Although your business offering may not lend itself to something as humorous as the video above, it’s important to remember the value of video in your inbound marketing mix. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video may be worth a million. Video’s are a powerful way to highlight your brand whether they are explainer videos or interviews with your CEO.

The Kmart video works on a number of different levels:

• It’s Funny - sometimes a little low brow humor just helps you forget about life for awhile. If the Kmart brand can flip the laughing switch in your brain – that’s not at all bad.
• It Speaks to Kmart’s Demographics - highlighting parents, kids, and grandparents all shipping their pants (and drawers) underscores the breadth of Kmart’s products.
• It Earned Media – Time, Huffington Post, and USA Today all ran articles about Kmart’s Ship Your Pants ad.
• It was Shared - a lot. I first saw the video in my Facebook feed, and after watching it 3 times and almost shipping my own pants, I shared it with my friends. The video has almost 16 million views on YouTube.

There have been critics – mostly focusing on the low level humor employed in the video. The Ship My Pants video also doesn’t seem to be part of any broader marketing campaign or theme like the Geico Happy Than… videos, for example. So it remains to be seen whether Kmart has broader plans for this theme.

Clearly, it’s important to include video in your inbound marketing tool kit. Think about how video can best meet your lead generation and traffic goals. If if you need some help just let us know.

Naturally, Roku expected to receive some earned media from news of its 5 millionth unit being shipped but it also provided a valuable infographic not only to news organizations reporting on this milestone, but also to its engaged Roku user community. Roku’s infographic is helpful in many ways:

1. Links – Infographics are an excellent way to generate backlinks to your website or blog post
2. History – Roku uses its infographic to share it’s company history and evolution by highlighting the partnerships it has built since the first Roku player launched in 2008.
3. Buyer Persona – The folks at Roku also give a nice nod to buyer personas by providing data on when, where and what types of streaming occur with their device
4. Testimonials - Quotes from happy customers are displayed on the infographic
5. Vision - Finally, the Roku folks do a very nice job of capturing their vision of the future of all TV being streamed (100% Roku) in their historical timeline at the top of the infographic

Roku does an excellent job of using visual advanced content to share their company story and celebrate a milestone.

How can your company use an infographic to build its brand and commemorate a special occassion? An accounting firm might identify the amount of tax returns filed and dollars and time saved for its customers. A home builder might show total square feet built and hours that builders and craftmen have spent on custom homes since the company started. These are just two quick examples but there are many ways an infographic can be beneficial to your company.

For software or Software As A Service entities, I think it makes sense from a pricing and features prospective to identify enterprise-level functionality, especially in anticipation of an increased and more vigorous user base. The concern I have is that from a services view, at least here at Lynton, we’ve always viewed inbound marketing as a very holistic process that touches many, if not all, parts of the enterprise from the CEO to sales, legal, training, and even HR departments. Certainly, many smaller companies do not have discrete departments, but neither do some larger or growing organizations. For example, many companies do not consider an in-house legal department unless they are contemplating becoming a publicly traded entity.

Lately, I’ve been thinking that using a term like ‘enterprise inbound marketing’ might be perceived as a disservice by some. I don’t want any current or future client to think that we weren’t thinking of inbound marketing broadly before. We always were. Regardless of the size of a company, processes like discovery, KPI identification, goal setting, website optimization, content creation and management, lead nurturing, paid media use and ROI determination are necessary if not critical for success. Of course, the scale, the resources required, and budgetary spends will differ, but it’s our duty to adhere to a foundational inbound marketing methodology.

Inbound marketing should be a function that is naturally embedded into the enterprise. After all, do you submit your expense receipts your you Enterprise Accounting department or submit contracts to your Enterprise Legal department for review? Similarly, a firm like Ernst & Young provides advisory and tax services rather than enterprise advisory or enterprise tax services. Organizations understand that services like accounting are fundamentally interwoven into the fabric of their companies – whether they are provided by an internal or external team. They should feel the same way about their organization’s enterprise inbound marketing efforts.

Colleges tell you, “Just be yourself.” That is great advice, as long as yourself has nine extracurriculars, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, killer SAT scores and two moms. Then by all means, be yourself! If you work at a local pizza shop and are the slowest person on the cross-country team, consider taking your business elsewhere.

You can read the entire letter here. Opinions of Ms. Weiss’ letter have ranged from those that feel she speaks the truth to those that find her comments patently offensive. Aside from the polarizing nature of the letter, what struck me was the importance of building a personal brand, even in high school.

Regardless of which college you aspire to attend, you need to offer something of value. Elite colleges (like the ones Ms. Weiss applied to) have the luxury of a large pool of applicants coupled with a tiny acceptance rate. Whether you’re a football player or high school validectorian, you need to differentiate yourself amongst your competition. Mediocrity is a commodity.

I suppose one could arge that Ms. Weiss has indeed begun to craft her personal brand by thumbing her nose at the traditional college process. Her notoriety may be beneficial in the short term, but how will her personal brand evolve or hold up to years of Googling by future employers? She will always have to explain and defend the words she wrote in the Wall Street Journal. In fact, if she believes the current college admissions process is so flawed, perhaps she should bypass it completely and prove her value in the free market like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg did. 

