What Is Inbound Marketing?

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For more than a century, marketing and advertising have been defined by interruptive marketing techniques such as print, radio, and television commercials, cold-calling, sales flyers, and telemarketing.

However, a new era is upon us where the populace is consuming media on their own terms, eschewing commercials, initiating their own search, and embracing social discovery of the products and services they need and want.

It’s no surprise then that marketers are left wondering why it’s getting harder to sell!

Inbound marketing is based on the concept of earning the attention of prospects, making yourself easy to be found, and drawing customers to your website by producing content customers value. These blogs, audio, video, eBooks, eNewsletters, white papers, SEO articles, social media marketing, and other forms of content marketing are considered inbound marketing.

Therefore, the process of Inbound Marketing facilitates and hastens client discovery of your offerings, increases web traffic, generates leads, facilitates sales conversations, and builds loyalty with consumers.

1. Generate more traffic
2. Turn visitors into leads
3. Convert leads to sales
4. Turn customers into repeat higher margin customers
5. Analyze, refine, and repeat

Inbound marketing is especially effective for those businesses with long research cycles and knowledge-based products. In these areas prospects are more likely to get informed and hire those who demonstrate expertise.

In the words of an accomplished marketing professional and new client who found Momentum as a result of our own inbound marketing techniques…
“I need to know enough to know who to hire to get the job done.”

Inbound Marketing will allow you to out maneuver your competition, and be regarded as the expert in your field at the moment of interest.

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What is a Digital Strategy?

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A well-conceived and properly developed digital strategy is absolutely critical to most every successful marketing plan. When executed, it will leverage all your internet, social, and content marketing initiatives in a way that will generate leads and result in new revenue incredibly fast.

Every business is different. The only common denominator is that all business –regardless of industry – is evolving at an exponential rate. For this reason, it is critical that marketers access the best expertise available to design and create an effective ecosystem that is optimized to deliver the desired results.

The digital ecosystem schematic will illustrate how internet traffic (demand) will be generated and how it is commandeered and routed between web site, blog, audio, video, ebooks, eNewsletters, as well as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other social sharing platforms.

All internet marketing, social media, and content initiatives must facilitate discovery and inspire social sharing across all appropriate platforms. All content should be shaped specifically for the venue in which it is deployed. And above all, clear rules of engagement must be implemented to avoid public relations disasters.

When working with a good digital agency, it’s not necessary that you have all the answers. Your digital experts will guide you through the process and begin delivering results your business needs and deserves.

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How Associations Can Harness The Power Of Social

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Associations, whether national, regional, or local, are essentially communities. They are comprised of groups of tribes or individuals who are united by shared goals, interests, or preferences. Associations are, by their very nature, social.

This presents a unique and especially prescient opportunity for associations to leverage the power of new social communication, marketing, and media techniques to achieve their goals like never before. Whether they are professional, charitable, trade, political, cultural, or otherwise, associations may need to fulfill multiple mandates: advocacy, awareness, fund raising, education, communicating, lobbying, among others.

Chances are your association’s key initiatives include:

• Communicating with members
• Demonstrating value to the membership
• Advocating on behalf of consumers at large

What Social Can Do

Utilizing social marketing can open a community of engaged advocates, both members and non-members, who are willing to share your message across their respective social networks, generate awareness, and solidify your associations mandate with the public at large. However your association will have to engage with those advocates and leverage the power of social channels effectively. Here’s how.

Three Key Factors In Harnessing Social Channels

1. Be In The Community

Your association needs to be an active participant on all of the obvious networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. This means you need to go where your members are, and they are everywhere.

2. You Need A Plan

Simply signing up for an account on any given social platform does not mean your association has fulfilled its obligation. Social connections via your chosen networks are not obligations but opportunities to engage directly with your members. This direct connection requires a clear plan with regard to infrastructure, integration, and most importantly a set rules of engagement policy. There is nothing more important than a planned and coordinated process for responding to negative comments.

3. Content

Well-crafted and professionally produced text, audio, and video that clearly communicate your organization’s message are core to a great content marketing strategy. Content is the essential asset that will drive readers to your association via online and mobile. Since many associations are in the enviable position of having a business model based on providing information to their members, the raw materials for stellar content is often at their fingertips. Niche by definition, associations that create well crafted, shareable, and SEO friendly content can effectively push their message online.

