Digital Marketing Strategy: Marketing Automation Isn’t Just for Big Kids with Kimi Fowler

Would you like to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your marketing without spending a fortune or working 24 x 7?

Would it be helpful to hear directly from folks who eat and breathe marketing automation?

In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I’m joined by Kimi Fowler, a marketing automation specialist with Hyland Software – a large company that provides Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software to over 10,000 customers.

Kimi is one of two people who builds about 25 new campaigns a week, so when it comes to automation, she’s been there and done that more times than you can count.

In our conversation, Kimi and I discuss the following:

  • an overview of how she is using marketing automation to increase conversions
  • how webinars are playing a role in their sales funnel
  • the impact of A/B testing subjects lines (it was huge) and how they did it
  • how she uses Twitter to find and connect with other automation specialists
  • how they are converting cold traffic
  • how lead scoring is having an impact on sales
  • the surprising fact they discovered about landing pages after conducting some split testing
  • and so much more…

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch Now

Leave some feedback:

Connect with Trent Dyrsmid:

About Kimi Fowler

KimiFowlerKimi Fowler is a marketing automation specialist at Hyland Software in Westlake, Ohio.

She is a passionate marketing automation user who focuses on the execution of programs, governance, administration of the system and best practices.

You can contact Kimi on Twitter at @kimikay.

Digital Marketing Strategy: How CallLoop Used Infusionsoft to Achieve a 10x Increase in Lead Generation

Have you ever taken a moment to think about what makes Apple, Amazon, DropBox, Zappos, and GoDaddy so successful?

Each of them is well known for one particular thing. Take DropBox, for example. Early on they realized that the only way to compete was to create a viral signup process.

Judging from the fact that everyone and their dog is now using DropBox, I’d say they got it right.

What do you think these other companies are so well known for?

In today’s episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I’m joined by Chris Brisson, CEO of Call Loop – a fast growing software company that integrates services you already use to help grow your subscriber base automatically, while making it easy to send targeted voice and text messages. Call Loop was just awarded best in class for online sales by Infusionsoft for their 2013 Ultimate Marketer Awards, and I asked Chris to be on the show to share what he’s doing and why it’s working so well.

In Chris and I’s conversation, you are going to hear us talk about:

  • his sales funnel and why his firm was selected as best in class for online sales
  • why he chose each of these well know companies to model
  • which part of each company he is modeling
  • where he’s spending time to discover their strategies
  • how he’s using their strategies in his own marketing automation
  • how he is using webinars to generate sales
  • which software tools he’s using to automate every step of the pre-webinar and post-webinar process
  • why multi-channel marketing is so important
  • how to get started with marketing automation and Infusionsoft
  • and so much more…

If you want to hear from a guy who eats and sleeps marketing automation, then this interview is not to be missed.

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch Now

Leave some feedback:

Connect with Trent Dyrsmid:

About Chris Brisson

ChrisBrissonCofounder of Call Loop, Chris Brisson started his first internet venture in 2002 at the age of 19 out of his college apartment in Tallahassee, FL and 3 years later he sold this company to a private investor. Chris is known for his cutting-edge marketing strategies and over the years has launched several brand new products for himself and clients which went on to become six figure and many cases seven figure businesses.

Digital Marketing Strategy: How Yvonne Halling Used Infusionsoft to Double Her Revenue in 12 Months

Do you ever look at tools or technology for your business and think, I would love to have it, but I can’t afford it?

Do you feel like you have what it takes to make your business grow, yet, growth is still eluding you, or you are working way to hard to get it?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, you are not alone.

In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I’m joined by Yvonne Halling, owner of the Les Molyneux bed and breakfast in Champagne, France, and recent winner of Infusionsoft’s best in class for customer service award. After seeing that a B&B had been recognized by Infusionsoft for excellence, I just had to find out what Yvonne was doing that was so unique.

Don’t forget to check out our post Ontraport vs. Infusionsoft for comparisons and analysis.

