BroadVision Marketing Blog

 

Topics: social media strategy, content marketing, inbound social media marketing, Social Media, social media marketing, local SEO, content distribution

 

[This article was published in May 2017 and has been updated and revised.]

If you run a small business you don't have time to do everything. And even if you have a larger organization, it isn't efficient to do everything.

Which is why outsourcing critical functions can be strategically beneficial. And that includes your inbound lead generation efforts.

Topics: inbound marketing strategy, lead generation strategy, inbound marketing agency, affordable internet marketing, lead generation, outsourcing, inbound lead generation

[This article first appeared here in October 2022 and has been updated and revised for 2023.]

Everyone loves video. And we know that video is powerful. But brands often undervalue the power of short-form video to boost their digital marketing efforts.

Part of the problem is the idea that video is expensive. And another is not understanding the full impact of video in online marketing.

Topics: YouTube Videos, Video Marketing, video, digital marketing, native video, digital marketing strategy, short form video

Everyone says you need their product or service. We get it. But in today's digital world there really is one thing your business needs: Digital Marketing.

Whether you undertake it yourself or hire a digital marketing service, marketing your business online is a necessity for most every business.

 

So, What Is Digital Marketing Exactly?

Every business needs to be seen and heard.

One of the most fundamental and basic requirements for any commercial endeavor, be that a simple lemonade stand or a multi-national services enterprise, is attention. Potential customers or clients must take notice of you.

“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

One could reasonably ask, "If you have a business and no one knows, does it exist?"  

In the days prior to April 30, 1993, there was no Internet, no World Wide Web, no marketing "online" as we often refer to it today. There was only advertising, public relations, and publicity. And word of mouth, of course.

Without any of these platforms promoting the existence of your business, it would not exist for all practical purposes.

Today is no different.

Almost everyone goes to the Internet - usually with their cell phones - to search, to shop, and to find businesses. If your business is never seen online then it may as well not exist. Which is why digital marketing is so essential to your business.

Topics: Online Communities, complimentary Marketing Strategy Session, Internet Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Marketing strategy, Content Marketing Strategy, content distribution, distribution channels, trust building, blogging strategy, short form video

 

Topics: social media strategy, content marketing, inbound social media marketing, Social Media, social media marketing, local SEO, content distribution

Content is the primary key to successful digital marketing. But if it's not helpful content, it isn't helping your search engine rankings.

Written content, whether webpage copy or business blog articles, are critical content elements that can provide what Google has termed "helpful content." And Google is now ranking search results accordingly.

Topics: business blogs, Google Search, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, content creation, blogging strategy

The purpose for teams is to combine a group of members to work together to accomplish certain goals that cannot be achieved effectively by an individual. Do you wonder why I keep repeating this? It’s because sometimes teams can get off-track like an elementary school student who starts reading an encyclopedia entry for a class and ends up following a cow path far from the subject because he loses focus.

Topics: Online Communities, complimentary Marketing Strategy Session, Internet Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Content Marketing Strategy, content distribution, distribution channels, trust building, blogging strategy, short form video

 

A Sample Marketing Plan for an Inbound Marketing Strategy

A sample marketing plan for Inbound Marketing will give you one of the most powerful and most cost-effective approaches to marketing. Compared to traditional marketing methods, inbound consistently outperforms and typically costs far less.

A few stats from Hubspot illustrate this fact:

• 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog. 
• 42% of businesses have acquired a customer through Twitter. 
• 57% of companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn.
• 48% of companies have acquired a customer through Facebook.
• Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing.

Having said that, it is important to keep in mind that inbound marketing, while having a number of consistent components and tactics, is not a "cookie-cutter" approach to marketing either. Each strategy and subsequent plan is unique to each user.

Your Company Is Different - Just Like Everyone Else

Your business is like no other. Really. Your goals, your challenges, your offerings - they are all unique to you and your business. Even if you think you are simply a commodity. And because your business is unique, your marketing plan shouldn't be generic either.

We can offer a sample marketing plan, but the goal is to adapt it, modify it, make it your own. What might work well for your competitor across town may not be exactly the plan that will be most effective for you. Your marketing strategy should be crafted with your vision, your objectives, and your customers in mind.

Now that we've established that not all businesses are the same, nor are all effective marketing plans, let's look at a generic approach to inbound marketing.

A Sample Inbound Marketing Plan Checklist

A typical inbound marketing plan will consist of the following steps:

Topics: content marketing, Advertising and Marketing, Online Communities, Content Marketing Strategy, distribution channels, trust building, blogging strategy

 

Marketing is as old as humankind. And it's still evolving. The challenge for small business owners is knowing what works. Especially for digital marketing.

Tactics by themselves do not constitute a marketing strategy, but the tactics used in a good strategy must be effective in and of themselves. 

Topics: content marketing, social media marketing, digital marketing, effective internet marketing, SEO strategy, marketing tactics

Is your midsized company undertaking inbound marketing as a strategy or you are trying to do so while you are producing your product, selling your service or promoting your product? You consider yourself a successful professional, but you might be aware that you are having marketing issues DIY. If so, you might need an inbound marketing agency in San Francisco.

Topics: inbound marketing agency in San Francisco