Hello to all my fellow Bloggers.

I come to you today as a community of well knowledge people who want to help. This is one reason I love blogging so much. I love the feedback that people are willing to give. 

So, here is my dilemma. I need a Rockin Blog Software Platform! I hope that by getting your feedback, I will also be able to better serve my clients by being able to provide a case study and a recommendation to them and yes; I will share this with the Blogosphere. 

Here is the scoop. I currently have a CMS that has integrated blogging software. Yeah, that’s the good news. The blogging software DOESN’T talk to any other types of tracking tools or analytics tools. The one tool that truly bums my groove is that I can’t get it to hook into Technorati and the software company doesn’t feel this is a huge issue right now, although the forum on this is huge (which means others out there confirm I am not crazy). I can’t even get it to connect to Google so I can set a goal on how many subscribers I get through my RSS like Avinash Kaushik talked about in the last Webinar with HubSpot's Inbound Marketing University. This is the Bad news. 

So, I come to you for suggestions on blogging software:

• What is the blogging software you use and why do you like it? 
• Does it hook into all the cool tools that HubSpot recommends to get found?
  • Technorati 
  • Google Goals 
  • I am sure there are more and please feel free to share 
• Does it give you complete control over the design of your Blog and if not what kind of limitations does it have (Dave loves to design and have control)? 

Since I am fairly new to blogging, I would appreciate any advise you have. I subscribe to some really cool RSS feeds and I read all the important info, but most of you have been doing this longer and know the tips, tricks on getting found and that is what I want, to get found by more, I am convinced the blogging software has a huge impact on this. 

As a Web Design and Marketing Company, I am starting to think that websites are a dying breed, like outbound marketing. Blogs can accommodate just about anything we need to convey to the world and most times our Blog gets picked up by Google faster than our website. So HubSpot, HATS of to YOU! 

Thanks in advance to all who comment on this Blog! I also hope to make some new friends during this process.

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Web 2.0 is the latest evolution of search engine technology. Today it’s no longer good enough to have a professional-looking webpage and a blog. Successful companies are posting viral videos on Youtube, creating Facebook Fan Pages, Myspace pages, getting followers on Twitter, Connecting with other colleagues on LinkedIn and applying cutting-edge technology to their core business principles. Now business owners big and small are looking to get these services to help them catch up with this ever-evolving phenomenon.

According to a 2009 Deloitte survey, 94% of business executives plan on ramping up their social networking participation over the next 12 months. Additionally, nearly 40% of businesses are hiring full-time professionals at an online marketing company to manage their social networking strategies.

Francois Gossieaux, a senior fellow with the Society of New Communications Research, says there are still “plenty of companies who do not realize the power of communities, and others who have not yet figured out the proper approach for leveraging communities as part of their business.” He adds, “Businesses are truly becoming social again, and companies should look to leverage the collective wisdom of their employees, customers and partners in order to innovate faster, reduce costs and bolster their bottom lines."



A Professional website design on a solid foundation is the first step towards your Online Success.  Your Online presence needs to engage your potential customers by Calls-to-Action and the Remarkable content you display.    

Whether you are one of the companies already on the Web 2.0 wave or just starting out, the rules of Marketing your company have changed.  If you are not capitalizing on the Social Media, Blogs, RSS tools that are available to you, you are missing out. 

Today the success of marketing your company does not rely on the size of your budget rather the time and willingness you have to put into your online marketing presence.  I think some companies would rather throw dollars at the marketing than to put time into it.  I think this is one of those times when we find out who the "Real Players" are.

Thoughts?

Welcome to the Blogosphere!  Now that you have a blog and you have been posting articles, you probably are wondering, "how do I get people to read my blog and comment on it?"  I am glad you asked... Thanks to my fellow IMU friend Adrian for giving great ideas.

1. Title : The title of your blog post is very important.  Try to use words that someone would use to find what you are talking about in your blog, like "10 ways to promote your blog."  Remember that people doing searches on the internet have the attention span of about 10 seconds.
2. Content : Since we have a short attention span, make the content engaging, and please don't write a book.  Keep your words limited.  Say what you have to say and don't oversay it!
3. Optimization : Meta Fields like what type of article is it, social media, blogging, content, etc.  All these tags will help your rankings as well
4. Social Bookmarking : Submit your posts to social bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon.  Getting people to comment on your blog is very important.  You can use pluggins, like ShareThis.
5. Social Media : Use your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to share that you have a blog and that you have posted a new article.
6. Newsletters : You should be touching your clients at least once a month if not more.  Do it with a newsletter and tell them about your blog.
7. Blog Comments and Forums : By commenting on other blog posts with relevant comments, you will get yourself in the spotlight.  People will go find out who you are because of your comments.  You can join forums.  Help others if they have an issue with something, you can let them know you wrote a blog on that particular issue and point them in the right direction.
8. Pitch other bloggers to link to your post : When someone asks you for advice, or support, point them in the direction of a blog article you wrote about the subject.
9. E-mail Signatures : You should list your blog and all other social media links in your email signature.  Don't use graphics, just text.
10. Directories : There are some sites out there that let you post your article to share with others.  You can find some of those sites by going to Hubspot.