In her and I’s discussion, you are going to hear us talk about:

  • how she doubled her revenue in just 12 months after beginning to use Infusionsoft
  • how she is using marketing automation to sell more to her guests once they’ve booked a room
  • how she is getting a top trip advisor rating from virtually every guest without having to take the time to ask
  • the ONLY two key activities that she now focuses on in her business
  • how her success lead her to create an entirely new business that provides coaching to other bed and breakfast owners
  • which two books radically altered her thinking a few years ago
  • how her new belief system is actually what lead to all the success she is experiencing
  • the content that she’s put on her site that has increased engagement with her clients exponentially
  • and so much more

It really doesn’t matter if you run a B&B or not, this interview is packed with golden nuggets that will benefit any entrepreneur who is struggling to do it all themselves.

Regardless of where you are at in the process of growing your own company, this interview is one you can’t afford to miss. Trust me.

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch Now

Leave some feedback:

Connect with Trent Dyrsmid:

About Yvonne Halling

I’m Yvonne Halling and I YvonneHalling run a Bed and Breakfast business.  I’m currently in the heart of the Champagne region of France, and I welcome people from all over the world, helping them to discover the hidden gems of Champagne.

I opened my B&B business in 2001, before the internet!  How life has changed since then.  If you’ve been in this business for any length of time, you’re sure to be able to relate to that.  And if you’re new to the business, then you won’t know what it was like back in the day when communication was much more limited.

I believe we are lucky to have witnessed the explosion of communication channels, which can only be a force for good.  If we embrace the changes, then we will see what great opportunities lie ahead for us all.

The Bed and Breakfast business is in a unique position now to embrace online technology and add value to our local communities in a way that simply wasn’t possible 10 or even 5 years ago.  My philosophy is that as we welcome more and more people from diverse walks of life, we have the chance to learn about and understand more human beings, bringing value to our own communities and theirs, through the sharing of our knowledge.

My business philosophy is simple:  I bring in the guests, which means that I buy more bread from the local baker, buy more meat from the local butcher, bring diners to the local restaurant, bring buyers of champagne to the local producers, bring clients to local attractions, bring employment to my cleaners, gardener and book-keeper, and give business to the local laundry service.  I buy local produce wherever possible, which supports local business, and for anyone who I trust and who has something valuable to offer, I offer their products for sale at the B&B.

This is simply how, I believe,  all businesses must operate in the 21st century, rather than the relentless quest for more and more profit.

And the funny thing is that as soon as I had adopted this philosophy, more and more profit came to me, like magic!

 

How to Become the Zappos of Your Niche with Stan Phelps

Are you familiar with Zappos.com? They have become one of the fastest growing companies in the world as a result of doing one thing better than their competition.

Do you know what that one thing is? It’s a core decision that affects virtually every decision the company makes.

In today’s episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I’m joined by Stan Phelps, an agency owner, author and speaker who has studied Zappos (as well as another 1000 companies) to determine what amounts to 12 critical things that a company can do to differentiate themselves from the competition by “giving something extra” to their clients.

In today’s interview, you are going to hear Stan and I discuss:

  • Why you need to understand the concept of Marketing Lagniappe
  • How Lagniappe is used by Zappos and many other market leaders
  • How to avoid commoditization in your industry
  • How to crowd source a large research project
  • How he’s leveraging speaking opportunities to build his business
  • What Zappos is doing to create a highly engaged and fulfilled workforce
  • Some ideas for how I could use Lagniappe here at Bright Ideas
  • And so much more…

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch Now

Leave some feedback:

Connect with Trent Dyrsmid:

About Stan Phelps

stan-phelpsStan is the Founder / CMO of 9 INCH marketing, an organization that inspires leaders to think differently about marketing. Challenging them to value customer experience as a competitive differentiator and the importance of employee engagement in building a strong corporate culture. Stan helps brands explore new opportunities, showing them how to be more successful in tomorrow’s changing world. Stan works with clients to create experiences that are memorable, meaningful and on-brand. 9 INCH is driven by client objectives and inspired by bold vision. The result: programs that win big.

