What is HubSpot?

Most companies spend way too much time trying to tell people what their product or service does and way too little time trying to attract more people using inbound marketing by creating content that their prospective customers care about.

If you know anything about HubSpot, you know that we spend the majority of our time using inbound marketing to attract YOU to us, so we can limit the number of annoying cold calls, junk mail and automated-spammy emails in the world.

The result of that extreme focus is that we get more web traffic than Salesforce.com (a multi-billion dollar company) and are the fastest growing marketing software company by far.  The other result is that the millions (yes, millions) of people who interact with us say things like "I love your Webinars, Blog, Ebooks, Marketing Update Podcast, SlideShares, and Videos...but what do you guys actually DO?"  Well, as a marketer I'd rather have millions of people visiting my website and blog and not know exactly what we do than 1,000 people visiting my website and knowing exactly what we do.  But, we also decided recently to spend some time making a short, fun, animated answer to the question "What is HubSpot?".

What is HubSpot?

 

How did we do?  Before this video, did you know what HubSpot does?  Does this video explain what we do?  How else would you tell someone what HubSpot does?  Give us some feedback from your marketing experience!

Sign Up for a Free 30-Day Trial

Try out HubSpot's inbound marketing software for 30 days

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

11 Must-Subscribe Marketing News Blogs and Websites

newsimageThe savviest marketers are constantly staying on top of the latest trends and news in marketing. Are you one of them? Keeping up-to-date with marketing news can help you stay ahead of the curve in your own marketing and keep ahead of competitors in your industry. So where can you go to make sure you're in the know?

Subscribe to these blogs and websites via email or add them to your favorite RSS reader to stay on the cutting edge of all things marketing!

11 Must-Read Marketing News Blogs/Sites

1. Marketing Pilgrim (Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email): Launched by internet marketing consultant Andy Beal, this blog brings you the latest news, rumors, and reviews of all things related to internet marketing and online advertising.

2. eMarketer (Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email): eMarketer offers data, statistics and analysis on digital marketing, media and commerce by weighing and analyzing information from various sources.

3. The Forrester Blog - Market Insights (Subscribe via RSS): Geared toward market research, this Forrester blog features a roll-up of posts from analysts serving market insights professionals.

4. TechCrunch (Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email): Follow TechCrunch to stay on top of new technology developments and the latest tech news.

5. Search Engine Land (Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email): Covering topics related to search engine optimization and search engine marketing, this blog will keep you in the know about search news.

6. Mashable (Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email): Mashable is your go-to website for social media news and tips.

7. Official YouTube Blog (Subscribe via RSS): Get a heads up on any new features or updates about YouTube.

8. The Official Google Blog (Subscribe via RSS |Subscribe via Email): Be notified of the latest Google news from the powerful search engine giant.

9. LinkedIn Blog (Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email): Stay abreast of new features on LinkedIn and learn tips and tricks for effectively using the social network.

10. Official Facebook Blog (Subscribe via RSS): Be the first to know about the latest and greatest from the world's top social network.

11. Twitter Blog (Subscribe via RSS): Get all the breaking news about features, updates, and tips for Twitter.

What other blogs or websites do you use to stay on top of marketing news?

Free Ebook: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing

Free Ebook: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing

Learn how to implement a comprehensive internet marketing strategy, step by step.

Download this free ebook for step-by-step instructions on how to make internet marketing work for your business.

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

How the Evolution of PR Mingles With Content Marketing

PR shows the way forward

This is a guest blog post by Rebecca Lieb, a digital marketing consultant specializing in content marketing and SEO as well as a sought-after speaker, writer, and author. Her next book, Content Marketing, will be published by Pearson in September.

Public relations just plain doesn't work the way it used to.

In a way, PR is one of the original forms of content marketing. Public relations professionals do plenty of things, of course: publicity, reputation management, and media relations, to name but a few. But the heart and soul of PR has always been planting stories in the media: in newspapers, magazines, on television and radio. With the exception of "the exclusive," the primary tool in the arsenal for planting stories has traditionally been the press release, a brief, persuasive, one or two page document intended to persuade its journalist recipients that a certain topic is worth their time, attention, and coverage.

