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Why Your Startup Needs a Sales Methodology. This article originally appeared on Inc.com Like most startup entrepreneurs, when I began my first company in 1999 I had no formal sales experience.

Why Your Startup Needs a Sales Methodology

I did have the wherewithal to visit potential customers and try to understand the pain points that I thought could be solved with our solution. This is a very important to do when you first start a company. It’s what I call “the evangelical phase” of a company in which you’re out trying to persuade customers that a product you’ve designed is going to meet their needs better than other solutions on the market.

Invariably your first efforts at product won’t quite hit the mark – and this is OK. It’s OK because in an era where you can much more rapidly prototype and build products it is far more beneficial to launch your first version, get initial customer traction and then talk to your customer base to understand how well it meets their needs. I’m going to set up the framework today and in future posts I’ll drill down into each area. = Pain. Pay with a Tweet - A social payment system.

Infographic: 5 Brilliant Best Practices for Lead Nurturing. Infographic: 5 Brilliant Best Practices for Lead Nurturing Posted by Jasmine Henry on Thu, Apr 18, 2013 @ 07:05 AM image credit: Client Bridge Marketers, the Internet might not be your friend after all.

Infographic: 5 Brilliant Best Practices for Lead Nurturing

It’s changed the way that consumers shop for products, which means that when they first convert into leads they’re a lot less sales-ready than they used to be. The first time someone types an industry-relevant keyword into Google and hits “Google Search,” they’re probably in the first stage of buyer readiness, awareness. Two decades ago, if someone took the time to drive to a brick-and-mortar store, there was a pretty good chance they’d walk away with a product. You Can’t Bail Once You TOFu Once you write and design an amazing top-of-the-funnel content offer, a marketer's job is far from done, unless they want to become mortal enemies with their company’s sales team. 1. 2. Your most loyal customers and your newest, most wide-eyed leads don’t need to be receiving the same content. 3. 4. 5. Foundation: HTML Templates. News or Magazine This template puts a focus on bold images, perfect for a magazine style site with eye catching content.

Foundation: HTML Templates

Your stories are easy to find with large feature blocks. See Demo Real Estate or Travel Big thumbnails with a space for captions and descriptions along with an informative header make this the perfect template for real estate or hotel booking. See Demo Ecommerce Homepage Building an online store? See Demo. Farisyakob.typepad.com/files/uncovering-hidden-persuaders. Ducksboard. Social Marketing Benchmarks: Budgets, Goals, and More. Organizations are still cautious about dedicating resources to social media marketing: Only 27% of those surveyed employ someone who focuses exclusively on social media, according to a study by Ragan Communications and NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions.

Social Marketing Benchmarks: Budgets, Goals, and More

Most (65%) organizations (including for-profit corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies) have added social marketing to the list of tasks traditionally assigned to marketing communications professionals. In addition, one-quarter (25%) of organizations employ an intern to help with social marketing. Below, additional findings from the report titled "Structuring a Social Media Team," by Ragan Communications and NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions.

Memo to the CEO: Customers Are the Key to Growth - Bill Lee. Pressure has never been greater on CEOs to create organic, sustainable growth.

Memo to the CEO: Customers Are the Key to Growth - Bill Lee

One place business leaders are not looking for reliable help with this challenge? Their marketing departments. R&D and product development launch products that receive tepid responses. Marketing promotions don’t resonate and can’t be tied to measurable results. In doing research for my book, I found that companies who are attracting buyers in today’s hyper-connected world are developing new approaches and competencies that focus on one thing: customers. These approaches are often beyond the reach of traditional marketing mindsets and practices — that’s why I’m addressing the CEO. These approaches include: Get customers advocating for you right now Prospective buyers these days trust one source of information above all others: their peers. First, find the core of customers who are passionate about you.

Parallels Software did this recently in a customer survey, and uncovered 30,000 self-identified “promoters.” Inbound Marketing Community - Hacker News for Marketers. The Most Creative Link Building Post Ever. When you think you’ve seen it all, you’re not even close.

The Most Creative Link Building Post Ever

A couple weeks ago I emailed ~50 high profile SEOs in the industry asking them one simple question: “What was the most creative way you, or someone you know, got a link?” That was the question, these were the answers. UPDATES: There are now 52 responses and counting! Each one is permalinked; just click on the name. When I was younger I had a lot of success with proxy websites.

Getting links to a one-page proxy website covered in ads is not easy. I then released the themes for free with my link in.