Lifecycle-Marketing-Guide

4 Steps to Keyword Research Success

As was clearly demonstrated in my interview with Marcus Sheridan, proper keyword selection is critical to the success of your content marketing strategy.

The ability to properly select keywords is also a huge part of how any firm can create a sustainable competitive advantage for themselves. How, you ask?

Think about this for a moment…your products and services can be copied by other firms. However, SEO is not easy to copy and keyword research is the the second step to SEO and content marketing success. (The first step is picking your target market.)

The problem for many entrepreneurs who are new to content marketing is that they don’t have a methodology for proper keyword research. Not having a system in place either leads to a flawed strategy, or, even worse, no strategy at all.

In this post, I’m going to provide you with an overview of the keyword research process, and then I’m going to dive deep into exactly how I do my own keyword research, so grab a cup of java and get ready to see an approach that differs from many that are published on other sites.

Ready? Good, let’s get on with it!

Understanding the Long Tail

Proper keyword research begins with an understanding of the different types of keywords. To help illustrate that, I’ve included a chart from SEOmoz that visually explains the difference between what is called a head keyword and a long tail keyword.

keyword-research

As this illustration shows, the 70% of searches are for long tail keywords, and, unlike the Fat Head keywords that are virtually impossible to rank for, these long tail keywords are much easier to get traffic from, so long as your on page optimization is done correctly.

Another reason to target long tail keywords is because they are likely to convert better. For example, if someone is searching for “conference”, they are not nearly as likely to buy a ticket as someone searching for “marketing conference in San Diego”.

Creating a Competitive Advantage with SEO

While each long tail keyword doesn’t have a huge search volume, in aggregate, the search volume can really add up over time. To illustrate the importance of this consider the following two firms:

The first firm is an avid blogger and they target a long tail keyword with every post they write. Over a 2 year period of time, they write 300 blog posts, each targeting a keyword with just 300 exact searches per month. In aggregate, the total search volume that they are ranking for is 90,000 exact searches a month! Even better is the fact that they are highly likely to rank on the first page of Google for a good number of these keywords (assuming proper selection, which I’ll cover down below, and on-page optimization, which I’ll cover in a later post). From purely an SEO perspective, this first firm has created a very strong and highly defensible competitive advantage.

The second firm wrote the same number of posts and each post is just as high quality as the first firm, except the second firm didn’t bother to target a long tail keyword with every post they wrote. This will still receive some SEO benefit from having all this content on their blog, however, the benefit won’t be nearly as good as what it could have been, plus the traffic they receive won’t likely convert nearly as well because their content will be less likely to be relevant to the keywords it ranked for.

The steady accumulation of SEO traffic from long tail keywords is the primary reason why your content marketing strategy should be focused on long tail keywords.

Now let’s take a look at the actual process by way of a real example.

Step 1: Start with a Head Keyword

For this example, let’s assume that we want to find a keyword that is related to LinkedIn. To do that, I’m going to show you two tools: the free Google Keyword Tool and the tool I use, SECockpit (affiliate link).

First let’s start with Google’s tool. When you look at the image below (click to enlarge), pay close attention to the areas the I have highlighted in red.

When you are doing keyword research you should always choose the [Exact] match type because it it the most accurate measurement you are going to get for your phrase.

For example, Broad need only contain the words you are searching for, and they can be in any order. So, if I was searching for LinkedIn for BusinessBroad would include all searches that contained any of those words, in any order. This is hardly an accurate measurement for the word I’m researching.

Phrase is much closer in that LinkedIn for Business would have to be included in the search string somewhere and the words would have to be in the correct order. For example, searches that contained LinkedIn for Business today would be included in the total search count. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it’s still not as accurate as I’d like.

Exact includes ONLY the exact phrase that I’m researching, and that is why I suggest you use it.