I hope this helps you in your quest to get your blog noticed.

Okay, so it has been a week since I blogged, I am already behind the 8-ball since I try to blog at least three times a week, I think that has happened once. Instead of accepting defeat, I am making the best of my lemons.

This blog post is purely a personal opinion on my short experience with blogging, social media and inbound marketing.

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and give tons of credit to those of you who blog frequently. I love reading all you have to offer. I have taken the Inbound Marketing Classes and I have been certified. I have a facebook profile, a business page, and a twitter account. A lot of time I fall short on those as well. Why is that? Oh because clients need me. That’s a great excuse, right? Well no more excuses. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Okay so here I go.

So, do all your efforts of blogging, inbound marketing, and social media work? YES! I can say that without hesitation. Why can I say that? Well, if you keep track of your rankings before you started your endeavors with all the blogging, social media, and inbound marketing like we did, then you will realize how. I can tell you we were not on the first 5 pages. In one of my IMU classes the speaker made a comment “If you don’t show up on the 1st page of the google search, you are insignificant”. Harsh words, but when you put it into prospective, how many times do you do a search and look past the first page? Be honest!

So, I have taken all that I have learned and put it to use. We have optimized our site, put in those great keywords, put in awesome content, blogged, facebooked, twittered and guess what? It’s working. We are getting found. Now, it is not an overnight success story, oh no, this took about a month of diligently working at it. Now we come up on the first page, depending on what you are searching for.

How can you make the most of your experience? Take a Webinar, educate yourself, Google it, hire someone to help you understand what all this blogging, social media and inbound marketing means. Yes it is work, I am not going to lie to you, but even if you got 1 lead from your site from your efforts, wouldn’t you consider that a success? We got our first lead from our site just the other day. That is what convinced us that it is working. There are more leads out there; we just have to bring them to our watering hole.

So, if you are reading this, which would be cool if I still have your attention, then you are either shaking your head front to back or side to side. If you are the front to back, good for you and keep up the good work and don’t stop. If you are a side-to-side, then keep at it. Like anything, the effort you put in, is the effort you get out. If you are having trouble, find someone to help you. There are over 600 of us IMU graduates who know what we are talking about. Try it for a month. What have you got to lose? NOTHING. What have you got to gain? EVERYTHING!

Happy blogging, Tweeting, and Facebooking
I hope that this was somewhat inspirational to you and if it was or you think someone you know can benefit from it, forward it or tweet or comment about it and pass it on.

I welcome comments and suggestions. I am always looking for the next best way to do things. Work smarter not harder is my motto.

Change is to do something a different way. Why is CHANGE so hard for some companies? It's hard because we get so use to doing things one way and are convinced that if we just keep trying at it, it will eventually prove a different result. This is the definition of Insanity. I think we have all been there at one point in our life. We are creatures of habit.

Change is a scary and exhilarating experience. Even people who like change still complain every now and then. Sometimes it can be hard to see the reward of the change. In the end, change is GOOD! It shakes things up, evens the playing field, makes everyone perform at their highest level and in the end you see the fruits of your labor.

Take Social Media for example. I can tell you when I say Social Media or Inbound Marketing to my clients; they have that look of “what is that”? Or “oh yeah, I have heard of that but what is it”? Digital Marketing is hot and I don’t expect it to cool anytime soon. Newspapers and magazines offer online subscriptions, coupons are being sent online, and stores are sending their weekly advertisements via email. This is the future so we may as well start the embracing now so as to not be left behind later. CHANGE, is good. Think of it this way, we are saving trees and the ozone.

How can you change the way you think about marketing your company? How can you change the way you reach your clients? Step outside the box and see if Traditional Marketing can be replaced with Digital Marketing.

How do you change? Get a Facebook page for your company, get a twitter account, start a blog, get on Linkedin. You would be amazed at the amount of people you can reach just by utilizing these tools (Facebook has over 4 million users, Twitter has 14 million, and LinkedIn has 35 million). You have a marketing department, right? Get them to CHANGE their way of doing things. Get them engaged to market the company online by talking about the company.

Small businesses need to take a risk and change. Get your employees involved with Digital Marketing. Engage them to get more friends, followers, and connections. You will be the talk among their peers. Some CEO’s think their employees are wasting time on the Internet or doing personal things, but if you make it their job to do those things, I bet they spend more time working for you. Take a risk!

