I’ve been so busy writing my social media marketing book (due out this spring) that I didn’t get around to blogging my web marketing predictions for 2009. Turns out there are several good predictions, none better than Online Marketing 2009 Predictions from Hubspot.

Peter Caputa of Hubspot makes some very compelling points. I won’t steal his thunder. You should read his post. I will however offer a complementary point of view.

Peter’s predictions revolve around the rapidly evolving changes in web marketing. He says:

• Business blogging will grow
• SEO consultants will deliver leads, not rankings
• Marketing software is a must

I agree with all three points with this to add…Effective marketing in 2009 is a paradigm shift.  I even argue it’s a mindset change. Even in a weak economy all businesses must continue to market. No one disagrees with that. The question is how do you make the most of your marketing budget in 2009?

In most industries buyers turn to the web to find products and services they need.  Marketers need to commit to a strategy that whole-heartedly allows them to be found on the web with effective engagement strategies.

Notice I didn’t say that marketers need to commit to being found in search engines with an effective conversion strategy. Marketers want qualified buyers coming to their doorstep.  To do this a whole-hearted strategy is needed of producing a lot of great content which can engage prospective buyers on the web no matter the platform - search engines, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, industry blogs, industry social networking sites, etc., etc.

Notice I said whole-heartedly, not half-hearted. Pete points out the cost of an SEO consultant is several thousands per month. That’s because an effective SEO strategy requires creating and optimizing a lot of content. It’s not just about optimizing for search engines. SEO in 2009 is about optimizing for the web. That takes a whole-hearted commitment, not a half-hearted commitment.

Software platforms like those mentioned by Pete are also important just like CRM and accounting software is important.  Measuring results requires tools and technologies coupled with smart strategies.

A whole-hearted commitment to ongoing content development for communities of people across the web is a must for effective web marketing success in 2009.

The only question this raises is should we change our company name to Find and Engage?

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Tags: @berniebay, business blogging, Hubspot, marketing software, SEO consultants, Twitter

One of the most exciting developments in 2008 was the rapid growth of Twitter.  Much has been written about it. Hubspot recently released their first annual State of the Twittersphere Q4 2008 report. Shel Israel is writing a book called Twitterville which I look forward to reading. In his forthcoming book Shel profiles several brands and individuals using Twitter in their business such as Zappos, Rubbermaid and Scott Monty of Ford Motor Company. Visit Shel’s blog for more details and to keep tabs on the book’s progress and availability.

In addition to some great reading on the impact of Twitter on our culture and society mentioned above I want to offer some thoughts of my own.  The following list is not based on any scientific research.  Rather this list is based on my gut instincts. In other words, this list is just my humble opinion.

You just might be addicted to Twitter if you….

• Load Twitter first thing in the morning before you check your email.
• Tweet something as the last waking moment before you go to bed.
• When you meet someone for the first time after asking their name, the next question you ask is if they follow you on Twitter.
• The next question you ask this new person is how many followers they have.
• You check your Twitter Grader daily.
• You check your Twitter following growth daily (or hourly).
• You feel lame if you haven’t Tweeted in an hour.
• You always Tweet what you’re doing where ever you are.
• You look at people who don’t use Twitter as aliens from another planet.
• You can’t remember life before Twitter.
• You have grown to hate email because you’d rather use Twitter.
• You review every new Twitter application as soon as it’s available.
• You post more than 100 Twitter updates per day.
• You feel compelled to reply to every one of Chris Brogan’s Tweets.
• You check Twitter names just to see if they are available.
• You dream up new Twitter names just because.
• You revise your Twitter profile once per week.
• You change your Twitter picture once per week.
• You dream up ways to talk about Twitter with your non-Twitter friends.
• You are seriously considering ditching your non-Twitter friends if they don’t get on Twitter.
• You invent new Twitter vocabulary all the time.
• When you visit a website you look for their Twitter identity.  If you don’t find one you think less of the company.
• Your significant other accuses you of spending more time with people on Twitter whom you’ve never met than you spend with him or her.
• No matter how many Twitter followers you have, you’re never satisfied.
• You have a separate calling card just with your Twitter identity. You’ve been handing out that card more than your regular business card recently.
• You haven’t been responsive to people calling your name because you prefer to be called by your Twitter name.
• You get the shakes if your mind draws blank and you can’t think of something to Tweet about.
• When you attend business meetings, you send and reply to Tweets from your mobile device.
• Your mobile device buzzes non-stop because you have enabled the device setting for most of the people you follow on Twitter.

You are really addicted to Twitter if you have set up one or more additional Twitter identities so you can lead a secret double or triple life.

This is a partial list of attributes of Twitter addiction.  If you or someone you love suffers from Twitter addiction, please seek help.  There must be other signs of Twitter addiction not listed here.  I encourage you to add them so you can help someone who suffers from Twitter addiction.  Please add to this list in the comments section below.

BTW, are you following me on Twitter?