Next, make sure you have Keyword Ideas selected.

keyword-research-with-google-keyword-tool

The reason Google’s tool is free is because it really doesn’t tell us very much. In the example above, we can see there there are (supposedly) 16,600,000 exact global monthly searches for LinkedIn. However, what this does not tell us is anything about how hard it would be to rank on the first page of Google for that keyword or any of the other related keywords that are shown down below.

This lack of SEO competition analysis is a massive limitation of this tool. Please note, the word low under the competition heading does not relate to SEO competition. Instead, it is only a measure of the amount of advertiser competition to bid for that keyword – which would only be useful if you were setting up an Adwords paid traffic campaign, hence why it is included in this tool.

Now let’s look at SECockpit and I’ll walk you though why I feel it is by far the most effective keyword research tool available on the market, and how using it is going to save you a huge amount of time.

In the image below, notice the areas that I have highlighted in red.

keyword-research-with-seockpit-1

First, across the top, notice that I can have more than one tab open. This means that I can analyze multiple keywords simultaneously. Obviously, this is a big time saver, but it’s not the best part of this tool.

Next, notice all the orange bars on the right half of the image. These bars are a measure of the strength of the SEO competition on the first page of the Google results. Having this data at your fingertips is hugely valuable because without it, how would you know which of all the keywords would be the easiest to rank for? SECockpit makes this easy by allowing you to just click on the column header to instantly sort all the related (long tail) keywords so that the ones that are easiest to rank for are at the top.

All I have to do now is to scroll down until I find the keyword that is related to my content and has a monthly exact search volume that meets my minimum acceptable amount.

Let me explain this another way so you really get the point. With every other keyword tool I’ve ever used (and that is most of them), you  have to analyze the strength of SEO competition for just one keyword at a time. That means that, in the case of this particular search example, I would have to spend approximately 1 minute to analyze each of the 170 keywords on this list.  That’s almost three hours of work to get the same data that SECockpit gave me in about 60 seconds.

Hopefully the significance of this has just registered with you. Without SECockpit, you are going to have to invest exponentially more time to get the same result. Boo.

Step 2: Find Related Keywords

Once you have completed your first round of research, you may or may not find a suitable long tail keyword to use. In all likelihood, you will, but if you don’t, expanding your search to include other phrases may also be quite helpful.

If you are using SECockpit, here’s just one way you could do that. You click the expand button and then begin typing another phrase. In the screenshot below, I started to type LinkedIn training and as I was typing, the other phrases appeared. I decided to choose LinkedIn training courses to expand my search and 30 seconds later, I now have 331 keywords that have all had their strength of SEO competition analysis all done for me.

keyword-research-secockpit

Now that I have 331 words, I want to narrow my list back down to only words that included LinkedIn so I can make a selection of which keyword I wish to make the focus of the post that I intend to write. (As a side note, this process is also a very good method for figuring out what to write about!)

keyword-research-example

To narrow down the list, I simply typed LinkedIn into the search bar at the bottom and my 331 words was reduced to 2400 words – all with the strength of SEO competition nicely represented by the orange bars so I can easily sort them from easiest to hardest. Gotta love that!

At this point, the phrase linkedin recommendation examples has caught my attention. It stood out for me because:

  • it has a relatively short orange bar, so I know SEO competition is not too hard
  • it has 2400 local exact searches per month, which for a long tail keyword is plenty
  • there is a youtube video ranked on the first page of Google

Now that we have a potential keyword (after investing only about 2 minutes), we need to do a bit of a deeper dive to check on the trend and exactly the nature of the competition that we’ll face if we try to rank for this phrase.

Step 3: Determine the Trend

To determine the trend of a keyword, you can use Google Trends, or if you are using SECockpit, this functionality is built right in and you will save some more time. To get the report in SECockpit, you just click on the keyword you are interested in.

