Master Inbound Marketing

Last week's episode with Kathleen Booth about carefrontations got me thinking about the different types of conversations we have every single day as creatives at IMPACT. 

We’ve all heard them before, the tales of a seemingly “simple” website projects that turned into nightmares. These stories don’t just come from one side of the project though. From an agency perspective, I have heard them from both the clients as well as the project managers. The projects start with an amazing proposal, clearly laid out. “Should be a breeze!” they say. “This will be an easy one.” Except that is very rarely the case.

How can a challenger brand take on the established players in one of the most competitive verticals - marketing technology - without simply outspending them on marketing? In this week's episode of The Inbound Success Podcast, Mautic VP of Marketing Katie Stavely talks about the company's approach to expanding awareness of the company's open marketing cloud suite of products. From leveraging the power of Mautic's committed community of brand loyalists, to maintaining a laser focus on the needs of users and ensuring that the company's brand messaging and content is truly authentic (or, as she says, "speaks native marketer"), Katie shares insights into what is driving Mautic's growth.

I know “outsourcing” is a frowned upon concept in the marketing world. Whenever I hear it, my initial reflex is to recoil -- like when someone says the words “moist” or “carefrontation.” (Gross.) -- But look at how we changed our tune with marketing automation.   First, it was an abomination that threatened to snuff out the very necessary human touch buyers expected from our marketing. Now, when deployed correctly, the right marketing automation strategy, executed with tools like HubSpot, can be a total game-changer for your marketing and sales efforts. Outsourcing is very similar in that way. Depending on how you approach it, it can be a smart move, rather than a necessary sin you must commit, but should never speak of. This is especially true when it comes to content creation.

How great would it be if every single one of your first-time customers kept coming back for more? Wouldn't it be even better if they loved your company so much that they told all of their friends about you?

Every time I talk about live-streaming, whether it be with my coworkers, clients, or even friends, I always hear one of these four excuses: I don’t have the right equipment to make it look professional I’m not interesting or what I’m talking about isn’t interesting I’ve never live streamed before so it would be a disaster But it’s live, I’m not prepared! I hate hearing those responses! Between Facebook and Instagram, live streaming has become such a big thing not only in everyday live, but in the world of marketing, it can’t be ignored. Instead of making excuses or being afraid of the live stream movement, take a few minutes to get familiar with it and you’ll realize it’s not so bad. .

In this week's episode of The IMPACT Show, Nick and I talk about Inbound.org going away, being a marketing team of one, the importance of nailing timing in your marketing, and a whole lot more.

We’ve all been preaching it for years -- create quality content to attract and engage site visitors, but what happens when everyone is doing the same thing? (Which they are.) At this point, most businesses know they need to create quality content, causing the internet to become beyond saturated with articles, guides, site pages, etc. With all the content out there, fewer pieces are having an impact and fewer people are actually engaging with it. In fact, 50% of article content gets 8 shares or less. What’s worse is 3 out 4 of those articles will receive zero referring domain links -- zero.