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Creating Direct Communication With Potential Investors

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The New Rules For Reaching Retail And Institutional Investors

The key factor behind the bottom-line of any investor relations professional is valuation. The art of effective communication to achieve the highest possible valuation for your company or client is the driving force behind successful, profitable investor relations campaigns.

The internet has fundamentally changed the way in which investor communication is disseminated to investors and potential investors. Early on, the IR section of your company website was a “nice to have” but not a necessary feature. However, in today’s market not only is it expected that your organization maintain an in-depth IR section on your website, governing regulatory bodies now provide guidelines on requirements for those web pages. Communication with investors via your website and the industry standard email subscription newsletter may feel like an effective means for getting out your message but are you effectively harnessing all available channels?

The exponential growth and relatively fast adoption of various social platforms on today’s internet provides IR professionals with an even deeper set of tools to tell their story. You only need to take a look at IR Web Report’s current social media section (click here >) to understand the importance these tools now play in the marketplace. Publicly traded companies are harnessing social channels to communicate with potential investors and shape their brand message. The key to utilizing these essential social channels is a cohesive brand message across all platforms with the understanding that this is a direct connection to your audience; a connection that well exceeds the usual email newsletter approach.

With this direct connection comes a new set of considerations:

1. Cohesion Across Platforms

Across all social platforms, your investors, both retail and institutional need to be viewed as one audience. Retail or institutional, both require the same information. Just as social cannot be the only means for disseminating timely investor information no longer can your website and newsletter be relied upon as the sole means of communication.

2. The Benefits Of Immediacy

Social content pushed through the appropriate channels now places higher than the most meticulously crafted SEO optimized content when searching on Google. Why? Many searches are now based on relevancy and how timely the indexed information is that is being searched for.

3. Shaping Your Message

Monitoring and tracking what is being said about your brand online provides your organization with the ability to engage in conversations that previously occurred beyond your reach. The effective shaping of your corporate message and the governance of a cohesive rules of engagement plan assists in mitigating the inherent risks.

Social media, on all platforms, is no longer a tool solely intended for consumer communication. B2B, HR and now some of the most innovative IR professionals are beginning to appreciate the value in social. We are seeing the emergence of fully socialized businesses in all sectors including those that are publicly traded.

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We can help evolve your social strategy, right now. We begin every client engagement with a Marketing Assessment. And that process begins with a simple conversation.

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7 Ways To Better Investor Relations

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With Improved Inbound Marketing

Here are some steps that with the help of a good marketing firm you can implement right away to dramatically improve the quantity and quality of inbound investment leads.

1. Generate More Web Traffic – Investor relations professionals constantly tell us that their single biggest challenge is getting more potential investors to visit their website. By developing an inbound marketing strategy, you will be able to attract qualified prospects to your company.

2. Create Custom Content – With the help of media marketing experts, you can publish your press stories, blog posts… even audio and video as compelling, searchable editorial content that can easily be deployed across multiple channels, exponentially increasing opportunities for investors to find you.

3. Utilize every social channel – Whether Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or others, consumers increasingly rely on social mediums to connect and discover information. Furthermore, 81% of US consumers consider blogs to be a reliable source of advice and product information.

4. Optimize every communication – Using highly developed inbound marketing software, it is possible to determine the best possible keywords and phrases that will best appeal to your target and incorporate them into all the content, to aid in search and discovery.

5. Generate Leads – It is highly desirable to collect, monitor, and chart all your prospective investors activity on your site, to build a relationship, and pre-qualify them with a series of on-site initiatives.

6. Nurture Those Leads – Consumers will be drawn to your site to read/consume general industry information, learn about social and green initiatives, or to pre-qualify themselves on the investment potential of your business. You must harness these leads and nurture them to fruition.

7. Measure. Refine & Repeat – These essential cutting-edge must be tracked and measured. Based on the results every campaign must be tweaked for optimum performance.

Social Media Is A Valuable IR Tool

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The Rebirth of the Living Room Screen = Christmas for Content Providers

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Industry publications love predicting the decline of the living room screen. Sure network television channels suffer from declining viewership, but the living room flat panel has never been more popular with audiences and, especially, advertisers. Even despite the proliferation of a myriad of media content playing devices.

