Content Types For Inbound Marketing
Rick Burnes, director of product marketing at HubSpot, said that traditional marketing is now less effective. For example, people are skipping TV ads, throwing away direct mail, unsubscribing to email and so on.
Instead of pushing marketing messages out, Burnes said, "Create content that pulls people into your business." To do this, he believes you need to build your own assets instead of renting someone else's. Examples he gave were blogs, free online tools, podcasts and videos.
To develop the right content, Burnes recommended creating target client personas. He even suggested having cardboard cutouts of them in the office as a reminder of who the content is for.
The main goal of the content is to get found, but too often it is only used at the top of the sales funnel, he said. Once a visitor comes to your site, try to get them to convert. Then analyze and optimize what is working. He gave an example of having a landing page with a contact information form and an offer to sign up for an ebook.
When people come to your site, they are no longer cold leads, as they had some interest that brought them there. It then allows the conversation to move from a sales approach to one that is about helping the prospect. Burnes said, "The sales process is flipped on its head. Instead of 'Do you want to buy?' it becomes 'Can I help you?' Go from used car salesman to an advisor."
Benefits Of Blogging
"A blog creates new pages that are new lottery tickets that allow you to get found on social media and search engines," said Burnes. With more pages there are more ways to win new business.
At Hubspot, they see that organizations that blog get 55% more Web site traffic, helping them get found. Burnes said, "There is also a tight connection with content and social media. We see 79% more Twitter followers for companies that blog." As solid content grows, social reach grows and the power to amplify grows.
Looking For Content Ideas?
When it comes to good content, Kovalsky said, "No jargon. No acronyms. Spell it out. Put it in simple terms."
"If your content is not educating, informing or entertaining, take it down," she advised.
"Curation [of others content] can spell out that you are active in your space," she added.
Malinda Gagnon, director of Catalyst Intelligence Services, said, "Search will help to determine the key content topics to go after." She said to ask yourself, "What is my audience? How am I going to tap into them? Where are they going? How do I meet them?"
She also said to do online research to figure out what the competition is doing. "Can you pinpoint their digital marketing strategy?" she asked.
Mike Byrnes founded Byrnes Consulting to provide consulting services to help advisors become even more successful. His expertise is in business planning, marketing strategy, business development, client service and management effectiveness, along with several other areas. Read more at ByrnesConsulting.com and follow @ByrnesConsultin.