But press releases don't work that way anymore. They're no longer a private, one-to-one communications channel (once upon a time, releases were mailed, and later faxed, to newsrooms). In today's age, press releases are distributed via wire services -- wire services that are immediately picked up by all the major news services including Google, Yahoo, AOL News, and Bing. In other words, the second a press release is actually released, the PR practitioner has broken his or her own story. It's hard to persuade people in the news business to pick up "news" once the story is already "out there."

So while PR practitioners were once exclusively in the business of influencing the media (and they still are), they (like all other content marketers) are themselves the media. Moreover, they interface and target a media landscape that's grown far beyond traditional press and broadcasts outlets.

That's a real game changer.

Yet, fundamentals remain the same. PR professionals are good at helping to shape and to spread stories, and content marketing is, as we've seen, very much about stories. In a digital landscape, this necessitates not only finding and shaping stories, but also determining how they are told, through which channels, and to whom.

Enter the Optimized Press Release

An effective press release isn't dead in the context of content marketing. Instead, it's optimized for a variety of different target audiences as well as for search engines. Given that once a release crosses the wire, it's "out there" for anyone to find (not just journalists), keyword research has become an essential component of optimizing press releases for search. Once you decide on two or three relevant search terms, these terms should be incorporated into the headline and opening paragraph of the release. It's become increasingly important for press releases to contain links to video, photos, executive bios, a company or product web site -- anything that will expand upon and enrich the story.

Find the Influencers (Not Necessarily the Journalists)

End-users, potential buyers, or clients can now be the target of your press release. In bygone days, that target was limited to the press. Where PR pros used to jealously maintain, guard, and update media lists, their who's-covering-what-beat Rolodex of who to reach out to place stories, the challenge now is to target influencers. Influencers can be bloggers or others with a significant social media following who are talking online about the issues, products, or services that fit with whatever a PR professional is working to publicize. And unlike the mainstream media, these essential targets are not necessarily versed or experienced in dealing with PR pros.

This lays out a new set of challenges:

  • Identifying the influencers
  • Building relationships with them
  • Finding the online communities where relevant discussions occur
  • Creating awareness and enough enthusiasm to encourage these people and groups to discuss the product/service/story.

How are you adapting to the changing nature of public relations?

I hope you’ll join us for our free webinar on Thursday, July 28, when we’ll discuss these concepts in greater details, as well as flesh them out with case studies.

How to Supercharge Your PR Program with Social Media

How to Supercharge Your PR Program with Social Media

PR today is about building communities with media, journalists, bloggers and other stakeholders – and then sharing information with them.

Download this free 6-part series and learn how to take your PR programs to a new level with social media.

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

How to Use Social Media Data to Improve Paid Search Campaigns

wet feetThe following is a guest post by Jared Reed of SteadyRain, a St. Louis-based internet strategy, design and development firm.

Sisyphus had it easier. Pay-per-click (PPC) has become so technical, that it’s hard to get a leg up as a newbie. Beginning at the dawn of Google, when I first got my feet wet with PPC, you could learn everything in an afternoon. These days, it seems like there’s a new management tool, tracking metric, or ad product springing up every hour.

To get a competitive edge, I strongly suggest using data from other sources to inform your PPC strategy. Today, we’ll specifically look at social media data sources.

Sure, you should spend time learning the tricks of the PPC trade, but investing your time in analyzing social media data will reward you and your clients handsomely. This new kid on the block and all her insider knowledge just might give you that extra boost you need to move ahead of the pack.

Social Media Monitoring

Social media monitoring programs now come in every size and price. But lucky for you, many monitoring tools are available to you free of charge.

The easiest way to monitor data for PPC campaign improvement is to create Google Alerts for your brand terms. Google Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results -- such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs -- that match your search terms. Look for terms people use when referring to your products, brand, or services that aren’t being used in your PPC program. These keywords can often be a very rich source of additional traffic that can be bought at a much lower cost-per-click (CPC).

Your customers are literally telling you what PPC campaigns to create via social media channels.