Whether you are a person or a business, remember that the Internet now serves as the unofficial historian of your brand. Build your brand wisely today so you won’t have to defend it in the future.

NASA Videographer via Compfight cc

It’s useful to view inbound marketing websites as a 24/7 salesperson for a company. Lately though, it seems many of these virtual 24/7 salespeople seem to have become very polysyllabic. Words like enhancement, nurturing, automation, collaboration, synergy, and integration seem to permeate many business sites. Clearly, some of these words are necessary and common to the business vernacular. But more syllables on your website don’t necessary guarantee more leads.

Process Vs. Results

Many of these larger words appear when companies describe their processes or methodologies. If you’re selling a highly technical service like liquid or gas chromatography, more syllables might be necessary to an extent. But there’s no need to overdo it. Ultimately, prospects and future customers will care less about your process and more about your results. They’ll naturally assume any reputable business will have repeatable, effective processes to be able to survive and thrive.

For example, if you visit a plastic surgeon’s site, will you be more concerned about whether she prefers continuous subcuticular stitches or threading beads at the end of the suture or what the surgeon’s gallery of before/after photos looks like? Probably the latter, if you care about results – and what your new nose or eyelids will look like.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

The above term may work well for Mary Poppins but it has too many syllables for an effective business site. Let’s return to our 24/7 salesperson example. You probably wouldn’t want a real salesperson inundating you with three or four syllable words, so why would a virtual salesperson be effective doing that? Simplicity breeds success. What do you do, what value does it bring, and what makes you different than anyone else doing the same thing? One or two sentences is all you should need to highlight your value either in person or on the web. Keep it simple and you’ll get the lead (and the sale).

Photo Credit: darkmatter via Compfight cc

Buyer personas may be one of the most discussed, elusive, and least understood facets of marketing. The key to converting prospects into customers is based on a clear understanding of who you are marketing to and how to get them interested in your product.

The first step in creating effective, actionable buyer personas is to interview the people you are targeting. Don’t fence them in — ask open-ended questions about what they like and what they want, their favorite social media hangouts and websites, and especially what they expect from your product or service. Once you have created an amalgam “character,” give them a name (e.g., Molly or Andrew). Then post their picture and description for your marketing and sales teams so they will be familiar to everyone. Some companies have one persona in mind — but having several is common.

Once you’ve defined your ideal customer, identify what excites him. What would he like to read? What would she watch on television? Address content directly to this person. Think about popular magazines like Oprah. Every reader of Oprah feels that at least one article is addressing an issue of interest to them — whether it’s how to live simply, or how to find the perfect pair of pants. In every place you place content, direct your messages to your ideal customer. Is she on Twitter? Facebook? Wherever you’d expect this person to be, engage them there.

Content is the watchword of marketing. Creating great content for your customer is the key to success. Know the language that your buyer uses when he searches for your product and target those keywords. For example, if your market is affluent automobile purchasers you’d focus on terms like “luxury car” or “luxury automobile.” Start with Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

What would your prospect think was funny? A traditional joke or one with more irony that would appear to Millennials? Tread carefully with humor; it can backfire and offend more easily than prose.

Continue to flesh out your buyer personas regularly. You’ll develop a good idea of what makes her tick. Now, how do you mold this knowledge into an actionable plan? It’s easier than you think. Find the problem that your product or service will be solving for your buyer persona and create a story around it – Bob is a small business owner, Bob isn’t backing up his data, Bob’s hard drive crashes, Bob doesn’t have a small business anymore. Identifying these “pain points” and showing how your product can eliminate them from your prospect’s life will make the product invaluable to your prospect. A good book to start with to show you how to explain your product to anyone is The Art of Explanation: Making your Ideas, Products, and Services Easier to Understand by Lee Lefever of Common Craft. It will help you wow your personas, and the customers they represent!

The Sponsor

The Sponsor is the lead for enterprise inbound marketing efforts. He’s the “buck stops here” person. This is typically a VP or Director level position, many times the Director of Marketing. This individual could also be a Marketing Manager if a larger company has decided to pilot an enterprise inbound marketing effort. If you’re a marketing agency or consultant – this is your boss. It’s the person you want to advise and make look really good. Many times, they will depend on you to run the enterprise inbound marketing or content marketing machine as their job will be to regularly interface with PR, IT and other groups within their organization.

Legal

In larger or publicly traded companies, the legal department serves as a gatekeeper and reviewer for any content created for public consumption. If you are posting blogs or releasing whitepapers, they will need to be reviewed by legal for accuracy or verification of data. You’ll need to build in time for legal review in your content development process. Legal typically won’t accept any written content that isn’t supported by linked data.

Marketing

The broader marketing team may or may not be involved in initial enterprise inbound marketing efforts especially if an organization chooses to initially pilot a program. If you’re a consultant or agency working on an enterprise marketing effort, be sure to define roles and responsibilities so that there won’t be any overlap of activities or even the perception that an outside agency or consultant is trying to take over any existing marketing roles.

