While there is no doubt that content is still king when it comes to SEO and that it is a critical component of any inbound marketing strategy, I have to say that the medium that is having the biggest impact on my marketing efforts, as of recently, is imagery. In a world of 140 characters, it is hard to make your insights and message stand out, but if you add the right size compelling image that ties into the post message, you can stand out in a sea of hashtags. Continue reading
MOBILE! It is what everyone is talking about, and for a good reason. Smartphones and tablets have changed the way that business can, and should be, connecting with consumers.
Check out these 50 facts on mobile marketing in the presentation below by HubSpot , and see if you still think you have time to wait to develop your mobile marketing strategy. Here are the 10 facts I found most surprising: Continue reading
The Whole Brain Group recently published an intriguing infographic explaining the key components of one of my favorite marketing methodologies, inbound marketing. I was drawn to this infographic because it compares traditional and inbound marketing before delving into the 5 steps to increase traffic and convert leads into customers.
In the infographic, the Whole Brain Group breaks down the inbound marketing process into the following five steps: Continue reading
With a massive amount of emails delivered to our inboxes everyday, it can seem like a daunting task to get your email blast to stand out from all the rest. In addition, there are many factors to consider when developing an email marketing campaign, including:
What platform will your end users view the email in? (Apple Mail, Gmail, Outlook, or on their Mobile Device)However, when done correctly, email marketing is a powerful tool for reaching your audience. Email campaigns are targeted, allowing you to reach a section of your customer base with a focused message. Based on research from HubSpot, targeted and segmented emails have a higher CTR than mass email communications. For example, these emails can focus on an action that the recipient has already taken, creating a more personal connection.
I recently discovered what might be the best source for quality articles relevant to those in the digital community and probably my new favorite website! Inbound.org is a website designed for the passionate digital community. The purpose of the site is to provide the best and most current online content on all aspects of inbound marketing, including (but definitely not limited to):
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Inbound.org was launched mid February and has been quickly growing in popularity with those passionate about all things digital. The brilliance behind this site came from its founders Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz and Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot. It is kind of like the Reddit or Digg of inbound marketing, but with a MUCH more attractive site design. The simplicity of the site design and structure is perfect for perusing articles. Similar to other social bookmarking websites, Inbound allows users to Upvote their favorite articles. The design of the site has made it very easy for new users to determine how to “Vote” for the articles that they like.
A very intriguing feature of Inbound.org is that registration requires users to have a Twitter account. I really like this feature because if you are truly passionate about social media, web development, SEO, analytics, etc., you should are already have a Twitter account and be active in the digital community.
The Hot Articles page lists the most popular articles on Inbound.org at that time. Below is a screen shot of what you might see while on the Hot Articles page. I understand that the articles listed are the most popular, however I don’t quite understand the ranking method. Articles are not listed by the number of Upvotes, though it appears that their may be an algorithm that determines the hottest articles based on time of article submission and number of Upvotes.
The Incoming Articles page is similar to the Hot Articles page, but it lists the newest submissions in chronological order. Think of it as a Twitter feed of newly submitted articles and you are actually interested in all of the posts!
All the articles listed on Inbound.org are submitted by users. The image to the right is the Share Article screen that users can use to submit articles to Inbound. For the Article Title option, you can either select your own title or a title will be created from the article URL. However, it is almost always best to write your own title because the number of characters displayed in the listings is limited. As a base, I recommend following the standard for SEO best practices and keep the title shorter than 70 characters (including spaces). Keep It Short And Sweet! Since the listings do not include a summary of the article submitted, it is extremely important that the title is intriguing and does not get cut off.
When submitting an interesting article, you are also required to select one of 23 categories that the article falls into. This feature is very helping when searching through the Hot Articles or Incoming Articles lists because the article category is included in the article listing. At this time you can search for a specific topic but it pulls articles from varying categories. The one feature that I hope to see as the site grows is the ability to sort submitted articles by category, and maybe even by hottest or newest articles in a single category.
Inbound.org does a great job bringing together bloggers, marketers, and those passionate about all things digital. It may even become your main news source for industry news. Why spend extra time searching for the newest blog posts and articles that interest you when you have a haven of the best and most interesting articles already available.
WARNING! You may become addicted to this site and spend all free time reading the great article submissions! (I already have!)
Have you been on Inbound.org? Do you think you would use it as a source for industry news?