Are you aware that every person working for you is marketing your business? The person who answers your phone, the greeter at the front entrance, the cashier who scans items—everyone represents your company.

Though these employees are probably ones with lower salaries and little influence within the company, they’re also the people your customers deal with on a day-to-day basis, see first, or go to for help. How are you treating these employees?

Marketing is not just about the half column print ad you run in the paper, or the commercial people see on television. You can make any claim you want to on these mediums, but if you’re not backing it up in person, you come off as unreliable.

Scott Stratten talks about this in his book, UnMarketing, and I experienced something similar on a recent trip to Target. I came face-to-face with one of the rudest customer service employees I’ve ever encountered. It made me extremely mad, but it also made me wonder what in the world could have made this individual so hateful.

For managers or business owners out there, think about how your employees act, how you want them to act, and how their actions are negatively or positively marketing to your customers. Marketing in person, on a day-to-day basis, speaks louder than any advertisement could.

No matter the size of your company or its marketing know-how, there are things every business can easily do to market itself and get noticed. These things are simple and inexpensive, and if you need help getting started, we can do that, too.

1. Start a contest.
   The purpose of a contest is to give something valuable away in exchange for email addresses, contact information, or whatever it is you want from your customers. A client of ours had success at this recently. They were starting a monthly newsletter, so their objective was to gain email opt ins. They created a contest where people could guess how many items were in a jar. It was promoted via social media and in person for several weeks, and at the end of the contest, three names were drawn and the winners received gift cards. They gained more than 200 email addresses during the contest and now they have permission to speak to those people through their e-newsletter. They have more contests planned for the future.
2. Get customer testimonials.
   Client testimonials speak volumes and are one of the easiest ways to get an honest review of your product or service. How does a company go about getting a testimonial? Just ask for it! You know which customers had a good experience with your company, so simply ask if they’d be willing to share their awesome experience on your website. All you need is a flip camera. Video their testimonial, or if they feel more comfortable, have them write something on paper. The video can be posted on your blog or your home page and shared on social media. The more testimonials you get, the more reputable your company becomes.
3. Get your newsletter going.
   Newsletters are extremely important for marketing your business because they go out to your most engaged group of customers, readers, prospects, etc. And because it’s a law to send email like this to only those who have opted in to your newsletter, you know that the people getting it want to hear from you. This is a great time to talk about industry news, new products, services, or sales. Also, be sure to provide links to your website, recent blog posts, and social media to drive traffic to your site and tie everything together.

These are three easy yet effective things businesses can do to market themselves and get noticed. If you want to learn more or need help with any of these, contact us today.

Understandably, the value of inbound marketing is sometimes lost on older businesses that have built their companies using traditional, outbound marketing methods. They might challenge what we do with questions like, “These methods worked in the past, why would they stop working now?”

Customers who have been with us for a while will tell you that the inbound strategies we’re using to grow their business are in fact working. Some are seeing website traffic increase, newsletter subscribes grow, more social media followers, and leads coming in through the web.

But it’s the little things they don’t necessarily see that really keeps the ball rolling. For example, every customer has access to their own project in Basecamp. Basecamp is the ultimate project management tool and it’s what we live by everyday. It keeps each customer totally organized and allows key team members to collaborate, share ideas, post thoughts, upload files, and pretty much anything else they need to see the status of a project and communicate with us.

Like Basecamp, every customer has their own Backpack page where key login information and passwords are stored. We know how big of a pain it is to keep up with hundreds of passwords and screen names. We keep customer information organized and stored here so all the details are in one place. Plus, clients can add personal information if they wish. It’s a pretty cool system.

Editorial calendars are also created for each customer. Calendars include detailed information about when blogs were posted, when newsletters are scheduled, what topics they include, and more. We keep all calendars updated at least a few weeks out which helps us create a content environment where we can tie everything together and keep blogs active.

We’re not just winging it. There’s a method to our madness and it seems to be working! If you’d like to learn more, contact us. We’d love to start a conversation.

If you’ve had doubts in the past about what inbound marketing is, whether or not it really works, or how you could benefit, this post may be of help to you. HubSpot recently released its State of Inbound Marketing Report for 2011 and the data in it is very convincing.

These statistics are taken straight from HubSpot’s report. This is just a snippet, so I encourage you to download the full report. If you have questions or curiosities about how inbound marketing might apply to your business, please contact us.

Three out of four inbound channels cost less than any outbound channel:

• Blogs, social media, and organic search were listed as the expensive channels.
• Blogs had the highest instance of being reported as “Below Average Cost:” 55% of companies who blog indicated leads from this channel were below average cost.
• Trade shows, PPC, direct mail, and telemarketing were most frequently ranked as more expensive.

The majority of businesses are increasing inbound marketing budgets:

• 54% are increasing their inbound marketing budgets.
• 89% are either maintaining or increasing their inbound marketing budgets.
• Among the 54% with increased inbound marketing budgets, the most commonly cited reason was past success with inbound marketing.
• The majority of businesses attributed their decreasing budgets to the economic conditions (71%) or a change in management (15%).

Small companies continue to spend more of their budgets on inbound marketing:

• In 2011, small businesses (1 to 5 employees) plan to spend 49% of their lead generation budgets on inbound marketing.
• In comparison, medium-to-large businesses (50 or more employees) only plan to spend 36% of their lead generation budgets on inbound marketing.
• Small business are only giving 10% of their budget to outbound, while medium-to-large business are allocating 28% of their budget to outbound channels.
• Small businesses plan to spend dramatically more of their budgets on social media and blogs.
• Medium-to-large businesses plan to spend more of their budgets on outbound methods, including trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing.