Human Resources

Human Resources may come in to play around performance metrics – primarily for salespeople. If a company has a very autonomous sales force with a “hunter and gather” mindset, they may not be accustomed to allowing online leads to move their way down the funnel. In fact, they may not even know how to effectively approach inbound leads depending on their previous sales background. HR would need be involved in changing the way inbound salespeople are measured and rewarded. If you have 1,000 leads clogging your sales pipeline, it may take some explaining to your top sales folks (whose pay structure may be commission based) that some of those leads may need extensive nurturing and can’t be considered sales qualified leads yet.

Organizational Development

Continuing on with the sales group example, in addition to changing performance metrics you’ll need to train and familiarize your sales team not only on best practices in approaching inbound leads but also on tactics salespeople can use to engage with qualified leads online through tools like LinkedIn and Twitter. This sort of training is particularly relevant for more traditional sales teams in established industries like manufacturing for example.

Clearly, at the enterprise level, inbound marketing weaves through many aspects of the organization and it is important for marketers to be aware of these touchpoints and implications.

Photo Credit: EugeniusD80 via Compfight cc

Well, quite a bit, if you’re not prepared.

There are a few items you should pay careful attention too when planning a CEO video shoot:

Objective - what is the purpose of your CEO video? Is it for new hires, marketing purposes, or PR purposes (i.e. public company crisis, like the BP oil spill)? Your business objective for the video serves as the umbrella of your efforts.

Scheduling - a CEO’s schedule is typically very tight and her time valuable, so be sure to provide a detailed filming schedule in advance. Include a day prior to the shoot for location scouting and build in time for set up before the CEO is on location the day off the shoot. The last thing you want to do is look disorganized in front of a CEO.

Scripting - put some forethought into scripting even if you are anticipating a straightforward interview. Things change when the camera starts rolling. People freeze up. Multiple takes are needed and the answers and questions that seemed so well laid out in your mind, play out clumsily in real life. Have a script and a shooting plan in place.

Trusted Partner - if you don’t have in-house video capabilities, you’ll need a regular, trusted video partner (or partners) you can rely on. If you’re doing geographically dispersed video shoots you’ll want a core of regional video production companies that you can tap into when needed. The good thing about selecting a solid video partner is that most production companies have demo reels on their website. These demo reels let you quickly assess the skill level and quality of their video product. And don’t make the mistake of thinking video is easy and that all you need is an HD video camera and good lighting. Having an onsite producer and video team can be invaluable. Acoustics, lighting, location, and sound quality will all affect the production quality of the video.

The Small Stuff - do sweat the small stuff. If the small stuff trips you up, it becomes big stuff. Define small stuff, Roman. Sure, I can do that. For example, if you are planning a video series with a CEO that is released over time, you may want wardrobe changes. Your fresh monthly CEO video shouldn’t have your CEO always wearing the same shirt – even if the whole series is taped in one day. Another example – glasses. Many glasses today have anti-reflective coating that won’t glare up on camera – but some don’t. You don’t want your CEO’s glasses causing glare. Some CEO’s may not even want to wear glasses on camera. And don’t let your video subject get shiny. Whether it’s sweat or a healthy glow, you may need to consider basic makeup to make your CEO look natural under the glare of bright lights.

Your end video product will be a reflection of both the CEO and the company’s brand. Don’t take any video production effort lightly.

Photo Credit: 2create via Compfight cc

I suppose that all depends. Maybe nothing, maybe discreet strategic guidance or maybe a regular review of created content.

Firstly, if you believe in inbound marketing and you are committed to inbound marketing then, regardless of your budget, you should do it. You may not have the budget to hire a larger agency or develop detailed buyer personas or even create detailed infographics. Don’t let that stop you, as Nike says – just do it. Forward progress.

A commitment to inbound marketing is essentially a commitment to consistent, fresh, content creation. Most people translate this commitment to writing a blog every day or every other day. If you enjoy writing (and can write quickly) that’s certainly a good idea. But if you’re squeamish at the thought of sitting down to write a single sentence, then blog writing isn’t for you. Don’t worry, you have options.

Option 1 – Video

You may be a crappy writer but an excellent speaker. If you’re an effective speaker and articulate ideas well, then record yourself. Practically every smart phone available these days has video recording capabilities. Record yourself talking about your company and your offerings and how your company brings value to clients or customers. Then post your video as part of a blog or even on YouTube. You’ll get better as you record more videos and, regardless of the video quality (be sure of course you are in a well lighted room with no ambient noise), if you know your subject matter, viewers will see that.

Be warned. Capturing video can be tough, speaking to a camera is different than speaking to a person and you may not be a one take wonder. See if it works for you. If not, there’s option 2.

Option 2 – Sourced Blogging

So, video didn’t work and you can’t write so now what. Try Blogmutt, they work like a dog to fill up your blog – nice catchphrase. $79 for a blog a week? That’s value, if you’re happy with the quality of the content, of course. Need more content? Try Zerys, the content marketplace with the content project management tool. Don’t think that sourcing content is a set it and forget option – you still have to review and approve content and ask for revisions if you’re not satisfied with it.