Regardless of how you get the report, you can see in the image below that the trend in search volume for this keyword is steady, and more recently, has increased quite a bit. This is the type of trend you are looking for.

keyword-research-secockpit-review

Having invested another 5 seconds to determine that the keyword has a positive trend, it’s not time for the last step – determining the strength of the competition we’ll face.

Step 4: Determine the Strength of the Competition

This is a part of the process where inexperienced folks make some pretty big mistakes, thereby negating all the work that preceded this step. The biggest mistake is thinking that the strength of SEO competition is low because they were using the Google Adwords keyword tool and saw the word low under the competition column. As I pointed out earlier in this post, that is NOT a measure of SEO competition.

The fact that SECockpit automatically calculates this for me is the primary reason why I like the tool so much. After all, what good is it if you pick a low volume keyword that happens to have really strong competition on the first page of the Google results? Targeting a keyword like that is a total waste. Plus, if you are only using the Google Adwords keyword tool, you are never going to stumble across a higher volume keyword that happens to be new to the scene and not yet have a ton of competition. We LOVE finding nuggets like that, right?!

keyword-research-secockpit-review-3

To see the data above, all I had to do was to click the keyword I was interested in. Once I did, I was presented with this screen and I can right away see a lot of green. Green is what you are looking for because it is an indicator of weakness.

In looking at these results, I can quickly draw some important conclusions.

First, not all the sites in the results are actually targeting the exact phrase we’re looking at. I can see this by looking in the title column. Page title is extremely important for SEO.

Next, only about 1/2 of the top 10 results have mid to high domain authority. This means I have I chance to rank, and as my domain’s authority increases, my chances will get better over time.

Next, I can see that the link count for most of the sites in the top 10 is pretty low. This is also quite encouraging because if I create a really killer piece of content and then share it on my social networks, other people are quite likely to link to it for me. As time goes by, I will get more and more links, and my ranking will improve. (Hence why creating epic content is so important!)

And finally, I can see that none of my competition, with the exception of #4 (which isn’t even targeting my exact phrase) has much in the way of social sharing. If I’ve done a good job of building my LinkedIn network and am an active participant in a number of LinkedIn groups, I’ll bet I can get a lot of social shares right away just by asking people (or my list) to do it for me.

Summary

If you want to create a sustainable competitive advantage for your company, as well as to turn lead generation into a systematized process, you need to invest in content marketing.

A huge part of your content marketing strategy should be to create content that targets long tail keywords. Doing so will, over time, provide you with an ever increasing source of free traffic from search engines.

The key to getting keyword research right is to use tools that allow you to quickly and easily find high value keywords that have SEO competition low enough to make it probable that you will rank for them. SECockpit is by far the bets tool that I have ever used for this. Using it will save you hours upon hours of boring research.

Once you find your potential keyword, check to ensure that the trend for the search volume is steady or increasing, and finally, have a close look at the strength of the competition for those coveted first 10 slots in the Google search results.

When you find a keyword that passes all these tests, you have just taken a step towards more traffic, more subscribers and more revenue!

It all starts with keyword research.

What Do You Think?

Was this article helpful? If so, please share it by clicking one of the social sharing buttons on the left. If you have questions or comments, please leave them below. Thanks very much!

Want to write for Bright Ideas? Click here.

Hey, thanks for the info. Now what?

If you need any help with content creation, we have tons of free resources to get you over the hump. Please subscribe to this blog to ensure that you never miss an article.

Have questions or comments? Please contact me.

If you really enjoyed this post, please help us to spread the word by clicking one of the social media sharing buttons.

Thanks so much!

[xyz-ihs snippet=”BuildGroove”]

The Story of the Sale of vWorker.com with Ian Ippolito

Experienced entrepreneurs understand that that when it comes to the right way to sell a business, there are a few details that you absolutely must get right. If you don’t, the amount of money you receive for your company will most assuredly be less than it could otherwise be.

If you are building a company today that you may one day want to sell, are you taking the steps today to plant seeds for the sale of tomorrow?