Declines for Networks

Since the arrival of television sixty years ago, the networks have controlled the living room set and enjoyed a monopoly over the advertising shown on it. However, things are changing fast.

When an advertiser buys airtime on a television network, the sole way to measure the effectiveness of the campaign is to rely on Nielsen ratings.

Nielsen ratings are based on a representative sample that is composed of just 25,000 homes (5,000 for national programming and 20,000 for local stations). Collectively they reflect the viewing habits of over 106 million U.S. households in 210 markets. Because TV ratings are based on samples, it’s possible for shows to get a 0.0 rating, despite having an audience (Example: CNBC’s talk show McEnroe). No matter how the sample is selected and how the habits are representative of the population, sample based ratings always are approximations.

Combine these statistical imperfections with the availability of more choices in the living room, and no wonder network is struggling.

Boon for Content Providers

Meanwhile bleeding edge content companies and ad agencies are utilizing the same techniques that have made web advertising a force with which to be reckoned to take over advertising on living room screens.

These content providers have leveraged the smart screen to become an advertising platform that can better target demos and deliver a more reliable set of analytics when it comes to measuring success.

For instance, there are over 27 million Xbox Live subscribers who provided a wide array of information when signing up for the service (name, age, location, etc.). By using their Xbox, and services attached to it, they are constantly providing more data regarding their interests, spending habits, etc.

The way ad placement is sold on screen is not by length of airtime, but per impression, the same way ads are sold online. In the same way that BBC Kids Television can accurately target moms aged 25-54 on Facebook, Nike can target men 25-35 interested in soccer on Xbox Live.

And they have done it! In June 2012, when the NHL Stanley Cup and the UEFA Euro 2012 were overlapping, Nike maximized the efficiency of its ad budget by directly targeting potential customers using Xbox Live. Soccer fans only saw ads relevant to them, and hockey fans weren’t bothered by soccer ads.

In March 2012, The LA Times reported that the amount of time Xbox Live subscribers spent streaming media surpassed the amount of time playing games. Furthermore, Xbox Live media streaming usage was growing 30% yearly, with users spending 84 hours per month connected to the system. This has grown very quickly and now represents more than half the 150 monthly hours the average American family spends watching television networks (according to Nielsen).

Penny Arcade reported that, according to Microsoft, a single ad placement on its console dashboard receives an average 9 million impressions on a weekday and over 15 million on a weekend. Furthermore, their advertising business has grown 142% yearly since 2010.

Lessons for the Networks

Some of the most forward thinking television companies are beginning to see that in order to compete they have to change their ways of targeting and selling advertising.

Tivo’s recent purchase of TRA, a research company that has found success in recent years with a system that matches up television viewing with consumer buying habits, is a clear indication of where things are moving: increasing ad effectiveness.

Evolving Model

The influence of set-top boxes is helping to shape the new business model. Marketing directly to the audience and the harnessing the way in which consumers interact with their televisions is a top priority for agencies and content producers.

Contemplate the opportunity for a moment. Netflix claims that its subscribers viewed over a billion hours of content in the month of June. HBO GO, the streaming video-on-demand app, has achieved success so overwhelming that the premium network is considering offering a streaming only subscription.

Bottom line? The living room screen is new again. It presents a whole new opportunity to connect directly with individuals within the context of the content they choose at the moment they want it with an engagement or offer that’s unique to them. That’s revolutionary.

The living room screen is not only alive and well… it’s where the action is!

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How OUYA Created a Trending Brand in Less than a Day

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[infobox]UPDATE – June 26th 2013

The day after the crowdfounded Ouya hit retail; the console’s launch could be considered a commercial success. Sold out at Gamestop and on Amazon in many countries, yet some shipping issues regarding the Kickstarter units could jeopardize Ouya’s future.

Many early brand advocates have questioned Ouya’s apology about shipping their product:

– why did retailers get their units prior to early kickstart backers?
– why Ouya’s team has only acknowledge a breakdown with their shipping partner on the day the console hit retailers’ shelves?

If there is one important marketing lesson we can learn from Ouya’s troubled launch it is that catering to your brand advocates is key to growing a community, and that openess and honesty trumps opaque communication.

Is Ouya’s communication going to be its downfall? How many units did Gamestop and Amazon have in stock? Is the “sold out” status of the console another marketing ploy?[/infobox]

Hold on one minute – what is, who is OUYA?