Option 3 – Email

Inexpensive email tools like Mailchimp let you send regular emails to your subscribers. Some caveats. You have to get subscribers – maybe that’s an email sign up list in your store and on your website. Secondly, don’t spam people. Give your email list something of value – a subscriber-only coupon or access to products before everyone else, for example.

Option 4 – Budget Shifting

Are you spending $3K a month on a traditional mailer. Consider gradually shifiting some of that budget to inbound. I remember speaking with a prospect who said she just can’t afford inbound marketing right now. After a bit more poking and prodding I learned that she spends $10K a month on Google pay-per-click ads. Clearly she wasn’t that commited to inbound if she was doing that. But if you do drink the inbound Kool-Aid, scrutinize your marketing budget for opportunities. In fact, review your company budget for opportunities. Do you need a housekeeping crew every night? Can you pair down your office landscaping? Can the monthly office luncheon become the quarterly office luncheon?

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. If you build out your inbound program – the leads will come.

Allow me to explain.

Do you know the story of Pepsodent? The marketing story of Pepsodent? It’s a classic.

Before Pepsodent came along, most Americans didn’t brush their teeth. I’m a little unclear how we actually made it through this national phase of halitosis, but suffice to say – we did.

When successful ad exec, Claude Hopkins, set out to market Pepsodent toothpaste, he knew he had to find a way to get people to brush their teeth. He did this by creating a habit for them.

When Hopkins signed on to promote Pepsodent, he realized he needed to find a trigger for its daily use. He sat down with a pile of dental textbooks. “It was dry reading,” he later wrote in his autobiography. “But in the middle of one book I found a reference to the mucin plaques on teeth, which I afterward called ‘the film.’

Claude Hopkins Hopkins created a habit for people by getting them to check their teeth for film and then get rid of that film by brushing their teeth. Very simple yet highly effective. Here’s why -

First, find a simple and obvious cue. Second, clearly define the rewards.

In this case the cue is feeling the film and the reward is clean teeth without film that you can be proud of.

Interestingly, Later research showed the actual craving Hopkins created was the tingling sensation caused by the toothpaste and not the removal of the plaque film from teeth.

So, content marketing nation – how is your content like Pepsodent? How is it habit forming? What keeps people coming back to your content? Is it unique, thoughtful and opinionated? Or are you regurgitating the same whitepaper everyone else is? Are you truly offering content that is fanciful and elegant or are you creating content for content’s (and Google’s) sake.

Want an example of content like Pepsodent? Look no further than Woot. I’m drawn to Woot to read their quirky, creative product descriptions and then find myself purchasing these value priced products. Through it’s unique content, Woot is triggering visitors to come back for more creative content and to eventually buy the deeply discounted products the content describes. It’s the perfect example of habit forming content.

Photo Credit: Kaptain Kobold via Compfight cc

In a Seattle dive bar, at least.

Dave Meinert, owner of the 5 Point Cafe in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, has proactively proclaimed Google Glass as technology non grata in his 24 hour diner, even though the futuristic eyewear isn’t slated to be available (tentatively) until later this year.

According to Meinert:

“…we don’t let people film other people or take photos unwanted of people in the bar, because it is kind of a private place that people go.”

That seems logical and respectful.

In a nod to more traditional technology, Meinert notes:

Beer goggles are fine…

Interestingly, in touting Glass, Google Founder Sergey Brin recently described smartphones as emasculating.

You’re standing around and just rubbing this featureless piece of glass…Is this the way you’re meant to interact with other people?

Well, no. But, to Meinert’s point, we probably aren’t meant to interact with people while wearing glasses that can record them, either.

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk via Compfight cc

J.C. Penney piqued my interest when they hired Target CMO Michael Francis. Mr. Francis departed after 8 months with little corporate explanation given. Apple alum and CEO, Ron Johnson, took on marketing duties.

There’s no doubt JCP is trying to refresh it’s stores with brands like Levi’s, Izod, and Liz Caliborne. That’s good. All good.The JCP brand refresh has been effective online. It tugged me into a brick and mortar JCP store.

Brick and mortar might be the issue, though. Many JCP stores are attached to suburban malls – many of which are a weird amalgamation of air-brush T-shirt stores, mom and pop stores, baseball card trading outlets and the requisite Victoria’s Secret store. Is there any (even dying) mall without a Victoria’s Secret store these days?

It may be less of a marketing problem and more of and aging, unsightly physical infrastructure problem. First get people into the suburban mall – which may have changed ownership hands and identities a number of times. Then get people past the air-brush stores and the cellular service peddlers to a national chain. And then get them to buy stuff. You’re stuck with the style and feel of the mall whether you like it or not. And I just happened to be in a near dead suburban mall.

Therein lies the rub. With two-thirds of suburban malls suffering from decreased sales or financial distress – is that a place from which you should launch a refreshed brand? Especially, when CEO Ron Johnson has noted that he is committed to not closing any stores?

