Inbound Marketing Blog

If you are like me you’ve probably attended a number of social media seminars where the speakers guarantee you they’ll teach you exactly what it will take to succeed in Social Media. The only problem is, once you get through the seminar you are left wondering … How the heck do I apply this information to my B2B (Business to Business) company? It seems to me the majority of the “Social Media Presenters” are focused more on how to build your personal brand, or how to sell your product using social media. This isn’t all bad since there are many companies out there who can use this information. But what about those B2B companies that are selling services? Does this lack of education mean there simply isn’t a good application for social media in the B2B world? Absolutely not!more

If you’re a web developer, all the HTML5 talk of the past year or so most likely gets you pretty excited. I won’t go into the details and specs of HTML5 because chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re familiar with what HTML5 has to offer and all the great things that are coming with it. I sat in on a couple HTML5 sessions at the Future of Web Design Conference in New York a couple months back and while it’s all really cool and exciting, I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated thinking that the technology is at our disposal, but it could be a few years before we can really utilize this for our clients due to the legacy Internet Explorer browsers out there that are incapable of handling modern technology on the web. Then I started thinking about HTML5 and the mobile web and got excited again.........more

Even though mainstream adoption of the mobile web as an commerce tool may be a couple years off, people are using their mobile devices to make purchasing decisions right now.more

If you have the most amazing company in existence, a product that can fix everything short of bringing world peace, and you are offering those solutions for FREE … it does you absolutely no good if nobody knows you exist. When I look back over the 12 years I’ve been involved in the online space I can think of many times that companies have approached us and wanted to “create a new website.” The challenge with an emerging industry is the lack of knowledge on exactly what it takes to be successful. We’ve done our best to let clients know once the website is created, there are far more things that need to happen to make that website a successful online entity. This blog post will clearly lay out some tactics, that if applied, will help dramatically increase the likelihood that your website will bee seen, and your wonderful solutions discovered. Foundation Once you’ve determined exactly what you’d like to accomplish with your online presence, the first step is to utilize the vast amount of information online to get to know your “buyers” very well. I’m not simply talking about identifying demographic information, I’m talking about truly getting into their heads to determine what they truly want, what barriers stand between them and your product, what influencing factors exist, and most importantly the exact language they speak. Your goal should be to find people and companies who are experiencing a certain set of problems of which your company can provide a solution. If a company knows the name of your company already, they’ll most likely be able to find you online. Since this is the case you should put your focus on not only identifying the set of problems that would lead someone to search for you, but most importantly identifying the way these seekers speak and will refer to the solution they are looking for. It’s important to spend some time doing some keyword research with a tool like the Google Keyword Tool or any other keyword research tool, to determine the problems that are searched for the most, and how the seekers refer to that particular problem. If you take this time, you’ll have the ability to strategically position your content in the search results on multiple platforms. Although it is much easier to simply fire up the computer and hack away at your keyboard, if you are looking to show measurable results, it’s necessary to spend the few minutes it takes to ensure you are creating relevant, compelling content that is highly sought after.more

From the emergence of location based applications like Foursquare to the rapid growth of Facebook to over 500 million users, no one can argue that social technologies exploded into mainstream staples this year. Looking back at the year in review, we saw many advances in the way we experience and interact with the web. While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have some ideas of what the future of social media will look like. And, I predict that 2011 will continue the evolution of social technologies and become a hub for the entire web. Here are a few highlights of what I think 2011 will bring for us in social media:more

The holiday shopping season is upon us. Retailers are clamoring for the hottest deals, promotions, and attractions to gain your business. Given the huge focus on e-commerce this month, it seemed appropriate to provide a review and analysis on a huge national brand with an active online presence. There are many sites to choose from, but we decided to focus on Best Buy’s website, www.bestbuy.com.more

Did you see this? Big name Twitter celebs like Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, and others died a “digital death” today. The idea was orchestrated by Alicia Keys in efforts to raise $1 Million for World AIDS Day and the charity Keep a Child Alive. It’s a great cause to support and is certainly drawing a lot of attention to a great charity. However, I can’t help but wonder if this is the most effective use of social media. It seems to me this defeats the whole purpose of social media; the whole point is to engage, communicate, and connect with followers. If you’re not able to do that, how are you generating buzz that this is going on?more

I must admit that I am a bit puzzled by Google's recent moves to lay content over top of their PPC ads. Here are a couple recent examples of this: Local Search: The new local search map slides down the page and over PPC ads as you scroll Instant Preview: The preview overlaps the PPC ads, taking them out of focus. It almost seems fishy...like what are they trying to train us to do now? :) Ads are their core revenue generator. Seems crazy to cover them up.more

Old ways to measure your online success were eyeballs, page-views, time spent on the site/page, number of fans and followers. Now, it’s important to look at interactions, the number of inbound inks to your site/pages, blog comments, retweets and likes from your posts. Out of 90 Million tweets a day, and over 1 million unique urls shared every day, how do you get started and how do you stand out? Have you ever thought of Twitter as a search engine? You should.more