Social Tags

Like social media monitoring, social tagging can be a goldmine of information. For example, marketers can review sites that use tags often to find new terms and phrases to add to their PPC mix.

Delicious is a social bookmarking site that utilizes user-generated tags in order to share links to a multitude of resources and information. Use the tag search function on Delicious to find new keywords for your PPC campaign.

More specifically, if I sell iPad accessories, a tag search reveals the usual keyword suspects like “case” and “keyboard.” However, the search results will also include other terms that I might not have considered, like “cool ipad accessories” or “ipad gadget accessories.”

Analyzing tags is a very manual process and can take some time, but your long tail traffic will benefit from terms that, over the long haul, can be a fire hose that's really cheap.

Demographics

Many social media monitoring platforms offer demographic information such as age and location. Use this information to expand your PPC program by creating a geo-targeted campaign focused on areas that generate the most traffic to your social media site.

Facebook Insights offers some actionable, demographic data. Under Demographics, you can view visits to your page by country and city. Perhaps you have a disproportionate number of fans in Seattle, Washington or Dallas, Texas. Copy your national campaigns, optimize them for the local geo-modifiers and geo-target them.

Competitors

Not only are people talking about you, but they are also talking about your competitors. See what they are saying in online social arenas. What do they like or not like about competitors? This is great data you can use in not only your keyword buy, but also your ad copy.

Let’s go back to the Google Alerts example. Set up alerts for your competitors’ brand terms, and see what people like or don’t like about their brand, products, or services. Perhaps people complain that your competitor’s customer service number is hard to find. Provided you have quality customer service available, create a PPC campaign or ad group centered on your customer service, and use the phone number in your ad copy.

As digital marketers, we are way beyond the time when we could just focus on one or two digital channels. Search engine optimization, pay-per-click, and social media all work together in a connected ecosystem of online finding, sharing, and discussing. Squeeze our every last piece of benefit for your PPC data.

Your customers are telling you what to do. Just listen.

Photo Credit: jesiehart

Free eBook: 7 Google Tools to Improve Your Marketing Effectiveness

Free eBook: 7 Google Tools to Improve Your Marketing Effectiveness

Google is not only a search engine. It also owns a range of assets that provide marketers with social networking and content creation opportunities.

Download the free eBook to find out about some of Google's lesser known tools and learn how to use them for marketing your business.

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

12 Eye-Opening Daily Deal Site Statistics [Data]

daily deal sitesAnd the daily deal site debate continues. Among so many conflicting opinions about whether involvement in daily deal sites is worth it for businesses, yesterday eMarketer featured new data from five different sources that still doesn't make a clear case for daily deal sites either way.

12 Interesting Statistics From Daily Deal Studies:

Source: Merchantcircle Survey, June 2011

  • 58% of businesses cited customer acquisition as the top reason for liking daily deals. 
  • 42.4% of businesses cited ineffective customer acquisition as the primary reason for not offering a daily deal again.

Source: ForeSee Results Survey, March 2011

  • 38% of daily deal buyers said they were already loyal to the business offering a deal.
  • 31% of daily deal buyers said they were new customers 
  • 27% of daily deal buyers were swayed by a discount after having either visited only sporadically or had stopped patronizing the establishment altogether. 

Source: Rice University Survey, June 2011

  • 77% of deal buyers for Groupon, LivingSocial, Travelzoo, and BuyWithMe were new customers, all spent more than the deal's value, and an average of 20% of these new customers became repeat customers.
  • 48.1% of businesses said they would offer another daily deal, while a third were uncertain. 

Source: ConsumerSearch.com and The About Group Research, June 2011

  • 68% of daily deal buyers returned to the establishment even without another discount. 
  • 53% of daily deal buyers went on to become regular customers.

Source: Technomic Research (Food Industry Research Firm)

  • 67% of daily deal buyers for restaurants said they returned to the restaurant where they had previously used a daily deal. 
  • 48% of daily deal buyers for restaurants were new customers, and 83% ended up recommending the restaurant to family or friends.

Marketing Takeaways:

While most of the data seems to point favorably in the direction of businesses using daily deal sites to their advantage, the businesses themselves still seem pretty skeptical about their worth. So what's up with all this conflicting data, and what can marketers learn from it?