OUYA (@PlayOUYA) is “A New Kind of Video Game Console” – an example of disruption at its finest.

From an unknown name a few weeks ago, OUYA has written the blueprint for what can only be describe to as “viral community branding.” If you do not recognize the name, you’re not alone – OUYA has just had the most successful launch in Kickstarter history by raising over a million dollars in less than 8 hours! Since the fundraising program was unveiled and launched they’ve been trending worldwide on Twitter, have been one of the most searched terms on Google and Bing and the subject of countless articles.

What they accomplished in less than 24 hours is phenomenal. They have now raised more than 5 million dollars in just a few short days.

So what’s the secret behind such a monumental marketing success? There are a lot of factors to consider but all of them have one thing in common: Community.

Harnessing the power of Community has been done before but rarely with such successful execution. There are a lot of steps that have been taken to make sure the brand would be successful. When dissecting the brand identity of OUYA it’s clear that their marketing message is crafted to cater to their audience: gamers. The product is indeed filling a void in the gaming industry, yet what made the branding so efficient is the way OUYA positioned itself as a console for gamers that couldn’t exist without their support.

The people behind OUYA are all “rock-star” veterans of the gaming industry. Julie Uhrman is a former digital distribution VP for IGN (a Newscorp owned company). Ed Fries is one of the fathers of the original Microsoft Xbox. Muffi Chadali is responsible for the Amazon Kindle. And designer extraordinaire Yves Behar is considered to be the heir apparent to Philippe Stark.

By using an effective marketing message and harnessing the right channels to talk to their audience, OUYA’s strategy and message was strong from the outset. They also connected with legendary game designers who had recently experienced overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaigns. This gave their product “street” credibility by using expressions like “open source”, “hackable,” and “free to play” which implies positive connotations within the gaming community. This turned community influencers into an active component of development. Crowd funding completed the equation.

What can’t be overlooked is the low entry price point of the device. This is a tremendous advantage, but to achieve the exposure OUYA needed and ultimately received it was imperative to appeal to the consumers and the most vocal influencers in the gaming community. The result was like an out-of-control wildfire that spread quickly.

These are smart and experienced people and this was a well thought out plan that likely produced results better than originally anticipated. It should be noted that this technique of branding is not normally utilized to be self-sustainable. It would be naive to think that the all-star industry veteran team behind OUYA is solely relying on the community for developing its offering.

OUYA was most likely just gauging consumer/developer interest, and had Angel or VC Investors waiting to see how well the Kickstarter campaign did before buying in with a more substantial and ultimately dilutive amount. A good influencer/community based campaign can make a brand and therefore the difference between the terms of the deal, or whether it goes through at all.

There’s no guarantee that OUYA will be a success but they’ve completed a critical phase quickly, establishing their brand, and creating a huge buzz in a very specific community. That alone is an impressive feat. By knowing their audience, they were able to cater to it directly, engage community influencers, listen to their needs, and turn potential consumers into community advocates by giving them a crucial role in the product lifecycle.

Quite simply – “The people have spoken. And they want their Ouya”. – Venture Beat

[notice]If you enjoyed this article you may also want to read: The Rebirth Of The Living Room Screen – Click Here >[/notice]

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B2B Marketing Has Never Been More Difficult… or More Fun.

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No matter the industry, it has never been tougher to engage prospects in a sales conversation than it is right now.

Let’s face it. No one – you and me included – wants to be “sold.” Most people avoid incoming cold calls like the plague. With texting, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so many other ways to communicate, most desk phones are starting to sprout cobwebs!

Professionals still buy the products and services they need every day. But the impetus now begins with buyer. They seek out the information they need – usually via the internet – and they reach out to those that they perceive have the expertise, solutions, or goods they want and are prepared to acquire.

The challenge of B2B marketers is to:

1) Be easy to find – everywhere

2) Communicate a clear and consistent value proposition

3) Demonstrate industry-leading expertise (in your niche)

4) Allow easy sharing of your collateral and online sales assets

5) Be absolutely approachable and instantly responsive

No one wants to be sold. When they have pain, they want to connect with a trusted expert who can deliver real solutions that solve their problems. Someone who can help them move their business forward. It’s even better if the service or product comes recommended from within their known network.