Do you know that the single most important thing you need to be doing for the 18 months leading up to the sale?

In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I’m once again joined by Ian Ippolito, founder of vWorker.com, which was recently acquired for an undisclosed sum by Freelancer.com, and during our conversation you are going to hear Ian and I talk about:

  • how he managed to sell his company for almost twice the initial offer
  • the one activity that he intently focused on for the year leading up to the sale
  • the steps of the acquisition process, from letter of intent to closed sale
  • the key components that every letter of intent should contain
  • how to understand what the buyer’s motivation is and how to use that to your advantage
  • how to know when to move into due diligence with a potential buyer
  • the most important things that a buyer is going to look for during due diligence
  • the value of a business broker, tax advisor, and legal counsel
  • why most buyers will want to structure the deal as an asset sale
  • how to create an auction for your company to maximize the sales price
  • why and how terms can play such a large role in negotiations
  • ways to structure the sales contract to keep you out of court if things go wrong
  • and so much more…

Regardless of where you are at in the process of growing your own company, this interview is one you can’t afford to miss. Trust me.

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch The Interview Now

Leave some feedback:

Connect with Trent Dyrsmid:

About Ian Ippolito

ian ippolitoIn 2001 Ian created a site where employers could find remote workers in a marketplace and be protected with money-back guarantees, while the workers would be guaranteed payment for a job well done. The resulting site was (at that time) called Rent a Coder and was programming focused. The site grew to facilitate thousands of succesful projects a month in all types of work, and was re-christened as vWorker in 2010.

vWorker was called “One of the 100 most brilliant companies” by Entrpreneur magazine, and has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fast-Company and many other journals and magazines as a company exemplifying the shift of power to the new world-wide digital economy. It is a 3 time (2007, 2008, 2009) consecutive winner of the INC 5000 “fastest growing private company in the U.S.” award.

In 2008, Ian was a finalist for Tampa Bay CEO of the Year in the category of “Emerging CEO: Under age 40”. In 2009 he was again a finalist for Tampa Bay CEO of the Year… this time in the “Small company under 45 employees” category.

He enjoys travelling and enjoying excellent food with good company.

Digital Marketing Strategy: How to Start an Online Business an Interview with Bryan Allain

Have you ever thought about how to start an online business, but find that you are held back for one reason or another?

Do you have a family to support and wonder how to make the transition with the least amount of risk?

Would you like to hear how a guy who worked as a chemical engineer for 14 years successfully made the switch?

In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I’m joined by Bryan Allain, long time blogger, husband, father of two and founder of Killer Tribes.

In this interview, you are going to hear Bryan and I discuss:

  • the financial plan that he and his wife came up with to minimize the risk of the transition
  • how they built planks on their transition bridge before finally taking the leap
  • how’s he’s building a loyal following of bloggers who buy coaching and consulting from him
  • how he has sold over 4,000 copies of his first book on Amazon
  • how he launched a live conference in Nashville (not his home town) in his first year and actually turned a profit doing it
  • the breakdown of the cost to host his conference, as well as the revenue he generated
  • how he recruited speakers to come present, either for free, or for a fraction of their usual fee
  • how content marketing should play a role in your business
  • how to find ideas to write about
  • how to easily create thoughtful and informative posts that people will love to read
  • and so much more….

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch The Interview Now

Leave some feedback:

Connect with Trent Dyrsmid:

About Bryan Allain

How to Start a Online Business with Bryan AllainBryan Allain is a 36-year old former Chemical Engineer who now makes a living helping other people find their fans, extend their reach and build their killer tribes.

He launched Killer Tribes in 2010 because he loves helping people find their voice, share about their passions, connect with others and grow their brand. There are so many folks out there with a valuable message to share who aren’t sure how to get that message to more people.

Digital Marketing Strategy: PR Strategies That Actually Work with Nancy Marshall

Are you looking for proven communications strategies to use to build relationships with the media?

Would you like to discover what’s working for a leading PR expert, and how she’s used it to build a very successful agency?