For some businesses, use of daily deal sites might help boost sales and increase new customers, while for others, it might not. Restaurants, for example, seem to be a great fit for these daily deal sites, whereas other businesses might not benefit as well.

So should you try using daily deal sites or not? We think there's no harm in experimenting. Be aware of the pros and cons of daily deal sites, and if you weigh them and still think you might be able to succeed, test one out! It might fail, or it might hit a home run. Innovating and experimenting with new trends that ultimately pay off is usually what propels many successful businesses. You could be next! 

Have you tried using daily deal sites for your business? What have you learned?

Free Download: 101 Marketing Charts and Graphs

Free Download: 101 Marketing Charts and Graphs

Improve your decision making and long-term performance with marketing data for best practices.

Download these 101 charts today!

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

Marketing Lessons From Borders’ Bankruptcy

BordersMichigan-based book retailer, Borders is filing for Bankruptcy and closing its doors. Borders had been looking for a buyer for the company with no success, and it had been unable to keep up with its costs and its larger rivals, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. So what happened to Borders? How should marketers adapt to avoid similar problems?

Borders fell victim to the trapping of four key problems that ultimately caused the long and slow death of its business.

4 Marketing Lessons from Borders' Mistakes

1. Failure to Pivot During Technology Disruption - Technology, by its nature, is disruptive. It causes changes to markets that impact the business strategy for all companies in a given market. In the book-selling business, this disruptive technology was the shift from printed to electronic books. Amazon was the first in the industry to make the shift to ebooks, followed by Barnes and Noble. This left Borders lagging behind in a position where it was too late to shift to ebooks and own a viable ecosystem for distributing them. Earlier this year, Amazon announced that ebooks, once thought of as a fad only to be used by technology geeks, now outsold printed books. Industries change (just ask the music industry!). Ultimately, Borders failed to change its business strategy quickly enough to follow and succeed in an adapting market.

Marketing Takeaway: Social media, DVRs, search engines, caller ID, and many other technologies are fundamentally changing the way companies market. Don't continue to rely on cold-calling, TV advertisements, and the Yellow Pages; this is the equivalent of what Borders did. Instead, be like Amazon and use disruptive technology to your advantage by starting a business blog, becoming active in social media, and focusing on paid and organic search engine marketing.

2. Inability to Control Costs - Failing to control costs is a quick death nail for any business. For Borders, its inability to control costs stemmed from its failure to adapt its business strategy. Amazon and Barnes and Noble were able to reduce their costs with electronic books and more online sales. Borders stuck to its model of retail sales, and therefore failed.

Marketing Takeaway: Technology disruption like social media and search engine marketing often result in changes in cost. Not to say that these new marketing tactics are free. Instead, they offer a lower cost and more effective alternative to traditional marketing when executed correctly. As a marketer, it is your job to continue to test new marketing opportunities for your business in a constant quest to lower your cost-per-lead.

3. Not Being a Student of History - Borders wasn't the first company to fall victim to technology innovation. In fact, these types of shifts have existed since the dawn of modern civilization. However, where Borders failed was in paying attention to and examining how disruption affected other industries. Look at all the change that, even in recent years, happened in the music industry. Borders should have been a better student of history in an effort to better set its strategy.

Marketing Takeaway: Block off a couple of hours each day to really examine the disruption that is happening in other markets like music and publishing. What mistakes are being made? Why are the companies that are winning actually winning? Understanding the traits that make a successful business thrive during technology disruption will help to guide adjustments to your marketing strategy.

4. Not Leading the Disruption - First mover advantage does exist during periods of technology disruption. As the smaller player in the industry, Borders had an even more compelling reason to lead the disruption and transition to ebooks before Amazon and Barnes and Noble could take hold of them. Once its competitors got ahead, the smaller Borders didn't have the resources needed to make a serious dent in the developing ebook market.

What other lessons would you add to this list? Were you surprised by the Borders news?

Photo Credit: Dave Dugdale

Free eBook: Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing

Free Ebook: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing

Learn how to implement a comprehensive internet marketing strategy, step by step.

