The Blog - Where Business Collides with Human Nature

Use Adjectivity to Entice and Inspire

To persuade, you emphasize and wave your arms. To influence you might spin the story a bit farther than the truth.  To entice, use more adjectivity by including adjectives in titles, headlines and your helpful content.

Topics: Guerrilla Marketing Inbound Marketing

Catching Fish With Strawberries and Cream

They look the other way, ignore your Facebook page, delete your email without reading and discount your interview. While your business is appears to visible, it might be intentionally ignored in the new world of media.

You take it personally because you took hours picking the exact photos for your website, the faucet for your AirBnB rental, the perfect font for your landing page. Perfection is ignored and it is all personal.

In reality, there is little seperation betweein personal and business.  This blur between personal and business warps our judgment and what appears to be so important may not be so.

Topics: Guerrilla Marketing Social Media Marketing Inbound Marketing Marketing Strategy

Linkedin Pulse & Why it Matters

LinkedIn turned into a content site with anyone having the option to write an article on Pulse. When they added Pulse, only influencers were invited. Now anyone can post an article. You can access LinkedIn Pulse here:

Topics: Social Media Marketing Inbound Marketing Linkedin

SEO - That was Then & This is Now

Did you ignore the hype over the last 10 years about SEO? Are you tired of the emails, spam and phone calls with big claims "We can make you #1 on Google in 7 days"? The idea of a brick and mortar business relying on the invisible world of the Internet or SEO where terms about "keyword ranking" have been foreign.

It no longer matters. The tricks, strategies, tactics, white hat, gray hat and black hat for keyword ranking is being outsmarted by search engine software.

The new world media and technology, Internet marketing, social media, content marketing and the new hot "inbound marketing" has changed. Not everyone has caught up and "experts" will keep trying to sell the old.

Topics: SEO Inbound Marketing

Manifesto of Content Strategy by Rand Fishkin [video]

Marketing considerations for content strategy vs. content tactics can and will be explained in this video.  Breaking Internet marketing down from from complicated to simple, Rand Fishkin gave this talk at the SEOmoz Meetup at the Search Church. 

He talks the keystone of SEO: content and how many marketers believe they are making sales directly. Instead content marketing is meant to build familiarity, build likability, and build trust. The only way to do great content is to do it over and over again.

Topics: Inbound Marketing Content Marketing

Checklist to Hire Inbound Marketing Services

Are you interested in getting more leverage online?  This checklist will help you to prepare for inbound marketing services. If your business is in start-up mode, this checklist can also be a guide to improve your chance of success.

Topics: Internet Marketing Inbound Marketing

The Science of Inbound Marketing

Companies like Dropbox, FreshBooks, 37signals, and HubSpot are able to generate tens of thousands of leads using marketing people love because they're all masters of inbound marketing.

This is not a new presentation and yet Dharmesh Shah, founder and CTO of HubSpot offers timeless principles.  Learn why inbound marketing is such an important addition to your marketing plan.

You will walk away with new ideas about search engine optimization (SEO) and how social media and search are impacting each other.

Topics: Inbound Marketing

Which Offer is Best for Landing Pages During the Buying Process

Which are the best offers to use on a landing page?  The answer varies based on the visitor and what phase they are in during their buying process.  Since no two people think the same, we can break down them down into three basic groups:

  1. Awareness:  People have either become aware of your product or service, or they have become aware that they have a need that must be fulfilled.

  2. Evaluation:  People are aware that your product or service could fulfill their need, and they are trying to determine whether you are the best fit.

  3. Purchase:  People are ready to make a purchase or take action very close to making a purchase.

Topics: Offers Inbound Marketing Conversion Landing Pages

Bad Website Landing Pages and How to Fix Them [infographic]

The word an entrepreneur loves to hear is "yes" and it comes from faith, trust and curiosity. A landing page is a moment of decision where seven short seconds can make all the difference. As the seconds click by, here are barriers to getting a "Yes! I will complete the form and give you my real information!":

Topics: Inbound Marketing Conversion Landing Pages

Steps to Master SEO [infographic]

If you are an SEO expert, you have to crack the books and test online marketing theories daily. The world of getting found via search engine optimization continues to evolve as search software gets smarter.  Will Google truly have a power to read the heart and mind of someone searching?  If so, will an SEO expert be able to know exactly the right button to push at exactly the right time? (Not likely)

If you are an entrepreneur, you see and hear the hype from a distance about SEO this, social media that.  You pause for a month to take care of business and when you come back to review the news, it has all changed. There are new widgets, new methods and the old ways are "dead". Who can you trust when the system and tools change more frequently than you change your socks?

"I won't be manipulated" is the mindset of search engine companies and they have low tolerance for those attempting to game the system.  

And now... 

The latest dialogue about search engine optimization (SEO) sounds more like days of old before the Internet.  In fact as you listen to the SEO experts now, you may recognize the similarity in language Jay Conrad Levinson used in his books about Guerrilla Marketing.

Regardless, 51% of web traffic is said to to come specifically from search. People need or want something special and they Google/Bing for the answer. Experts, brush up and think forward. Entrepreneurs, get your head out of the sand.  

Topics: SEO Inbound Marketing

Do You Like to Talk vs Write? Hire Someone to Transcribe the Audio

You like to talk and while you have writer's block, you never seem to have talking block.  You think like lightning and words are always available.  The alternatives to talking are slow in comparison and include writing, typing, sign language, and morse code.  You look at a keyboard and say "no thanks" (But the smart phone looks very appealing.)

Since the average human hand-writes at 31 words per minute for memorized text and 22 words per minute while copying, writing is out of the question.  Much too slow. 

An average professional typist types usually in speeds of 50 to 80 wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120 wpm. 

Topics: Business Software Inbound Marketing Content Marketing Outsourcing

Statistics to Show Why Website Design is so Important [infographic]

Website design has become more important and it has also become much more complicated. In the 1990s, an innovative business owner could figure out how to make a basic website and customers would be happy.  It was simpler then.

A lot has changed. The idea that a business owner can run a company and manage an effective website at the same time is unrealistic.  This is also why so many companies have turned to professionals to help them meet their performance goals with growing business with the Internet.

Topics: Inbound Marketing Webdesign Landing Pages