If your sales approach is limited to cold calling and old school interruptive marketing techniques, you are missing a huge opportunity to connect with buyers on a whole new level.

Content marketing, advertorial campaigns, social media activity, and other relationship-building initiatives are all tools you can use, in tandem with traditional techniques, to establish expertise, make connections, and start conversations with prequalified prospects almost immediately.

Producing sales is more difficult and the old way is dead.

The great news is that, although it can be daunting at first, the new way is a lot more fun!

Two Super Hero Approaches to Social Engagement

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When comic book legend Stan Lee wrote, “With great power comes great responsibility,” he most likely did not imagine that in a mutant-free future this quote would perfectly summarize a phenomenon known as social engagement.

Engagement through social media is a powerful way to reach an audience. And when your brand is armed with a strong cohesive strategy, it can be a super hero. But without that “s” for strategy on emblazoned on your chest your brand is less like Superman and more like a guy dressed in tights holding a chunk of kryptonite awaiting a smack down from the dark side.

To avoid such a doomsday scenario let’s look to super heroes as role models when developing an online brand. There are two ways to represent a brand on social networks:

1) As a lone super hero a la Green Lantern, or
2) As a poster-child supported by a team like the Avengers

Green Lantern

The first is to choose a single voice to speak for the brand and make sure that any person writing on the behalf of the brand respects its value and its identity. This is much like the Green Lantern in that every person wearing the ring has to take the oath to respect the values of the Green Lantern.

You must define the social voice of the brand and how it interacts with the audience. Let’s compare two superheroes that have a lot in common: Ironman and Batman. Both are eccentric philanthropist billionaires who wear costumes to fight crime. If you gave them a Twitter account to share you could easily recognize each of the characters by the styles in which they write. Batman would be more introverted and humble. Ironman would be extraverted and at times arrogant.

In this approach you must use a cohesive voice and never let the audience become aware that there may actually be more than one individual interacting with them. Otherwise you would make your audience feel like they are dealing with split personalities, never knowing what to expect. The latter might be a good idea of the brand is the unpredictable Incredible Hulk.

The Avengers

The second approach is for a strong team of social advocates to drive the brand. In the case of The Avengers, Nick Fury is the voice of the group. He deals with the corporate aspect of things and the generic public relations but when it comes to action it’s Ironman, Captain America, Thor, and the others who do the heavy lifting.

In this scenario your main character (Nick Fury) only post news about the overall brand and rarely interacts directly with the audience. That’s a job left to the associates.

This way every member of the audience feels like the brand is dedicating one of its super heroes to them and doesn’t mind the potential difference in tone between the brand identity and the person representing the brand.

But which route to choose?

In social engagement the right way is always the way your audience is expecting you to engage with them.

What’s the Value of a Facebook “Like?”

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The answer on Facebook is $0 if you don’t have a strategic plan to monetize it or otherwise leverage social media in a way that creates revenue.

Internet coffee shops are rife with “social media experts” who sip lattes and brandish the word “engagement” about as if business were as simple as chatting with friends. Engagement for engagement’s sake often results in a whole lot of yakking with little or no regard to whether or not the conversation is consistent, on brand, on target, or, most importantly, leading somewhere. In short, these “experts” can do a lot of talking and not much for the bottom line.

Almost every brand can benefit from unique and specific marketing initiatives that can be employed to drive revenue using social media.

However, if your social media strategy begins and ends with the word “engagement,” or worse, you have no strategy at all, you are missing out on the huge and essential opportunity to drive your business forward in a quantifiable way.

The truth about employing social media marketing is that it is challenging work. It requires great focus and skill. But when it’s done properly, social media will establish credibility for your brand, expose you to a social reach far beyond your current network of followers, and allow you to significantly impact the bottom line

This requires a unique and comprehensive brand strategy that is informed by specific goals for the brand, deployed with proven tactics and creative that is in-line with the strategy, and validated with a variety of simple measurement tools to ensure a worthwhile return on investment.

And most importantly, there are a variety of specific metrics that will determine the value of a “Like.” You will know and you will like it!

How to Get Your Social Media on Track

• Restart with a solid strategy.
• Avoid BS. Get qualified help.
• Develop a unique plan that addresses revenue.
• Formally define rules for social deployment.
• Monitor all activity for consistency.
• Measure. Adjust. Repeat.

What’s The Value Of A Like?

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