Download this free ebook for step-by-step instructions on how to make internet marketing work for your business.

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

8 Key Mobile Marketing Trends

This guest post was written by Christine Herrington, Co-Founder of SEO Skye, a search engine marketing firm based out of Denver, Colorado. Christine recently published a mobile marketing white paper which we asked her to summarize below.

It is a brave new world for mobile marketing, and without a proper guide, you could get lost in all the new developments. To help you better grasp this exciting industry, we have identified the 8 most significant mobile marketing trends of 2011 that are sure to change the mobile marketing world we know now.

Trend 1 - Mobile Advertising Spend is on the Rise.

According to Forrester, mobile advertising in the U.S. will expand to a billion-dollar business in 2011, nearly a third of the predicted global mobile advertising market. By 2014, it has been projected that the U.S. market will more than double in size, reaching $2.5 billion! 

Trend 2 - Smartphones are Beginning to Dominate the Mobile World. Top 8 Mobile Trends Image 2

eMarketer calculated that U.S. smartphone users reached 60.2 million by year-end 2010, increasing by nearly 50 percent from 2009. This year is expected to see continued growth, with smart phone users projected to reach 73.3 million by the end of 2011. This projected growth will have smart phone owners accounting for 23%of the mobile user population in 2011; by 2015, they will represent 43%. The rising popularity of smart phones will surely produce an increase of engaged consumers eager to use e-commerce mobile sites for their purchasing.

Trend 3 – Demand for Tablets is Significantly Increasing.

In hopes of tapping into the tablet gold rush, Phone manufacturers like Samsung, Blackberry, and HTC have all begun launching their own tablets to compete with the iPad. eMarketer projects that 24 million tablets will sell in 2011, with the iPad's overall share of the market dropping to 80%. This trend creates a new and important mobile marketing frontier for businesses to capitalize on. 

Trend 4 - Mobile Optimization Becomes a Reality.

Constant innovations and improvements are being made in mobile website and application design, making the user experience more engaging and simple. It will be pivotal to optimize your URL for mobile access, and to continually optimize your mobile site for speed, image rendering, and accessibility.  In other words, all of the traditional search engine optimization rules apply and become vitally important to follow.

Trend 5 - Mobile Goes Social.


According to Nielsen, social networking was the fastest-growing category among users of both apps and mobile browsers, growing 240 percent and 90 percent respectively. eMarketer estimates that by 2015, the population of mobile social network users will reach 79 million. Blue Fountain Media found that Americans spend one of every six minutes online using a social network, offering marketers a tremendous opportunity to increase their exposure time through mobile social networking. 

Trend 6 – Location-Based Mobile Marketing Will Become A Necessity.

Users no longer want to just update their status; they want to be able to adjust their social networking experience around their geographic location. SNL Kagan reported that location-centric social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla experienced explosive growth in 2010, with the total user base nearly tripling over the year.With Facebook now offering their Places Application, consumers will begin to expect and rely on mobile sites and apps to respond according to their geographic location. 

Trend 7 – The Debate Between Mobile Applications Versus Mobile Website Continues.

It is still unclear as to which mobile format is more effective: mobile application or mobile website. Experts say it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your mobile campaign. According to Geekwire, mobile websites are more effective at reaching larger audiences and providing instant updates, while native apps promote better connectivity, engagement, and performance.Our philosophy - why skip out, in either case, on such an affordable user-friendly medium?

Trend 8 – Consumers want Accessibility.

Consumers no longer only rely on computers to access the Internet. Mobile Groove found that the average session time for a mobile browser user is 6 minutes, which they will perform continuously throughout the day. This research suggests that consumers want mobile pages to work as quickly as possible. If the mobile page does not perform promptly, consumers will quit their sessions in a fit of frustration. Now used to mobile browsers, Consumers now concern themselves with the information businesses provide on their mobile site, and the ease and speed in which they can access it. The easy answer for curbing mobile user's appetites is “there’s an app for that.”

Marketing Takeaway

The mobile marketing world is expanding and transforming rapidly before our eyes. Users are becoming increasingly dependent on mobile sites and applications for instant access to information, tools, deals, and product research. It will be integral for businesses to adjust their marketing strategy to accommodate for these changes in consumer behavior.