To many times people worry about “what if it doesn’t work”? Instead worry about “what happens if it does work”? What a problem to have!

Social Media, Inbound Marketing, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In....AHHH.  I know what your thinking...I don't have enough time in the day to get regular work done let alone this.  Breathe.....Yes, the Social Media Frenzy can seem overwhelming at times.  Believe me, it is overwhelming to talk about it.  I get so excited about  the two I am using right now, that I get that "deer in the headlights look" from people I am talking too.

Focus on the 4 steps below to make the web an effective, revenue generating channel for your business.

1. Develop Great Content

Potential customers are searching for information and they are using search engines to find information that meets their needs. Search engines give more weight to targeted, valuable content, so if you want your business to be towards the top of the search results, you need to have valuable content on your chosen topic. When you re-design your web site: Focus on the information need of your visitors, not on making the sale.

2. Establish Creditability and Trust

The Internet is a low trust environment and means potential customers will ask questions to convince themselves that they can trust you. You need to build credibility immediately, or people will leave.

Questions they will ask themselves might include:

• Does this business really exist?
• How long has this business been around, and will they still be here tomorrow?
• If I buy or contact this business, will my details be safe?
• Will I receive my purchases, or will the promises made by the business be held?
• What type of post-sales support will I receive after receiving the product?

How to establish and foster creditability and trust:

1. DEFINE WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU DO.
2. Educate visitors and provide FREE advise via a company blog.
3. Display how long you’ve been in business. Include photos of your team, board of directors, etc.
4. Use Customer Testimonials strategically throughout the web site.
5. Put your business contact details on every page.
6. Include any memberships you have and/or business associations you belong to (e.g. Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, Housing and Building Association, etc.)
7. Create a Community (e.g. Forums)—an extremely powerful credibility tool, as it often achieves points 1, 3 and 4 all at once. Plus you allow customers to talk to each other and spread the word first hand to new customers.
8. Capture Customer Feedback—give visitors a mechanism to contact you easily to provide feedback or ask questions.

3. Convert Browsers to Buyers

Conversion is the art of turning an information seeker into a customer. It’s hard work, but developing your content and establishing your credibility, go a long way to helping with conversion. Identify your conversion goals and design you web site around those goals. Your web site should have at least two goals.

A primary goal is brings in money to your business:

• A sale in your online shop
• A reservation for a seminar or workshop

A secondary goal gives you an opportunity to achieve your primary goal later:

• Request more information (RFI) form
• Email newsletter subscription
• RSS subscription to a blog
• Registration to a forum
• Everybody likes FREE stuff, so if you can offer something in exchange for information you collect.

The key things you can work on to improve conversion are:

• Identify and refine your “Conversion funnel”. A Conversion funnel is the path you identify that begins where the customer is starting down the path to conversion, and ends after the conversion is made. A funnel needs to be designed to build comfort in the purchase, not be too many steps or be too complicated, but also not be too short. Funnels that are too short result in a “half-baked” customer who isn’t sure if they want to buy yet!
• Use “Calls to Action”. A call to action is something like “Buy now”, “Click here”, or “Get started today”. You should include these both in your site to start users down the conversion funnel but also within the conversion funnel to drive them to action.
• Use the secondary goal to “catch” people who fall out of the primary conversion funnel. By placing secondary goals strategically in the site, you can catch those potential customers who aren’t 100% convinced.

4. Provide Great Customer Service

Getting new customers is the most important piece of your business because the cost of acquisition of a customer is always higher than the cost of retention. For you to go out and go through the previous 3 steps and get a new customer is time consuming and requires effort—and money. So the last step is about how you can keep your customers happier and retain their business for as long as possible, as cost-effectively as possible. Key things to remember are:

• Customers are expensive to acquire
• Customers can find your competitors online very easily
• Customers online are impatient—they want service NOW
• The Customer has the “high ground” because the Internet gives them greater power to choose and compare you with your competitors

There are several key ways to increase your customers’ retention rates, including:

• Run loyalty building advertising campaigns. Loyalty campaigns are targeted marketing campaigns that leverage your knowledge of your customer. An example of such a marketing campaign is a birthday campaign that goes out before my birthday to offer me a special deal: “Happy Birthday: Buy one T-shirt and get one free in your birthday month”
• Provide exemplary service with fast response times. When you receive a lead, inquiry or support request, react as quickly as possible. Better yet, you should be receiving emails and SMS's notifying you of customers’ requests.
• Don’t waste time—provide useful FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) to allow your customers to find answers to their simpler questions without having to contact you.
• Build a relationship. Use the right tools to keep track of your correspondences with customers, and make sure you can share knowledge about your customers.

Each of these 4 items work in concert with one another, linking together to create a winning process that helps you generate more leads and ultimately make more money out of your online business. Watch your web site analytics and adjust accordingly.