HubSpot

Showing posts with label HubSpot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HubSpot. Show all posts

Monday, 14 July 2014

Tips For Promoting Your Business Page On Facebook - Prabhakar


Tips For Promoting Your Business Page On Facebook – B2B Marketing And Sales Tip 


Written by Ellie Mirman, blogger at the HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog and Inbound Marketer at Internet Marketing company HubSpot.



So you’ve got a Facebook Business Page… Now what? Building a Business Page is one of the best ways to increase your presence and engage more potential customers on Facebook, but it’s more than just clicking “Create Page”. As you venture out into the social media world, here are a few tips to help you promote your Page and reach more of the 100 million Facebook users.

Create a Facebook Business Page worth becoming a fan of.

To quote David Meerman Scott, nobody cares about your products and services (except you). People care about how you can help them solve their problems. To extend that thought to Facebook, don’t use your Facebook Page to talk about your products all the time. People aren’t interested. Instead, create some interesting, useful content that people want to receive. This could be blog posts, whitepapers, or simply discussions.

Take advantage of the viral nature of Facebook.

Facebook provides great opportunities for viral marketing. Facebook creates a “News Feed” of your friends’ activities on Facebook, like posting photos, changing statuses, or becoming fans of a Page. What this means is that every time someone interacts with your Page in some way, that action is published across all of their friends’ News Feeds, giving you exposure to that person’s entire network. The best way to take advantage of this is to engage your users and give them more opportunities to interact with your Page, for example, by fostering discussions, inviting them to events, allowing them to post links. Leveraging the power of the News Feed is a critical part of establishing your presence on Facebook and building a fan base for spreading your messages.

Don’t forget to draw on your network.

All promotion does not need to take place within Facebook. Feel free to email your opt-in e-mail list, blog about your Page, and post a link to your Page on your company website. The best people to help you build up your fan base for your Business Page on Facebook are those people already subscribed to your blog or engaged with you in some way.

Optimize your Page for Facebook – and public – search.

Another way to get found and build your fan base is through Facebook’s search. Facebook – like all other search engines (Facebook was noted the most used people search engine) – has an undisclosed algorithm that ranks search results in a way that aims to return relevant and useful results to the searcher. The best think you can do to show up higher in these search results is to build a large following of your existing fans, because entities with a larger network tend to show up higher in search results. Also note that Facebook Business Pages are public and indexable by search engines. This potentially gives you exposure to those searching in broader search engines like Google. To make the most of this, start lots of engaging discussion threads on your Page, so that if someone is searching in Google on that very topic, they can stumble upon your Facebook Page and discussion thread.

Get an extra push with Facebook Ads.

If you want to give your Business Page an extra push at the beginning, you can also buy some advertising slots. Note that Facebook ads are much less effective than the viral marketing options on Facebook, and the click through rate for Facebook ads is notoriously low. Facebook advertisements show up on the sidebar as users browse through their friends’ profiles, groups, and so on. When you set up your ad, be sure to include “social ads” – these draw on a users’ network to see who in their network has already engaged with your Page and shows, for example, “Jim Smith is a fan of Company ABC” next to your ad, potentially improving your click through rate. Also, make sure that you give viewers a relevant reason to click on your ad by inviting them to connect with industry peers or offering a free whitepaper, for example. Also in this vein, note that you can target your ads by age, gender, interests, geography, and other factors, to reach users who may be more interested in your Business Page.

Bonus Tip: Measure your results.

Once you’ve built up your Facebook Page it’s good to measure what you’re actually getting out of your social media program. Some metrics you may want to measure are:  number of fans, page views, and unique users. Facebook’s “Insights” provide some of these metrics, including demographic data. You’ll also want to track actions beyond your Facebook Page, namely, website traffic, leads, and sales that come from Facebook. Hopefully some of these tips will help you get your Facebook Business Page off the ground and build it into a valuable channel for reaching your potential customers.

All this said, social media, including Facebook, is by no means static. It is constantly changing and we, as marketers, are constantly learning the right way to leverage these channels for marketing. If you want to see what we at HubSpot have done, you can become a fan of our Page at http://facebook.hubspot.com. And, if you’re looking to network with other marketers on Facebook, you may be interested in the Facebook Pro Marketers group, a group for marketers passionate about marketing. Perhaps there we can continue discussing ideas for marketing on Facebook.


{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Inbound marketing focuses on leads instead of searching for customers


Inbound marketing focuses on being found by potential leads instead of searching for customers.


Inbound marketing focuses on leads instead of searching for customers


Traditional marketing methods such as paid TV ads, direct mailings, cold calling and trade shows are costly. Inbound Marketing is not only effective and less expensive but the results are better tracked.

1. Search Engine Optimization

The primary way that inbound marketing works is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  SEO is a method to get your website to rank high on search engines for specific keywords.