In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I’m joined by PR and Agency veteran, Nancy Marshall, founder of Nancy Marshall PR, a seven figure agency with 17 employees.

During today’s discussion, you are going to hear Nancy and I discuss:

  • Her 60 step Marshall plan and why it is so effective
  • How she uses the Marshall plan to repel clients that won’t be a good long term fit
  • Her 3 legged strategy for business development
  • Her proven lead nurturing process
  • What a most wanted list is and why you must have one
  • And so much more…

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch Now

Leave some feedback:

Connect with Trent Dyrsmid:

About Nancy Marshall

nancy-marshallNancy Marshall is principal of the agency and founder of NMC. Since 1991, NMC has been creating and implementing strategic public relations programs, primarily for tourism and recreation companies, and has developed expertise in promoting economic development. NMC has been recognized by the Society of American Travel Writers for its tourism public relations campaigns, and the Maine Public Relations Council has awarded NMC with its “Best in Show” for three consecutive years in its Golden Arrow Awards.

Links Mentioned

Digital Marketing Strategy: How to Make Your Agency Website 30% More Effective with Mark OBrien

Would you like to drastically shorten the time it takes you to get thousands of subscribers on your list?

Do you think that if you had 4,000 engaged subscribers that you would see a meaningful impact on the bottom line?

Would you like to hear from a guy who’s done it successfully?

In this episode of the Bright Ideas podcast, I’m joined by Mark O’Brien, CEO of NewFangled.com and in our discussion, you are going to hear Mark and I talk about:

  • why many marketing agency websites aren’t consistently generating qualified leads
  • the four goals your site should help your firm to achieve
  • how to create content that will engage your audience
  • how to add thousands of subscribers to your list in under 30 days
  • the CRM and marketing automation tools that you need to be an expert in
  • the key performance indicators that an agency site should be measured by
  • how Mark went from intern to President to CEO of his agency
  • the structure of the deal he put together to buy his firm
  • And so much more…

More About This Episode

The Bright Ideas podcast is the podcast for business owners and marketers who want to discover how to use online marketing and sales automation tactics to massively grow their business.

It’s designed to help marketing agencies and small business owners discover which online marketing strategies are working most effectively today – all from the mouths of expert entrepreneurs who are already making it big.

Watch Now

Leave some feedback:

Connect with Trent Dyrsmid:

About Mark O’Brien

Mark Obrien ImageMark is fortunate to be able to spend his days working with the fantastic Newfangled team to discover new ways of planning and delivering the greatest conversion-focused websites they can imagine for their clients.

The way Mark sees it, he has three jobs. The first is to make sure Newfangled is the kind of company that attracts and retains top talent. The second is to develop and maintain the right kind of client relationships so that they’re able to do this work they love for as long as possible. The third job is to work with the Newfangled team and their clients to make sure that they’re offering the right strategic and technological solutions. If they’ve got the right people and the right clients, and are creating sites that have a significant impact on our client’s business, things are good.

Lifecycle-Marketing-Guide

How to Get Management Support for Content Marketing

If you aren’t the boss and your company is not yet actively engaged in content marketing, chances are you are going to need to convince someone higher up the chain that this newfangled “content marketing stuff” is actually worth the time and investment.

For the folks that speak “ROI”, this guide from Eloqua will likely be very helpful (warning: optin required to download it) as it goes into plenty of detail on all the metrics that the C-suite could ever want to see.

Below are a few snippets from the report that I liked. Then, below that, I’m going to link you to some interviews that I’ve done with real live folks that are walking, talking proof that content marketing has worked remarkably well for them.

Don’t forget to check out our very own content management system.

Eloqua’s Findings

According to Eloqua’s findings, a mid-sized organization should expect to spend approximately $12,000 a month and a larger-sized company could expect about $33,000 a month. These costs would be inclusive of the Managing Editor, Chief Content Officer (for larger organizations), the freelancers to actually write the 2 blog posts per week (estimate to cost $150 per post), and $2,500 (mid-sized) or $3,500 (larger-sized) per month for a piece of premium content; which is typically a special report or video, etc…They also included a charge of $1,500 for mid-sized and $2,500 for larger-sized companies for software and hosting.

