Bay Area Inbound Marketing Blog

Many people do not understand the buzz around social media. They think of Facebook and Twitter as places for social interactions and “fun”, not realizing that they can be powerful inbound marketing tools.

Having active social media accounts on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s a ‘must have’. That's right, you will see a big return on a facebook business page. How big? Read these statistics:

Marketing has evolved as people spend more time on the internet. Consumers now look to internet search engines, the blogosphere and social networking sites when they want authoritative information on products and services. Have you developed a strategic marketing approach that makes it easy for people to find you in this new virtual world?

The average person receives 2,000 outbound marketing messages per day. As the number of marketing messages have increased, so has the sophistication of technologies to block these messages. Caller ID, spam filters and Tivo are just a few examples.

Social media is a powerful tool, but cannot stand alone as an internet marketing solution. In fact, social media comes last – you need to discover your voice through blogging and have a key word strategy first. Social media assumes you have content to share or something to say, so consider your overall inbound marketing process before you focus in on your social media marketing strategy.

When thinking about “how do I increase revenue for my business?” look to your existing customer base. It costs five times more to gain a new customer than to retain a current customer. What can you do keep your customers coming back for more?

Easy internet marketing has replaced old-fashioned trade show and brochure marketing. Internet marketing today means blogging using targeted keywords, giving away a small amount of valuable information, search engine optimization, and social media sharing. We call this new, easier process inbound marketing.

At its core, inbound marketing relies on fresh, interesting written content about your industry. You want to give away just enough of it to establish your credibility and authority. Blog topics, white papers and webinars you offer should answer common questions about your industry.

Thank you pages provide an important follow up to your landing pages. Your offer on your site’s landing page was so appealing that your visitor filled in her name and email address. What’s next? Optimize your thank you page so you can move your visitor further down the sales funnel. Here are four best practices for optimizing your thank you page.

1. Give clear instructions about how to receive the giveaway – Whether you are offering useful content, a webinar or free products, your visitor should be able to gain access to this content easily. Allow her to click a link to receive the e-book or start watching the webinar. Make sure they can get the offer immediately. An email with an attachment may take a while.
2. Make another offer – Your visitor has filled out her contact information and is interested. On the thank you page, make an offer for something else she might find useful: another offer or a link to your blog.
3. Restore navigation – On the landing page you took away navigation so the only option the visitor had was to fill out your form. Now, you should restore the navigation so the visitor can view other parts of your site.
4. Offer social media – Place social media icons on your thank you page to give your visitors the options to follow you on Twitter, “like” you on Facebook or folllow you on Linked In.

Your visitors have arrived at your thank you page because they are interested. Optimize your thank you page so you can deepen your relationship with them.

For inbound marketing consultants that will drive traffic to your site, capture leads, and nurture them towards sales....email Laurie@bayareainbound.com or call 510-543-7593 mbl.

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