Back to my JCP store experience. Initially, I perused the the jewelry counter and the shoe sections – which seemed a little messy and unkempt with a  “factory of sadness” flavor to them. It all felt like very unnecessary stuff – junk. But then I poked around further into the Izod and Levi’s enclaves (the stores within a store) and felt a better rhythm to my retail experience.  I ended up bumping (metaphorically, of course) into a sale rack of 650 goose down-fill jackets. Most of them were 3XL but there was a nice lime green XL sized jacket that I ended up purchasing for $14. Bingo. Sweet spot – for me at least. Warmth, value (huge value), and no weird off-brand logo on my jacket. And, based on JCP’s online reviews, it seems a number of folks share my sentiments on this jacket.

Interestingly, JCP does have a window of opportunity. With Wal-Mart sweating slow sales and increased payroll taxes taking a toll on consumer spending, JCP, with focused effort, could offer extreme value to consumers. But, they’ll need to fix their stores – or, more than likely, get rid of many of them – especially those attached to dying suburban malls. It’s an uphill battle. But if JCP can elegantly extricate itself from the suburban mall experience – it may just fix it’s brand.

This same type of cross-promotion is possible in any business applying inbound marketing principles and can support increased traffic and leads. Cross promotion offers an opportunity to share something valuable while targeting leads you might not have reached otherwise.

Some easy ways to implement cross-promotion:

• Trade shows – sure you can have a booth filled with swag, but don’t hesitate to have a copy of your latest white paper on the USB drives that you give away.
• Webinars – end your webinar by posting the web address of a landing page with your latest content offer
• Demos – similar to webinars, demos (even recorded ones) can end by highlighting a useful download or infographic
• Emails – targeted emails can present specific conversion offers and encourage recipients to explore a specific areas of your website

Ultimately, NBC, whether producing a news program or comedy show, is a content creating machine. Think of your marketing organization as a content creating machine that produces blogs, whitepapers, videos and a variety of other content that can be cross promoted.

Photo Credit: kenjisama via Compfight cc

1. Roger Goodell – yes the NFL commissioner could be a thorn in the side of brand NFL. With an approval rating of 39% among NFL players and a lack of transparency glossed over with corporate speak, Goodell might serve the NFL better by stepping aside.
2. The Referees – first there was the labor dispute. Why the NFL thought that showcasing the world’s best players in competitions governed by replacement officials was somehow acceptable is difficult to understand. If you position your brand as the best in the world then everything about it should be the best in the world. Even the officiating crew for this year’s Super Bowl is not without controversy.
3. On-Field Violence – how do you satisfy the bloodlust of the overweight beer drinker who wallows away his Sundays with NFL games while protecting players on the field? Add to that players who play (and may be trained) to hurt people. Well, after 90 some years – the NFL is still figuring that out.
4. Off-Field Violence – from murder-suicides to manslaughter it has been a tragic year for the NFL off the field. With a little under 1,700 players and an average salary just shy of $2 million, has the NFL truly exhausted all the support processes for its players?
5. Ray Lewis – the star linebacker’s pending retirement coupled with his team’s march to the Super Bowl this year seems to be the chosen narrative for Super Bowl XLVII. Should it be? From murder and mayhem to baby momma drama to deer antler spray, is Ray Lewis truly a brand ambassador the NFL wants to embrace? Maybe we should hold up these guys as examples, instead.

Enough football talk. You see the risks to the NFL brand, but what about the risks to your brand? Even if you’re a small company without the exposure of the NFL you still have a brand to build and maintain. Are there employees or processes or even clients that put your brand at risk? More importantly, how are you addressing these risks?

Photo Credit: Brave Heart via Compfight cc

SEX

Apparently, sex sells cars. Or at least that’s what Mercedes and Fiat believe. Or, maybe not. Here’s what Mercedes USA CEO, Steve Cannon, had to say about Kate Upton’s positioning in the Mercedes ads…

“We are not using her as a sexual object.“

My thoughts? Very nice car – I wish they would show more of the car. And is Kate Upton actually washing the car – or are the football players washing it?

SOCIAL

Still selling cars here. This time we’re using tweets not sex. U.S. car company Lincoln asked the Twittersphere to Steer the Script by sending tweets to Jimmy Fallon. Here’s the result:

A winding story line to say the least. Lincoln does a good job of reminding the viewer of a story and a brand that starts with “you.”

SUDS

SodaStream International takes a nuanced environmental angle in showing branded soda bottles exploding while touting it’s seltzer making machine.

Explosive, indeed.

In case you’re not planning on watching the game, you can see all the ads here.

One last thought. If you have $3.8 Million to spend – call us. We can give you 16 years of inbound marketing for that amount. And people won’t forget about your ad a few days after the game.

Photo Credit: methodshop.com via Compfight cc

The first step in creating winning buyer personas is to interview the people you are targeting. Ask them open ended questions about their likes and dislikes, what their favorite social media outlets and websites are and what they are expecting from the type of product or service you market. Use this information to create your ideal customer. Then give him or her a name – Sally or Ian, for example. Make this person as real as possible. Socialize your ideal customer with your marketing and sales groups so that everyone knows exactly who is being targeted. Keep in mind you may have more than one ideal customer.