Image Credit: http://goo.gl/VkRlY

Image Credit: http://goo.gl/VkRlY

As the principle objective of content marketing is to drive traffic and conversions, let’s look at Eloqua’s findings for these two metrics.

Image Credit: http://goo.gl/VkRlY

Image Credit: http://goo.gl/VkRlY

Image Credit: http://goo.gl/VkRl

Image Credit: http://goo.gl/VkRl

When compared to the ongoing cost of paid advertising, content marketing shows a clear and substantial benefit; especially when longer time frames are taken into account.

Image Source: http://goo.gl/VkRlY

Image Source: http://goo.gl/VkRlY

Bencmarks, Budgets, and Trends

Some 86% of B2C marketers in North America are using content marketing, employing 12 individual tactics on average; but, as is the case with B2B content marketing, B2C content marketers are struggling with the effectiveness of their content marketing, according to the findings of the first B2C content marketing study from MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute.

  • Among the highlights of the “B2C Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America” study:
  • B2B marketers use social media more often than their B2C counterparts; however, B2C marketers consider it more effective (57% of B2C marketers think social media is effective vs. 49% of B2B marketers).
  • On average, B2C marketers use four social media platforms, compared with five used by B2B marketers.
  • On average, 28% of B2C marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing, and 55% of consumer marketers plan to increase their content marketing spend.

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2012/9504/2013-b2c-content-marketing-benchmarks-budgets-and-trends#ixzz2MExOqdDU

Real Life Examples

As not every boss is going to be convinced of the merits of content marketing just by looking at just facts and figures, allow me to share some real-life stories from entrepreneurs that I have interviewed here on Bright Ideas.

River Pools and Spas – Marcus Sheridan

Marcus’ story is nothing short of amazing. In 2008, his fiberglass pool and spa business was nearly broke. Prior to then, there were spending $250,000 a year to produce $4M in annual revenue. By 2012, their marketing spend had decreased to $20,000 a year and sales had increased to $4.5M (keep in mind that the pool business was hit very hard during these years, so any increase in sales was amazing in itself). You can watch the full interview here.

Joe Pulizzi – Content Marketing Institute

As the founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Joe knows content marketing extremely well because he’s used it to build his entire company from scratch. Now one of the leading websites in the industry, CMI’s story is well worth listening to. You can watch the full interview here.

Rand Fishkin – SEOMoz

After starting out as an SEO consulting shop in 2004, SEOMoz has fast become one of the leading SEO software companies in the world today. Now with over 100 employees and venture backing, SEOmoz and Rand are proving the ROI on content marketing is extremely attractive. You can watch the full interview here.

Mike Stelzner – Social Media Examiner

Mike started SME back in back in October of 2009 at a time when there were already thousands of bloggers covering the topic. Despite that fact, SME has become the #2 blog in the US for small businesses and boasts a mailing list of just over 190,000 subscribers – all from a very focused content marketing strategy. You can watch the full interview here.

Conclusion

While there is no question that there is effort required to properly execute a well planned content marketing strategy, there is also no question that the benefits are substantial – and the best part is that, unlike with paid advertising, the benefits increase over time, even if your expenditures do not.

What Do You Think?

Did this article resonate with you? If so, please share it on your social networks and leave your comments down below.

Want to write for Bright Ideas? Click here.

Hey, thanks for the info. Now what?

If you need any help with content creation, we have tons of free resources to get you over the hump. Please subscribe to this blog to ensure that you never miss an article.

Have questions or comments? Please contact me.

If you really enjoyed this post, please help us to spread the word by clicking one of the social media sharing buttons.

Thanks so much!

[xyz-ihs snippet=”BuildGroove”]