New Ebook: Top 5 Mobile Marketing Case Studies

New Ebook: Top 5 Mobile Marketing Case Studies

Study marketing strategies to take advantage of mobile's growing influence.

Download the free ebook for expert tips on how to get started with mobile marketing.

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

9% More Time Spent in Mobile Apps Than Internet [Data]

mobile marketing apps usage

People are spending more time inside mobile application on average than they are on the web, according to Flurry, a mobile analytics firm.  Playing games and social networking absorb 79% of people's time, according to Flurry. The rest is news, entertainment, and other apps.

Flurry measured the time people spend in apps through its own direct analytics. It was able to get the numbers for the web using public data from comScore and Alexa. According to Business Insider, "The analysis is "somewhat imperfect", but even if you judge it solely on a directional basis you can see mobile apps are consuming more and more time."

The chart clearly shows that Games and Social Networking categories capture the significant majority of consumers’ time.  Consumers spend nearly half their time using Games, and a third in Social Networking apps.  Combined, these two categories control a whopping 79% of consumers’ total app time.  Further, as we drill down into the data, consumers use these two categories more frequently, and for longer average session lengths, compared to other categories.  Any way we slice it, Games and Social Networking apps deliver the most engaging experience on mobile today.

Marketing Takeaway:

The internet started to make inroads into our lives as marketers just 15 years ago, and it's hard to comprehend a day without Google now.  The way we use the the internet has changed too.  Simply stated, our usage has gone from online directories (Yahoo!) to search engines (Google) and now to social media (Facebook).  Built on the desktop and notebook PC platform, the web’s popularity is significant.

Now, a new platform shift is happening with smartphone and tablet shipments exceeding those of desktop and notebook shipments and a new group of users will come to expect their smartphones and tablets to have instant-on connections so they, too, can connect to the Internet.

What are you doing to make sure that you can be found easily via desktop or smartphone?

Free Multimedia eBook: The Ultimate How-to Marketing Guide

Free Multimedia eBook: The Ultimate How-to Marketing Guide

Discover the Keys to Successful Marketing Online with David Meerman Scott

Download this 34-page guide which includes articles and videos on a range of marketing topics.

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

Dance Steps for Marketers: Improving Customer Interactions

A couple of years ago my father taught me to dance.  It was several months before my wedding and my usual method of jumping around wildly wasn’t going to cut it.  Anyone will tell you the hardest part about learning the waltz is noticing when your partner is leading you somewhere.  The challenge is in paying attention to slight nuances amid a flurry of other steps.

Today’s marketing is customer-driven.  Consumers decide how and when they want to interact with companies, not the other way around.  If you are a marketer, chances are you have a strategy for how this month will go.  You have a set of collateral to develop, some e-communications, maybe an event.  Undoubtedly, each of these steps are carefully planned out.  But how adept are you at reacting when your customer takes the lead?

Dance Steps Marketers resized 600

Here are few indicators to watch for in your customers’ lifecycle and some examples of companies that have made good dance partners. [Disclosure: a couple of the examples below are Performable or HubSpot customers. They're marked with an asterisk.]

Their usage drops off:

Behavior doesn’t change on a whim.  If a customer has been using your service in a reliable pattern, then drops off, it’s safe to assume that something’s up. Reach out to them to offer help or ask for feedback in order to prevent customer churn.

Who does it well?

  • Timely.is:  A Twitter application that reminds users when their queue is empty.
  • Runkeeper*: Runkeeper checked in with me (thankfully in a non-judgmental way) after I signed up for their service but failed to track any fitness activities.

They advocate for you on social media:

A number of companies have become really good at thanking customers who have helped spread the word via social media.  Step one is thanking advocates as their posts go up.  A more advanced play? Keeping track of those advocates and rewarding them over time with exclusive first-looks or other benefits.

Who does it well?