Once you’ve defined your ideal customer, identify what excites him. Find out what he likes to read and watch on TV and sculpt your blog posts to speak directly to him. Think about some of the most popular niche brands out there, Details Magazine for example. Every reader of Details feels at some point that at least one article in each issue is addressing a concern or problem they have – whether it’s holiday weight gain or finding the perfect suit. In addition to your blog, talk to your ideal customer on his chosen social media platform – which may not be Facebook. If your prospect occasionally uses Twitter but primarily relies on LinkedIn, you have to engage him on both platforms.

Creating great content for your customer is the key to success. Know the language that your buyer uses when he searches for your product and target  those keywords. For example, if your market is upper class real estate buyers in England you’d focus the keyword “flat” instead of “apartment”. Learn what your prospect thinks is funny. A joke filled with sophomoric humor is going to fall flat with the baby boomers. While humor is a great tool when used correctly, used inappropriately – it can alienate your buyer.

Once you’ve hit all of the major chords for your buyer personas you’ll have a good idea of what his likes and dislikes are and when and where to reach him. So, how do you mold this into an actionable plan? Find the problem that your product or service will be solving for your buyer persona and create a story around it – Bob is a small business owner, Bob isn’t backing up his data, Bob’s hard drive crashes, Bob doesn’t have a small business anymore. Identifying these “pain points” and showing how your product can eliminate them from your prospect’s life will make the product invaluable to your prospect.

Image: Polycart

Major brands like Prada, Aston Martin and Clorox were born in 1913. They’ve stood the test of time while also keeping up with the times. But let’s not forget the basics. Regardless of the content that you create or the advertising you do in 2013, here are some things that will resonate just as much in 2013 as they did in 1913.

People Still Sell To People – sure we buy knick-knacks at dollar stores or items online that may not necessarily involve human interaction. But in larger, more meaningful deals and sales – people will interact with each other. Yes, the excellent content you create in 2013 and the thoughtful, targeted emails you send will nurture folks down your sales funnel. That’s all very important. But, at some point, whether you’re a landscaper or a wind turbine manufacturer, a potential customer will want to get on the phone with someone from your company and have a real conversation – just like people did in 1913. And that conversation or series of conversations will likely determine whether you seal the deal – or not.

People Will Still Talk About Your Product – Whether they post pictures of your product on Facebook or they tell friends about it at the gym, people will still be discussing your product. And if your product sucks, people will find out. The solution? Don’t build sucky products and depend on marketing to sell them – that’s a broken model. Build excellent products that are supported by your marketing efforts.

Referrals Still Matter – in 1916, Annie Murray, wife of early Clorox investor William Murray, gave away free samples of Clorox at her grocery store while espousing its benefits. Consumers (they probably weren’t called that in 1916) started telling their friends about Clorox and increasing demand. In a more modern example, we love referrals from our partner HubSpot. We know that HubSpot has taken some time to understand a referral’s needs and has directed them to us because we can best fulfill those needs – and that’s something we tremendously value.

So yes in 2013 you still need to nurture leads down your funnel and integrate sales and marketing data properly. But don’t forget about the elements of marketing and selling that will never truly change.

Dollar Shave Club, which mails razor blades to your door, produced a campy viral video that gained them 25,000 customers a week after posting the video. That’s a pretty good ROI on a video that cost $4,500 to make. Naturally, not all videos can go viral or are even created with the hopes of going viral. If you are,however, looking to craft a video that shares your story with millions, it’s useful consider what Dollar Shave Club did well:

They showed a better way – have you priced razor blade replacement cartridges lately? They’re not cheap, they have needless “space-age” technology, and you have to remember to regularly buy them. There is a better way, right? Of course there is. For anywhere between $3 to $9 dollars a month, Dollar Shave club will mail you quality razors. You never have to worry about buying blades again and you will always have sharp blades. It’s SaaS – Shaving as a Service, if you will. Never underestimate actually solving a problem for consumers and finding a better (and less expensive) way for them to do things.

They got to the point – Dollar Shave Club’s video was a minute and a half long. They shared their value proposition quickly. No need to waste a consumer’s time. Tell them what you’re offering and why it’s better or different than your competitor. If you can’t do that – then maybe you have a crappy product. Don’t kid yourself or your potential customers.

They were funny and unexpected -  A bear, a curse word, and a machete all played a part in a video for razor blades. Just because your company offers accounting software doesn’t mean you can’t use kittens, babies, or donkeys to tell a valuable story.

They made money, lots of money – if the 25,000 customers Dollar Shave Club attracted the week after their video went viral signed up to receive their mid-range razors ($6 per month) that would equate to $1.8 million of revenue for those customers over the course of a year. All from a $4,500 video. And Dollar Shave Club can nurture that customer relationship every month when they send out their blades.

Even if your goal isn’t to create a viral video, there are some valuable lessons to be learned from Dollar Shave Club’s video approach.

