9 Steps to an Awesome Website
We’re very excited to let you know of the publication of our first eBook, entitled, “Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail: 9 Ways to Save Money, Launch Sooner, and Dramatically Boost the Effectiveness of Your Website.” It focuses on nonprofits, but its lessons apply more broadly. Even if this isn’t of interest to you currently, perhaps you have friends that can benefit. It would be great if you’d send them a link. We wrote the... Read More
Why Isn’t Your Website Generating Leads?
Your business lives and dies by the number of qualified leads (or potential customers) you can find. Is your business already generating enough leads? If you’re anything like most of the business owners and executives I speak with, the answer is no. What would it do for your business growth if your website was providing you with a consistently increasing flow of qualified leads? Or with lead intelligence that can help you decide where to best... Read More
A Different Way to Think About WHY You Use Social Media
Some rights reserved by Terri (I.hope.you.dance) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tbeitz/ Maybe your sales are up. Maybe you have a few new Facebook fans or YouTube subscribers. Maybe people are tweeting positive vibes about your brand. All of that is a good thing, right? Well, sure. But how do you really know if your inbound marketing is working? Beth Kanter, a longtime champion of social integration in the nonprofit world, makes a compelling... Read More
Putting Tweets in Your Customers’ Mouths… Er, Mice
Some rights reserved by Andrew Huff (http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadhorse/) “I love Brand X!” If you were the CMO at Brand X, wouldn’t you love to see a steady stream of that exact sentiment being shared by your customers online? Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen. Not that people don’t say good things about brands and products online. Often, they do — and maybe they even say them about your... Read More
6 Questions You Should Ask Before You Send Your Next Tweet
Some rights reserved by albertogp123 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/albertogp123/ Did you just find another link you can’t wait to share on Twitter? Do you have a product you think your Facebook fans would love to see? Are you convinced that your YouTube subscribers are waiting breathlessly for your next clip? WAIT! Whether you tweet for yourself, your company, or as part of a team-based branding strategy, here are 6 questions to help ensure... Read More
Does Facebook Reward Brands That Are More Romantic?
Some rights resesrved by englishsnow - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerburrus/ (Looking for “Is Google Rewarding People Who ‘Buy’ Friends?” Click here.) In a recent column titled “How Brands Should Think About Facebook,” Advertising Age’s Jack Neff makes the case that Facebook is more useful as a brand loyalty tool than it is for attracting new customers. Depending on your brand’s goals and your... Read More
Don’t Get Distracted by the Wrong Metrics
Last week, Mashable announced that Tumblr now serves more blogs than WordPress does. This was considered especially noteworthy because the 4 year-old Tumblr has achieved this lofty number in half the time it took the now 8 year-old WordPress. For an industry that considers WordPress to be as ubiquitous as Heinz is to ketchup, this number could have caused the blog world to step back and rethink its own identity. More practically, it may have caused... Read More
Do You Have a Great Web Designer?
Many people can design beautiful web pages, but there are very few great web designers. A great web designer must be able to create beautiful web pages. But what if they’re not consistent with the brand? So… a great web designer must also understand brand design. But what if the pages look great and are “on brand,” but don’t drive any action? So… a great web designer must also understand the desired actions for... Read More
An Ancient Rabbi’s Advice For Online Marketing
The great Rabbi Hillel was once asked by a non-Jew to explain the entirety of the Torah within the amount time he could stand on one foot. Rabbi Hillel replied, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.” The clear lesson, known in so many faiths as “the golden rule,” is what most people focus on, and rightfully so. However, marketers can also learn something... Read More
My Twitter Summary of the Inbound Marketing Conference
A big thank you to Justin Levy, Chris Brogan and the New Marketing Labs team for putting together a wonderful event, the Inbound Marketing Summit at the home of the New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium, in Foxboro, Massachusetts this past week. Like any good conference, sometimes I was paying attention to the speakers. Sometimes I was networking in the back. The networking was invaluable and I was so pleased to have an opportunity to meet so many... Read More