When a potential customer does a web search, they are actively searching for your product or service. So as a marketing firm your audience might type in “Marketing San Antonio,” if you’re website is listed on page 1 of Google, Bing or Yahoo search engines you’ll be likely to receive more quality leads.

Help your business get visibility online with these SEO marketing tips.

2. Content Marketing

Content marketing is creating valuable information to display on your site to increase customer interest. Often businesses will attract customers by delivering a blog or a tips area on their website that provides relevant content making  their company a trusted and helpful resource.

Ways to provide valuable content:

  • Educational Ebooks
  • Training  or How To Videos
  • Whitepapers
  • Webinars

Tip: don’t forget to provide a call to action in your content to convert sales.

3. Email and Marketing Automation

Inbound marketing should not relying just on generating business but a balance of nurturing leads and converting visitors into customers. Email and marketing automation should contain information useful to nurture the visitor’s interest and is a great opportunity to deliver sales pitches.

How to capture email addresses:

Inbound marketing focuses on leads instead of searching for customers
Inbound marketing focuses on leads instead of searching for customers

Since the newsletter was actively sought, it is less likely to be viewed as spam, but it is wise to set expectations and inform how often your emails will be sent to the individual.  The optin opportunities are most effective on a landing page, above the home page fold, or on sidebars of your site.

Affordable and easy optin and email automation systems include:
  • Aweber.com
  • ConstantContact.com
  • Infusionsoft.com

These email automation systems have customizable opt-in templates and for more creative opt-ins you may need a developer to create unique opt-in forms.

4. Social Presence 

Social Media Inbound Marketing

Using sites such as Twitter and Facebook to generate interest in a product or service are great ways to use inbound marketing strategies. Provide regular content that is engaging on your social media account to attract potential clients.

Some important factors to consider:

  • Who is your target audience on social channels?
  • Which social channels does your audience communicate and interact in?
  • What type of content is valuable?
  • Tip: don’t just self promote, give your audience useful information and encourage sharing.

Learn more why your business should get social!

5. Video Marketing

Viral Video Inbound Marketing

One of the most effective ways to convey information is through videos. People often go to popular video channels such as Youtube or Vimeo to get info to solve problems or learn about a service or product. Get in front of your audience by being visible on these video channels.

Inbound marketing focuses on leads instead of searching for customers


Tip: Also make sure to provide a link or phone number in the video description to ensure they will find your company.  Check out these top 5 tips to make your viral video reach more!

It’s a brave new world for marketing and it’s important for businesses to stay on top of all the current trends and directions that inbound marketing are taking. By staying current and staying focused on inbound marketing, businesses can take advantage of all the new possibilities being offered with today’s technology.
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How to Close Leads for Better Business in Inbound Marketing


How to Close Leads for Better Business in Inbound Marketing


You’re on the right track. You’ve attracted the right visitors and converted the right leads, but now you need to transform those leads into customers. How can you most effectively accomplish this feat? Certain marketing tools can be used at this stage to make sure you’re closing the right leads at the right times.

Closing tools include:


Lead Scoring

You’ve got contacts in your system, but how do you know which ones are ready to speak to your sales team? Using a numerical representation of the sales-readiness of a lead takes the guesswork out of the process.


Email

What do you do if a visitor clicks on your call to action, fills out a landing page, or downloads your whitepaper, but still isn’t ready to become a customer? A series of emails focused on useful, relevant content can build trust with a prospect and help them become more ready to buy.


Marketing Automation

This process involves creating email marketing and lead nurturing tailored to the needs and lifecycle stage of each lead. For example, if a visitor downloaded a whitepaper on a certain topic from you in the past, you might want to send that lead a series of related emails. But if they follow you on Twitter and visited certain pages on your website, you might want to change the messaging to reflect those different interests.


Closed

Loop Reporting- How do you know which marketing efforts are bringing in the best leads? Is your sales team effectively closing those best leads into customers? Integration with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system allows you to analyze just how well your marketing and sales teams are playing together.

How to Attract Websurfer to website for Better Sales ROI


How to Attract Websurfer to website for Better Sales ROI

Blogging

Inbound marketing starts with blogging. A blog is the single best way to attract new visitors to your website. In order to get found by the right prospective customers, you must create educational content that speaks to them and answers their questions.

Social Media

You must share remarkable content and valuable information on the social web, engage with your prospects, and put a human face on your brand. Interact on the networks where your ideal buyers spend their time.

Keywords

Your customers begin their buying process online, usually by using a search engine to find something they have questions about. So you need to make sure you’re appearing prominently when they search. To get there, you need to carefully, analytically pick keywords, optimize your pages, create content, and build links around the terms your ideal buyers are searching for.

Pages 

You must optimize your website to appeal to and speak with your ideal buyers. Transform your website into a beacon of helpful content to entice the right strangers to visit your pages.