those who have previously forwarded your email to a friend in yet another? If so, you show that you care about each group and the specific things they bring to your business. For example 5-10% of Lego’s are sold to adults or AFOLs (adult fans of Legos). As a company, Lego’s has segmented information for this group and promoted brand evangelists to spread the message of this group. How would this group feel if they were lumped in with the millions of generic Legos fans? Probably not as passionate as they are now.
  By segmenting your lists you can tailor your content to reach each group accordingly promoting that conversational tone of each email piece.
• What content do you deliver in your email marketing campaign?
  Are your newsletters strictly about your products and maybe a few sales and specials you are offering? Then maybe that isn’t Inbound Marketing. But, if you are delivering engaging content on content that your subscriber is looking for and pushing that lead back to your website, that is considered Inbound Marketing.
• What results do you want from an email marketing campaign?
  If you are hoping your emails will start a conversation, provoke a question or a follow up email then you are participating in Inbound Marketing. If you just hope to shout out your latest and greatest product and you feel burdened by any responses to your email then perhaps this isn’t a part of an Inbound Marketing initiative.

Those are a few examples of how email marketing is a part of your overall Inbound Marketing plan. The main thing is that it isn’t about the tool (Twitter, email, Facebook, LinkedIn) as much is it is about the tone, the content, the relationship and how that information is shared with your audience. Inbound Marketing is producing good quality content that consumers will be able to find when they are looking for more information, products, services etc.

Inbound Marketing is the term for the types of marketing efforts where you are being found by consumers when they are researching information.

Outbound marketing is the term for interruption based marketing like television commercials, radio ads, newspaper articles, telemarketing etc. All of these marketing methods are built to interrupt people while they are trying to do something else, like watch their favorite TV program. Humans, as clever as we are, have found different ways to ignore these outbound marketing efforts:

• TV commercials – Meet the DVR Fast forward please
• Radio Ads – Satellite radio, Internet radio, portable music devices like iPods Turn it up!
• Newspaper ads – Our eyes are trained to look at the content not the side bars or full page ads Who still reads the paper?
• Telemarketing – Caller ID Unknown caller – no thank you
• Direct Mail – aka Junk Mail is promptly thrown away. Mine doesn’t even make it in our house Recycle bin right next to mailbox

Why are you wasting your marketing dollars on suffering marketing mediums?

Because it is safe and what we have always done. STOP. The power has shifted back to the customer you can either hop on now or be left behind. Your customers are researching products and services before they contact you. They know about your company, your competitor, maybe even your employees (a website’s About Us page is usually the second most viewed page on a website). They want a conversation, not to have someone shouting at them through traditional marketing channels.

Be found when your customers are looking!

Inbound Marketing efforts focus on you being found when your potential clients or customers are looking for answers or more information. There are lots of places to reach people but here are the biggest examples of Inbound Marketing tools:

• Blogging – Blogs are a great way to constantly be adding targeted new information to your website. You can easily add a blog to your current website or have it separate from your site. Blogs can tackle difficult questions, discuss industry news and so much more. Blogs are also very share-able and many people bookmark good blogs to refer black to.
• SEO and SEM – Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and Organic Search are all positioning your website to be found for relevant searches. We live in Google’s world. People online search for everything under the sun. By doing a little research, some measurement and producing good content targeted correctly you can make sure your site is found when that search query is entered.
• Social Media – The Internet has gone social. People all over the world are participating in Social Networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more. While on the sites they are discussing problems, solutions, products, services and more. If you are not participating and being able to contribute, you are missing out on an opportunity. There are thousands of online social networks. It is your job to find the communities that matter to your business and participate in them accordingly.
• Online Videos – Why tell people in words what you can show them in video? How to Videos, viral videos, and video blogs are very popular and a great way to reach out to consumers. Video production no longer takes a huge studio and camera crew. If you have a little bit of time, talent, and the will to do it, you too can produce good video content! Once your videos are online they are easy to share, comment on and ask for more information

Stay a part of the conversation after the purchase

One of my favorite aspects of Inbound Marketing is that you can also be a part of the conversation with your customers after the point of purchase. Lots of companies are using Social Media, Blogs etc. to tackle Customer Service requests, promote their brand, build trust and more. For this purpose I also like to add email marketing to the Inbound Marketing mix:

• Email Marketing – A well executed email marketing campaign can be one of the best ways to build trust and stay top of mind with your customers. A content rich, well targeted email can be sent to your customers’ Inbox and many people save them for future reference and share them with friends that they think will find them useful.