I don’t know about you but I am sick and tired of attending workshops, reading articles and blog posts, and hearing the same statement over an over again, “To be successful online you need to test, measure, and test some more.” Don’t get me wrong, I believe that statement is completely true. I just get irritated to hear people say it over and over again, yet they never provide any useful metrics to gage that success. Are those metrics some guarded secret of the so called “gurus” out there, or are they simply regurgitating something they heard in an article or a live appearance from some other so called “guru” they are emulating? Unfortunately whenever there is a new technology or product innovation, there is a flood of opportunistic people and organizations who enter the marketplace trying to position themselves as the experts. I certainly don’t have an issue with that, since that’s marketing and typically the first to gain top of mind awareness in a particular area usually wins. That has changed a bit with the emergence of the Internet and it has made it challenging to hold on to that top position. The problem I have is that the people and organizations with the least amount of knowledge seem to have the biggest mouths and get the most attention initially. Although these people and organizations are eventually exposed when the naivety in the marketplace starts to dissipate, companies end up losing a bunch of money unnecessarily because they follow these ill equipped “gurus.” What are some examples of these ineffective metrics?more

Google is once again trying to improve search with the release of their latest feature named Google Instant Preview. Basically you'll be able to roll over a magnifying glass icon and get a screenshot view of the website you'd be visiting if you click. This isn't a new concept, but new from Google. There are browser add-ons you can get such as CoolPreviews that give you this same functionality.more

Websites are already a staple in business today. Whether your company is big or small, it is necessary for everyone to have a web presence. That’s why we thought it would be fun to analyze a well-known website every month for you and give you our thoughts on what makes it work, what we like, and some gaps we discovered. Our team of programmers, designers, SEO experts, and Social Media guru’s will be tearing apart a well-known site and sharing our comments and thoughts with you. Our hope is that it will keep you thinking about your own site, what you can be doing better with it, and help give you ideas to make it more successful. And, since its November and still football season, we figured it was as good of time as any to kick off our new series and analyze the NFL’s website (www.nfl.com).more

We have made a significant effort to make sure you get the help or answers that you are looking for. There are two main channels to get help. 1. If you need help learning how to do something, our Get Satisfaction support forum is the place to go. We post helpful articles, webTRAIN updates, and ideas on the forum. You can search the forum, ask your own question, help other users, report problems, or let us know what we’ve done right.more

Well, the midterm elections have come to a close. The constant commercials, media coverage, and discussions can calm down for, well, a few months at least. But as I sit here on the morning after the mid-term elections, I can’t help but notice the impact of social media and how it relates to the victories across the board. No matter what side your on, it's clear that the social media (and the internet in general) have changed the political landscape forever. According to allfacebook.com, a staggering 3,482,253 people were fans of republican candidate fan pages nationally. Compare that to the 1,456,798 fans that democrats pulled in. Based on that statistic alone, it’s no surprise that Republicans took control of the house and narrowed the gap in the senate.more

Facebook and Microsoft's search engine Bing came to a new partnership agreement. The following was reported by Bloomberg on October 13, 2010: "Facebook Inc. expanded its partnership with Microsoft Corp.’s Bing search engine, letting people automatically see what their Facebook friends think about the topics they’re seeking information on. Bing’s new search screen also will let users become a person’s friend on Facebook or send a message to the social- networking service, Microsoft and Facebook said today at a media event in Mountain View, California. Searches for restaurants or movies will spotlight the ones that a user’s friends like." Whoa. Re-read that last sentence. "Searches for restaurants or movies will spotlight the ones that a user’s friends like."more

Chances are if you’re in any kind of sales or marketing related position, the company’s website has come up. You’ve likely been part of a team considering updating the website, redesigning the site or looking at ways to better market the site. Website costs vary. So what do you do? Ask around for referrals, likely engaged in a Google search and even checked out competitor sites to see if there was a link to “website developed by XYZ Company” at the bottom of the site.more

I am SO happy to see Mashable.com report that Facebook Chat is dropping IE6 support. As long as people are forced to use IE6, they are forced to use a browser that doesn't take advantage of the latest and greatest technology.more

If you've written off SEO (search engine optimization) as a search engine marketing tactic in favor of the presumably easier PPC campaign (pay-per-click), boy are you missing the boat! I am not going to talk about HOW to optimize your site for the search engines, but rather, showcase the tremendous importance it has for the success of your campaign, your website, and even your company related to traffic. Before we talk about the future, let's go back. Way back. Remember BANNER ADS? Sure, they're still around. Actually, they're still all over. But when is the last time you recall seeing a banner ad on a site and clicking on it? Chances are, you don't…because you didn't. This is so common, there's a term that's been created called "banner blindness".more

Ok, if you've spent any time inviting friends on Facebook to become a fan of something, you know it can take forever. Here's some quick instructions on how to invite all your friends instantly.more

Something I experienced over a 3 second period on my walk into the office building this morning inspired me to write this. It was a deep inhale of brisk, downtown Grand Rapids air. I actually had to take a double sniff. The first inhale caught my attention, but it was that second deep, lung filling gulp of air that whisked my mind away to the warm breeze of Cancun, Mexico. It was that smell. A magical mixture of clean air and something on the grill that did it. I was no longer walking down the sidewalk of Ottawa Avenue, I was relaxing pool side at the Royal Caribbean Resort with my wife, being served a mixed drink as the sun beat down on me (my mind works very fast). Ahh, what a feeling. The point? Let me get to it...more