Download HubSpot’s full report.

We preach content creation to our clients all the time. We assume they understand what it means, but if they’re not used to marketing the business this way, it can take a little while to sink in.

Because we help implement content strategies for clients, I’m going to explain how we go about developing these strategies. Hopefully this list will help you develop yours as well.

A content strategy is a comprehensive plan that takes the following things into account:

• What’s the story behind your business? What are the unique things your business does or offers that puts you ahead of your competition?
• You know your business and industry inside and out. That knowledge is priceless and is exactly what you should be sharing online. This is the most powerful aspect to content creation.
• What information are your prospects and leads looking for when they begin the buying process? Are you providing it with free whitepapers, guides, webinars, screen tutorials, videos, or podcasts?
• Do you have a lead nurturing campaign for those who opt-in to receiving your free content via email? In other words, are you following up?
• Does your sales team get access to the leads that are ready for the next step in the process (free trial, free demo, free consult, etc.)?
• Do you have a content marketing editorial calendar? This would detail what’s being published, when, and how.

The answers to these questions are the backbone of any content strategy. If you're new to the game it may seem overwhelming, but don’t worry. As your inbound marketing agency, we’re here to take the reins, guide you along, and help you implement a successful content strategy for your business.

When you think about your business as a whole, would you consider it to be a fun place to work? How do you think your customers perceive you? Do you think these things even matter? I think they do.

Culture has always played a big role for me and I think most people understand that happy employees work harder, are more productive, and more likely to share ideas.

I came across an experiment performed in Sweden which proves that sometimes people just want to have a little fun. Sponsored by Volkswagen, this experiment is part of The Fun Theory which encourages behavior modification using fun. They tested how many people would choose to take stairs over an escalator when musically-enabled piano keys were assembled on the stairs. Results showed that 66 percent more people took the stairs. Watch the video to see what I mean.

What can your business be doing to make things more fun among customers, clients, employees, and prospects? I’m not saying you shouldn’t be professional, you absolutely should, but why are we taking ourselves so seriously? A little humor, fun, and lightheartedness go a long way. Showing the human side of your business helps people relate to you and feel more comfortable conversing with you.

Just something to consider as you build your client base, engage your customers using social media, and keep employee moral high.

I think I’ve said it before: I love magazines. Maybe it’s because I love reading and learning new things, or maybe because good design and photography always catch my eye.

Yes, magazine ads are sometimes a distraction…but sometimes they’re not. As an inbound marketer, I’m always excited to see companies embracing the concept and delivering goods to their audience. So when I came across a Clorox ad the other day, I got really excited to see them combining the principles of inbound marketing with print.

Here’s why The Clorox Company got it right:

• They don’t sell their product. There’s no need for them to interrupt us with a bunch of nonsense copy about how great they are. We’re all aware of the product and what it does. So instead of interruption…
• They provide value. Value as in information, how-tos, and advice on things like how to properly clean your child’s toys and how often they should be disinfected. Even instructions on how to properly mix the cleaning solution.
• They give real-life solutions. Information mothers (their targert audience in this example) would find interesting. Like why an apple a day is good for children and how it could help to keep their immunity up. They work the ad into the magazine like it’s part of the editorial. It doesn’t annoy or interrupt my reading, it adds value to it.

I like that they’re staying loyal to print, but at the same time, combining what we all know is crucial in marketing now: telling not selling. That’s why The Clorox Company got it right.

Know other companies that got it right? Please share. I’m always ready to talk ads.

When it comes to marketing a small business, owners sometimes run into some common problems. Marketing can be overwhelming, especially because there’s so much to it. Maybe you’re not even sure where to start or what you need to be doing. Here are a few common marketing problems small business owners face, and how we might be able to help.

1. Not being able to update your website
This is frustrating. A lot of small business owners don’t know how to make changes to their site and have to pay each time an update is needed. Our retainer customers have dynamic sites, which makes updating and adding new content, simple. Plus, we do this for them as part of our partnership.

2. Not sure how to develop a content strategy
Content is crucial. Having a consistent flow of new content is one thing most small business owners struggle with. It takes a commitment—and a lot of times, a team—to be able to blog weekly, publish a monthly newsletter, and develop content pieces like whitepapers and guides. We develop editorial calendars for all customers and publish new content to their site at least weekly, sometimes more. The more fresh content, the more visible your site.

3. No email marketing game plan
Email is one of the most important pieces to your content marketing puzzle. It ties everything together and reaches your most engaged audience. It you’re not sending out a newsletter or contacting your audience with email, you should be! Not sure how? We can help.

4. Not being active in social media
A lot of companies sign up for Twitter and Facebook, but are then left wondering what to do with it. Yes, you need to be on social media, conversing with your audience. But if you don’t know how to begin, it can be a challenge. We help our clients understand Twitter, Facebook, and some others, and teach them how to use social media to represent their business.

5. No time for blogging
Blogging should be a regular part of your content strategy. Some of our clients embrace blogging, others leave it strictly up to us. Either way, the important part they all understand is that it needs to be done.

Content marketing is what we love to do. If you want to start a conversation about how it can help your business, please contact us.