Pic: cmpalmer

Both camps have valid points. The simple truth -  Google values content and ranks your site based on the value of your content. If your business is on the web, you’ll need to create content. Content could mean a regularly updated portfolio, a useful enterprise inbound marketing blog, or a glossy eMagazine. Content creation must be viewed as a regular business activity for you – much like recruiting, sales prospecting, or paying employees.

Wait, you say you outsource recruiting and, oh gosh, you even have someone else (ADP, probably) pay your employees? How dare you. How could someone know your company and culture well enough to recruit the right people to work for you without being part of your company themselves? And geez, you can’t even hand write a check to thank your employees for their hard work every two weeks?

No, you say. Why? I think we all know why. You have a business to run, clients to serve. You have to scale and work efficiently as an organization. When you selected your recruiter, you provided her specific instructions as to the type of candidates you were looking for – years of experience, type of experience, type of industry, pay range, etc. Similarly, you instruct your payroll vendor on how much and when to pay your employees based on the amount of hours they work and type of employees they are (contract, seasonal, salaried).

As a CEO, do you ever find yourself saying – my recruiter hires the best employees for me, or ADP pays my employees well? Probably not. So why would it be any different with content outsourcing. Ultimately, whether you are the CEO, CMO, or a marketing manager for your company, you guide any outsourcing efforts. You are responsible for them. The more prescriptive and detailed you are with any outsourcing effort, the better your results will be.

So – about content outsourcing. Don’t be worried about becoming a blog farmer. After all, real farmers had to figure out how best to scale their efforts with machines, irrigation and other techniques to serve a growing population. You to, with the proper guidelines, details, and examples can outsource successfully.

Photo: Marwa Morgan

• Placement – your display ad placement should be aligned with your overarching business objective. Are you seeking to expand your brand? Then target an audience that your brand would resonate with but has not yet reached. You may be well known in the United States but unknown in Canada and looking to grow revenue there. Demographically targeted, well trafficked Canadian business sites might be a wise option. Do you offer services currently focused on a specific industry that could be valuable to other industries? Various industry focused sites might be a good place for your display ads. Let your business goals drive your ad placement decisions.
• Size – Size matters. In display ads, that is. A 300 x 250 pixel ad isn’t a lot to work with so you’ll need to be crystal clear with your messaging. Don’t hesitate to use animation (typically in .gif or Flash) format to present an initial pain point followed by the solution your company brings to the table. Be sure to confirm guidelines and restrictions with the site you are placing your ad on. And don’t forget to visually match your display ad to the landing page you ultimately want to convert a website visitor on.
• Measurement – good marketing is rigorous experimentation. You’ll need to track not only the ads with the most click throughs but also the landing pages that work best – whether they are separate landing pages based on display ads or A/B versions of a common landing page.

There’s certainly a lot to think about. Display ads can provide an increase in brand reach for you and drive visitors to your site that may not have arrived there through your enterprise inbound marketing techniques.

Photo: Lost Tulsa

• NEVER Log-out  - let me clarify. Never log-out when you are researching someone – in preparation for an interview or a client call or even in identifying a person you might be seeking to contact. Let them know you are looking, that you are interested, that you are paying attention and ultimately, that you care – about the position, about the deal or about the upcoming call. Log out, naturally, for security purposes if you’re using a public computer or if you’re looking to (for lack a better term) stalk someone. And if you are LinkedIn “stalking” someone, ask yourself why. It’s business – not Facebook. Be transparent. It’s about getting work done.
• Never Connect Generically – “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” Well, duh. If you can’t take the 2 or 3 seconds to remove this default text and craft even a one sentence personalized message, what future effort will you put into our LinkedIn “relationship” or any subsequent business relationship?
• Never Write a Recommendation – in exchange for a recommendation. Write a recommendation on the merits of the person and the working partnership you had with them. Describe how someone was extraordinary rather than perfunctory. And never expect a recommendation in return.

Simple rules to Link by, right? How about you? Any useful LinkedIn advice?

Image: Fire At Will [Photography]

Certainly, you’ll obtain valuable data in speaking with the CEO or General Managers of divisions within your client’s organization. But more critically, you’ll also better understand the nuances in the visions of various executives. For example, a CEO may be more focused on elevating her organization to be mentioned in the same conversations with elite industry players. Translated to a marketing context – the CEO isn’t completely happy with her company’s brand positioning in the marketplace.

The head of sales, on the other hand, might seek an inbound marketing strategy on more effective selling to the actual buyers of their product or service – middle managers and operators for example. Further, the head of service delivery might want a strategic focus and promotion of the highest revenue generating services.

It’s a balancing act. The (probably more valuable) other aspect of executive interviews is the relationship building and advisory aspect of them. You’ll get a clear sense of who will serve as a powerful sponsor, who is ambivalent, and who might not be buying into your inbound marketing approach. That’s all good though, you’ll know who to work on and who can support your efforts. So pay attention, you’ll get answers to questions you don’t even ask.

