Inbound Marketing

Learning from Affilorama’s Inbound Marketing Success. I’ve worked with Affilorama for over a year and half as an in-house SEO (since early 2010 to mid 2011), and became an external marketing consultant for them for almost a year now. Those experiences alone have taught me ton of things that I’m sure I will not be able to learn if I’ve chosen to work for other companies. Even the story of my career – as an online publisher, online marketing professional and entrepreneur – has revolved around the fact that I’ve been once a part of a really strong team.

A Super Simple Explanation of Inbound Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC] As extreme inbound marketing advocates, we love when we see businesses drink the inbound marketing Kool-Aid, eat the inbound marketing dog food, sip the inbound marketing champagne, or just, you know -- adopt the inbound marketing methodology.

And we love it even more when they evangelize it, as HubSpot Partner The Whole Brain Group has recently done with its new infographic featured below. 7 Inspiring Examples of Real-Time Marketing in Action. Real-time marketing means reacting in real, or near-real time.

It’s about relevant messaging, and it's achieved in social channels by listening to and anticipating customer needs. 12 Critical Marketing and Sales Metrics You BETTER Be Tracking. Sales and marketing alignment takes work.

Lots of organizations have the idea to get both teams in a room together, communicating, collaborating, and all those other warm and fuzzy things that make our hearts flutter. Problem is, that all just turns into a lot of hogwash and fingerpointing -- especially when the bottom line isn't getting hit -- when there isn't anything but "feelings" to back up the discussion. Sales - Marketing Automation Drives B2B Lead Gen Effectiveness. Among B2B organizations, the use of integrated marketing automation appears to boost the effectiveness of lead generation efforts across various metrics, such as the quantity of leads generated, the quality of leads passed to sales teams, and the proportion of leads accepted by sales, according to a report by Lenskold Group and The Pedowitz Group.

Roughly one-half (51%) of surveyed lead generation marketers use some type of integrated marketing automation platform (i.e., a system integrated with CRM and sales), the study found. 12 Automated Email Workflows You'll Kick Yourself For Not Using. Advancing from SEO to CRO: Using AB Testing to Maximize Conversions. This entry is a guest post by Nick Eubanks, the VP of Digital Strategy at W.L.

Snook and Associates, Inc. You can follow him on Twitter: @nick_eubanks. SEO moves fast. I realize this contradicts the fact that SEO is a marathon and not a sprint, however I’m not talking about the process or the results, but the industry… In a recent post by Matt Beswick he compares SEO to “trying to build a house in a fault zone,” and specifically that “by the time you have laid down the foundation, the gound underneath may have shifted.”

I know often times SEO’s focus on the on-page factors before jumping into link building, but there is usually a lot of money conversion left on the table. Even when you have maxed out your on-page optimization efforts, there is always room to improve the experience and the focus of your content to drive more conversions. Optimizing For Conversion I have always been a firm believer that the job of the SEO is to acquire targeted traffic to the right pages via search engines. The Must-Have Components of a Modern Sales & Marketing Machine [INFOGRAPHIC] How powerful is your sales and marketing machine?

10 Stops to Take on the Road to Lead-Generating Landing Pages [INFOGRAPHIC] If you’ve ever wondered how to build a landing page that converts, or even why you should be using them, you’re in the right place. Today you’ll learn tons of great landing page tips, and get to go on a road trip at the same time. We'll take you on a trip across the U.S., stopping in at some famous American landmarks to learn how to create landing pages that convert more visitors into leads and customers, admittedly pushing the limits of metaphor further than it probably should be ;-) And be sure to check out the recap below the infographic for some bonus tips, too!

(Click infographic to enlarge.) So what now? How to Analyze the Strength of Your Marketing Offers. As an inbound marketer, you spend countless hours creating remarkable content to help generate leads for your business.

Whether it’s a blog article, whitepaper, ebook, or webinar, it takes time to think of a topic that’s relevant to your audience, research that topic, and then create content that will attract new leads and customers. After Google Penguin, Travel Sites Need to Get Serious About Inbound Marketing. Google’s Penguin algorithm update has impacted several travel affiliate websites.

What did all those travel sites have in common? A search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that depended heavily on a non-diverse link profile with a majority of their links coming from low quality sites with over-optimized anchor text. As a result, many businesses were decimated by Penguin, just like Panda before it. These sites won’t recover the organic traffic and rankings they once had unless they do some cleaning up and reinvent their online marketing strategy.

8 Ways to Integrate Social Media Into Your Lead Nurturing Campaigns. We often fall into the trap of assuming that lead nurturing is a completely email-driven strategy .

But technically, lead nurturing is defined as consistent and targeted communication to move your leads further down the funnel. So while email has proven to be a very effective tool for this, it is not the only bridge between your company and its leads. The 5-Step Guide to Executing an Outstanding Inbound Marketing Campaign. We marketers are known for launching and running various campaigns.

Sales - Why Lead Scores Should Have Expiration Dates. It became immediately apparent to Howard J. Sewell that something was terribly wrong with his client's lead scoring system. "The most glaring symptom was the absurdly high scores: hundreds of contacts had lead scores of more than 1,000, even though the supposed threshold for a sales-ready lead was a mere 100 points," he notes at The Point.

Is Your Sales & Marketing Team Ready for a CRM? As a marketer, you're likely familiar with a CRM system; if not, no worries, you're about to learn all about it! The frustrating thing about many CRMs is that they come with a range of functionality -- from basic to robust -- and all too often, businesses find themselves equipped with more than they need (or frankly, can handle). In an attempt to equip businesses with the right CRM system for their needs , this post will explain -- without the gobbledygook -- what the heck a CRM is, why they are incredibly valuable in the right hands, and whether you actually need one at this stage in the game.

Understanding How Your Marketing Analytics Gives Credit for Conversions. When chatting with marketers, one of the most common questions we hear at HubSpot is regarding "first touch" versus "last touch" attribution in marketing analytics . First touch, last touch, and assist reports are all different ways to attribute conversions on your website, and each of these attribution methods will tell you something different and important about the effectiveness of your marketing and the behavior of your visitors. The following guide will help you understand the difference between "last touch," "first touch," and "assists" attribution, as well as give you a sense of the primary use-cases for each approach. As a wise man once said, you should always give credit where credit is due! How to Design a Persona-Centric Website Experience. How to Combine Personas With Automation and Get Closer to Customers.

Stephanie Miller | April 2, 2012 | 1 Comment. 20 Fresh Stats About the State of Inbound Marketing in 2012. The Inbound Way to Do Trade Show Marketing. How Inbound Marketing Works, From Start to Finish [INFOGRAPHIC] Inbound marketing is no cakewalk. Marketers who are embracing inbound have a variety of different channels and tactics to master, including content creation, SEO, social media, lead generation, lead management, and analytics. 6 Google+ Tips for Businesses.