Let’s chat some more

I hope this was a good review on what Inbound Marketing is. I will tackle a little more in depth each of the topics I went over quickly here in the next few weeks. If you have any specific questions or feedback on a topic you would like to see discussed please comment below!

Traditional means of marketing and advertising still exist and are being utilized but research shows that most of these are on a steep decline.  Nowhere is this clearer than with the struggling newspaper companies all across the U.S.

The New York Times recently posted an article online stating that, “Newspapers count on advertising for the bulk of their revenue, and for a decade they have been losing ads to the Internet, where advertising is much cheaper and there is far more competition for it.” This is an unfortunate reminder for the newspaper and phone book companies who are feeling the crunch of declining sales.

If less people are picking up the publications you typically advertise in, perhaps it is time to look at the benefits of Email Marketing.

Permission-based Email Marketing can do a number of things for your company. Use it to engage your target audience with whom you already have a relationship with. Deliver valuable content within your message and leave out all the extra unnecessary verbiage. Your audience already knows what your company is about if they are on your list – don’t push them away with extraneous information they don’t need and end up in their recycle bin.

Keep the content on your website fresh. This will encourage visitor loyalty. If you have a website, chances are you are trying to promote or advertise something to the general public. Give those new or returning visitors the option to sign up for your newsletter by using a contact form or visitor sign up form on your website.

Here are a few things you should keep in mind while planning your email marketing strategy:

• Consider a two step verification process for email sign up. Two step verification ensures the email address they entered is correct but it also prevents other big problems like bounces, undeliverable emails and Spam
• Stay away from bounces. Bounces are addresses that your email did not reach for one of a few reasons. Either the email address is non-existent, spelled incorrectly, or could possibly be blocked by the recipients ISP (Internet Service Provider). Keep your list up to date.
• A recipient of your email has the power to mark your email as Spam if they feel bombarded. Spam reports have a negative impact on the future of your email deliverability. Remember to offer value and meaningful information and monitor your frequency.
• Always, always, always give your recipients the option to “Opt-Out” from your mailings.

Reach your target audience in seconds. Don’t let your message to be old news at the news stand tomorrow morning!

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Want to know more right now…

Making Email Marketing Work For You Email remains one of the most powerful tools in the online marketer’s toolbox. With nearly everyone who uses the web using the email daily, email marketing allows you to connect with customers and prospects with messages they want to hear on their schedule. In this webinar we discuss how to learn what you’ll need to know to get started with an effective email campaign today! » View Webinar

Read: The Importance of Building Your Email List Organically

Read: Email Marketing is so NOT out

Read: Spring Inspirations Greg Cangialosi of Blue Sky Factory

In my last Spring Inspirations post I spoke with David Meerman Scott about Social Media, going viral and world wide raves. Now with record breaking temps taking over the east coast Spring may have been skipped and gone straight to Summer. We took this opportunity to talk to Greg Cangialosi, CEO of Blue Sky Factory about what’s HOT in Email Marketing and Social Media.

We have heard all the buzz about Social Media but partnering your social media efforts with an email marketing campaign is a solid way to get measurable ROI at a low cost to you. No one knows and executes this better than Greg Cangialosi who has been helping his clients succeed with new media for years.

Here is our quick interview with Greg:

Over here at Hall we are BIG email marketing advocates and love helping small businesses develop their strategies. I love what you guys at Blue Sky Factory are about and how you are sharing your message with the world.