 Photo: 416style

If a CEO is asking questions about inbound marketing and the value of inbounding, it’s important for you to place yourself in the CEO’s shoes. To that end, here are 3 tips to keep in mind for that all important CEO conversation.

• Lose the jargon – It’s great that you can discuss CTAs, advanced landing pages, A/B testing and workflows with your fellow inbounders over wings and beers. But most CEOs are not familiar with the inbound vernacular. So, if you think you’re smart by using the term ‘smart cta’ you’re likely doing yourself a disservice and muddling the conversation. Worse yet, a marketing term, like ‘content,’ may mean ebooks and whitepapers to you but could mean something completely different to a CEO who produces music or builds educational courseware.
• Use Examples – storytelling and vignettes work, don’t talk about the convergence of inbound and outbound marketing. Rather, explain how a swag bag at an industry focused conference with the CEO’s company website address on it could serve as  a mechanism for capturing leads on the CEO’s corporate site.
• Remember the Bottom Line – why is the CEO having a conversation about inbound marketing (or marketing in general) with you? Maybe the past 5 years have been focused on product development and now it’s time to market that great product. Understand how marketing fits into the overall organizational plan. If the CEO has decided to grow revenues, then you need to deliver sales-ready leads. If the CEO wants presence and brand awareness, you should be having conversations about reach. Understand the drivers of the marketing spend.

Talking to a CEO about inbound marketing is an opportunity that cannot be squandered. You’re talking to the person with the most passion and most ownership in a company. Focus your conversation so the CEO is confident you can deliver the desired outcomes.

The tragic fall of cyclist Lance Armstrong will serve as fodder for business and marketing case studies for years to come. How can a cancer-surviving, elite athlete who won what some consider the toughest athletic event on earth be so unceremoniously dumped into brand marketing’s trash heap? How can sponsors like Nike and Anheuser-Busch seemingly throw millions of dollars at Lance and just as quickly turn a cold shoulder to him? What were brand marketers missing?

Reams of evidence are showing Lance to be a cheat. And it’s clear that cheating at what brought you your fame and fortune in unacceptable to sponsors. That’s why Tiger Woods, who faced a myriad of personal issues in a very public divorce, is still sponsored by Nike. Tiger didn’t cheat at golf. Further, Tiger also apologized, and he did so quickly. Lance Armstrong hasn’t and may never apologize.

Is Corporate Marketing At Fault?

How much actual vetting and research did Nike do before signing Lance Armstrong? How thoroughly did they look at Lance and the sport of cycling? Cycling for years has been viewed as a corrupt sport full of back room deals and finger pointing that was long overdue for an overhaul in governance. Should Nike have taken a deep dive into the cycling system to see how it really worked? Perhaps they would have nixed all cycling sponsorships if they had. It seems that some intense vetting would have shown alarming patterns of cheating and doping permeating the entire cycling system. So, did Lance Armstrong singlehandedly bring down cycling or was he simply trying to outwit an already corrupt and flawed system.

As brand marketers, we owe it to ourselves and to our clients to truly vet potential sponsorships. My sense is that a few weeks being embedded within the cycling community, even in the late 1990s, would have exposed some very unappealing truths that should have raised a red flag even for the most eager of sponsors. We need to be overly cognizant of the systems and the processes of the industries we look to for sponsorship. Just because a gangster is likeable and handsome and has a personal story that resonates across demographics – he’s still part of the mafia.

Is Lance Armstrong at fault? Yes. Is the sport of cycling at fault? Most definitely. Is Nike Corporate Marketing to blame? Yes. Did they look past the seedy side of cycling to the potential revenue uptick that Lance could bring them? Most likely.

As marketers we need to vet not only the product, service, or person – we also need to consider the systems and processes that produce the product or service or person – if the systems are corrupt and flawed – their outcomes will likely be corrupt and flawed as well.

Apps are a unique form of advanced content – Whitepapers and ebooks certainly are valuable content. Apps, however, take the concept of useful content to another level. Consider our SnapEngage app. This app allows you to chat with visitors to your site and automatically adds them to your HubSpot contact list. That’s pretty powerful – you can engage with visitors that come to your virtual store and also capture a new lead. It’s (software) content that offers immediate tangible value.

Apps highlight your industry or niche expertise – Whether you build your app in-house or have your smiley, geeky friends at LyntonWeb build it for you (hint, hint!), you will highlight your business expertise. For example, our Microsoft CRM Connector App , showcases our knowledge not only of HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics, but also our understanding of the business imperative of sales and marketing alignment. How can apps increase your product or service thought leadership? Do you offer hazardous materials management services? Certainly that’s a niche industry – why not build a custom HubSpot app that assesses your service ROI over in-house hazardous materials management. You can even build the app flexibly so that it can genericized across a variety of niche service industry.

Apps start a completely different conversation – instead of “thanks for downloading our whitepaper” it’s “how do you like our app?” and “can we help you customize our app” or “let me show you this feature.” It’s a much more “let me show you how I can help you right now” focused conversation. Apps can quickly lead to a meaninful conversation.

How are you using apps? What’s the downside of apps? Need a custom app built? Sure, we can do that.