  • Foodler: One of my first surprising experiences on Twitter was receiving a genuine thank you and small gift-certificate after raving about the joy of ordering food through Foodler.
  • Dell: Dell takes this to another level. According to Manish Mehta, Dell’s vice president of social media and community, Dell has 40 staff dedicated to Twitter customer response. They actively listen to the community and empower them to make decisions that help shape future products or marketing.

They demonstrate interest in a certain page or category:

Not all customer communications need to be explicitly stated. Marketing is at its most powerful when it adapts to the choices customers make.  Whenever possible, leverage analytics to understand the content customers are downloading from your site or the items they purchase and segment those users based on their interests.

Who does it well?

  • Hunch and Amazon are both known for the advanced user recommendations they provide to customers. It’s hard to mention adaptable content without bringing them up, but there are plenty of other examples to be found.
  • For Knewton,* an online learning platform, this kind of adaptability is central.  Its course material automatically adapts to each student’s strengths and weakenesses as he or she moves through the program.  The result is an individualized electronic textbook and personalized experience for each student.

This is just a starter list.  There are a number of opportunities for you to understand your customers’ motivations and needs better.  What other examples have you seen of marketers allowing their customers to take the lead?

 

marketing-charts

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

5 Sure-Fire Ways to Generate Leads From Twitter

lead gen magnetThe following is an excerpt from our new ebook, "How to Use Twitter for Business: An Introductory Guide" for 2011. Download it for free!

Social media marketing is often filled with useless metrics. As a marketer, the metrics that matter for any tactic are leads and customers. If social media marketing isn’t driving revenue, then it isn’t worth participating in. While it can be a valuable lead generation tool, it is sometimes difficult to start generating leads from Twitter. Use these five tactics for Twitter lead generation as a springboard to help launch a successful Twitter lead generation campaign.

5 Ways to Generate Leads From Twitter

1. Create a dedicated Twitter landing page. One of the most valuable parts of your Twitter profile is the link in your company’s profile. Instead of simply pasting in the URL of your homepage, take the time to create a new page on your website specifically targeted toward visitors from Twitter. This Twitter landing page could be a variety of things. It could be an introduction to your company, an offer for a piece of lead generation content, or other relevant content. The important thing to remember is that some aspect of this Twitter landing page should support lead generation.

2. Tweet links to landing pages. While most of your Twitter followers probably aren’t ready yet for a demonstration of your product, they are likely ready for some of your thought leadership lead generation content. Tweet links to landing pages with lead generation forms for offers that support general education for your followers. Something like “Free Ebook: 10 [Insert Industry] Mistakes to Avoid” will work beautifully!

3. Monitor industry terms with Twitter Search. Twitter Search is a free and powerful tool for understanding what’s happening on Twitter. However, you don’t want to use it just to search for mentions of your company name. Instead, search for common industry phrases and questions to help identify prospects. Once you find people who could be solid prospects for your business, start a dialogue with them, and share content from your blog to help answer their questions.

4. Participate in Twitter chats. Twitter has helped form an abundance of micro-communities that have self-organized around certain topics. They normally discuss industry issues in the form of a Twitter chat. These chats are organized discussions that happen at a set day and time each week. They use a specific hashtag to tag and aggregate the conversation. This public Google doc is a great resource for determining if your industry has a Twitter chat.

5. Connect your blog to Twitter. HubSpot loves to conduct research. We have found that businesses who blog actually have more Twitter followers than businesses that don’t. This is likely due to the fact that blogging provides businesses with more interesting content to share on Twitter. Since every business should have lead generation calls-to-action on their blog, connecting your blog to your corporate Twitter account using a tool like HubSpot or Twitterfeed can be a great way to drive more leads from Twitter.

What other tactics do you use to generate leads from Twitter?

Free Ebook: How to Use Twitter for Business - An Introductory Guide

Free Ebook: How to Use Twitter for Business - An Introductory Guide

Connect with HubSpot:

HubSpot on Twitter HubSpot on Facebook HubSpot on LinkedIn HubSpot on Google Buzz 

 

Powered by WordPress | Read New Palm Pre Blog & Review. | Thanks to Wordpress Themes, MMORPG Games and Free Dating Sponsored by: Website Templates | Premium Wordpress Themes. Thanks to Product Reviews
Dedicated Servers