Everyone seems to be getting on board that they need to design their marketing strategies to get the highest ROI for their investments. Why do you think Email Marketing is such a great tool to have in your toolbox to really use your marketing dollars effectively?

Communication with customers and potential customers is key. It’s important to stay in front of, and listen to, your audience, especially during an economic decline. Email marketing is an extremely effective tool because of its ability to make messages relevant to subscribers. By collecting your subscribers’ information through your opt-in form or subscribers preferences, you’re able to segment your lists and send targeted messages to your audience. By saying “happy birthday” to your subscribers or reminding them that they may be running out of your product based on their previous purchase, they’ll appreciate the personal touch.

Email marketing is also measurable, so you are able to find out who opened your email, how effective it was, or even which pages were clicked through most frequently. You can use that information when planning your next campaign.

I was able to attend your webinar on Email Marketing, Social Media and Mobile Technology.

For those who were not fortunate enough to participate (yet) what is your take on the partnership of Email marketing/Social & Mobile Media?

These three mediums offer the most interactive ways for people to engage with your brand. They are two-way, direct channels. It is important for companies to use each medium to complement the others – whether it’s using email to alert your audience of your Twitter and Facebook accounts, or using text-messaging to have your audience sign up for emails, they can work together communicate with customers and prospects. Your audience may want to choose which method is used to reach them, or you can send complementary messages through multiple channels in a staggered “drip” campaign.

View Bluesky’s webinar: Intersection of Email, Mobile and Social Media

For smaller businesses who aren’t quite ready for the mobile revolution, what is the most basic thing about mobile media that they need to keep in mind when they are developing their marketing strategies?

SMS (or text-messaging) is the fastest-growing interactive marketing channel worldwide. Take advantage of text-messaging’s immediate, direct reach. A recent study showed that 94% of text-messages are actually read. Why not try it out, see if it works for your company. Test different messages, find out what your audience will respond to, and develop a larger strategy based on that.

We are preparing for our biggest conference of the year for Sage Insights in May. Blue Sky Factory is always hitting the streets to spread their message. What is the biggest thing you think people can do at a trade show or event to get the most out of that opportunity?

Network! Attend the smaller events within the larger event, talk with as many people as possible, participate in the event’s conversation on Twitter (via hashtag). Follow up with your new contacts after the show, and connect with them through social media sites. Building relationships is key, and events are a great way to start building beneficial relationships.

What do you think are the 2 most important things for any business that is looking to get into email marketing to know?

1. Build your list organically. Don’t buy your list or opt-in your contacts for them. It’s important for subscribers to voluntarily opt-in through a form on your website or giving you a business card at an event (just make sure you ask them first!).

2. Try new things & constantly test. Try sending at different times of the day, try different creatives, try different subject lines, and more. Take advantage of your ESP’s A/B Split Testing feature – it’s a great, streamlined tool that will help you test various elements of your email campaigns.

Back to Spring Inspiration – what inspires you each day to make today an even better day than yesterday and keep telling people about Email Solutions?

It’s an exciting time to be in this industry. There are constantly new and innovative tools being introduced on the market. One of the latest trends in email marketing is “Share with Your Network (SWYN)”.  SWYN allows email subscribers to very easily share the email with their networks on Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc.

The reach that email marketing has is growing every day, and the possibilities seem to be endless. Email is here to stay, and continues to provide a relevant, cost-effective medium for marketers. We often see success stories, and that makes us want to help other companies gain success through email as well.

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Want to know more right now…

Making Email Marketing Work For You Email remains one of the most powerful tools in the online marketer’s toolbox. With nearly everyone who uses the web using the email daily, email marketing allows you to connect with customers and prospects with messages they want to hear on their schedule. In this webinar we discuss how to learn what you’ll need to know to get started with an effective email campaign today! » View Webinar

Read: The Importance of Building Your Email List Organically

Read: Email Marketing is so NOT out