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Tags: @berniebay, Hubspot, Shel Israel, Twitter, Twitter Grader

When Mike Volpe of Hubspot first mentioned on Twitter and on Hubspot TV that they were producing a “viral video” I couldn’t help but wonder: “What to do you mean Mike? A video is considered viral only after it goes viral. The people decided if it’s viral. You can’t just call it a viral video until it goes viral.”

I guess Mike has a crystal ball. Here are the top five reasons why the Hubspot viral video rocks!

5) The people in the video are real Hubspot employees. There is not one paid actor in the video. The whole production was done in-house. It’s authentic, not Hollywood.

4) It’s hilarious. When the team popped up from their desks to play instruments to accompany the lead singer, I laughed. Come to think of it, I laughed through most of the video. Humor is always one of the best characteristics of a viral video.

3) The Hubspot team did a great job spreading the word about the upcoming video through Twitter, their blog, Hubspot TV and webinars for weeks prior to the event. They created anticipation for the video. When they launched it on the 8th, they likewise spread the word through online chatter.

2) The video has intensity to it. In the opening scene when the boss (Mike Volpe) slams down a command to the cold caller, the mood is set for the video. Throughout the rest of the video the intensity and the action is high. I can really feel the frustration from the lead character in the video. She is passionate about her disdain for cold calling and her desire for inbound marketing leads.

1) It speaks truth. The message focuses on bringing leads to the sales team using SEO, SEM, blogs, Twitter, RSS enabled content and other forms of great content on the social web. This is the absolute truth!

One more reason this video rocks. It ranks #1 in YouTube for the keyword “marketing.”

I guess Mike Volpe knew all along this video would go viral. I suppose the sales staff at Hubspot is pretty busy handling all the new sales leads. Way to go Hubspot!

If you haven’t seen the video, here it is…

Tags: Hubspot, Inbound Marketing, SEO, social web, Twitter, viral video

I argue that SEO is becoming social media optimization (SMO). We devote a lot of attention to details to gain high rankings in search engines. Of course, this process is known as organic search engine optimization. But, when people search on a keyword in a search engine are all the search results limited to web pages? No!

A new organic SMO strategy is all about being found on the web by people who want your products or services. It’s great to be found by people doing a Google search. But, I don’t want to limit relevant traffic to my website only to those doing a Google search. I also want people to visit my website who are engaged in online conversations on the social web and visit it simply because of a referral by someone or a link from interesting content on the social web.

When I study my website analytics over the past 30 days I see the top referral source is Google organic, followed by a recent link building blog post on Hubspot and referrals from Twitter and Facebook.

How do I work at organic SEO? I still focus on relevant content and all the SEO basics pertaining to search engine friendly website architecture and organic link building strategies. These SEO fundamentals help get Google rankings which are still very important and very desirable.

But, as evidenced above Google is not the only valid referral source of traffic to my website.

When I find good content on the web I share it with others. On average for every 10 links to good content that I share, 9 of them are links to interesting articles from social media industry experts such as Hubspot, Lee Odden, Andy Beal, Paul Dunay and Chris Brogan among others. About 1 out of 10 links that I share are to my own blog posts because I sincerely believe that I provide interesting content too. I can say this with humility based on comments received from people on the social web.

The point I’m making is that organic optimization on the web is not limited to being found in search engines. Marketers who focus all their attention to being found in Google are potentially limiting their traffic.

This is more true in some industries than others. But, in most industries you’ll find people having online conversations, sharing links to content and generally engaged in communities on the social web. If your organic web strategy includes being engaged and found by these communities then it qualifies as a social media optimization (SMO) strategy.

So what’s your organic web strategy?

Tags: Andy Beal, Chris Brogan, Hubspot, Lee Odden, Paul Dunay, SEO, SMO, social media strategy, social web

Hubspot is running a t-shirt contest by guessing how much traffic will increase for a website when they change the title tags from the company name to the title of each article (web page) on their website. 

The current traffic is 4,000 visitors per month. So, I’m supposed to guess a number by how much their traffic will increase.

My guess is….(drumroll)….This is the wrong question to ask! 

How many conversions do they get from 4,000 visitors per month?  Their current title tags are their company name.  If their company name is well recognized that could be the best title tag.  But, let’s assume it’s not.

Will the new title tags be based on keywords with high search volume?  Even if they are low search volume but they are very relevant keywords, then they may get more conversions from more relevant traffic visiting their website. The impact on conversions is what needs to be measured, not the impact on traffic.

It’s conceivable their traffic decreases.  But, the best metric to track is will their conversions increase?

Look at it this way.  If they get 4,000 visitors per month now and convert 5% that equals 200.  If their traffic decreases to 3,000 with an improved conversion rate of 25% that equals 750.  Which would you prefer?

The title of this blog post is “so you call yourself an SEO guru? Figure this one out.” Guru is a strong word, but I do run an SEO agency, so I submit that this is a trick question (in fun). 

Nice try Hubspot!  You probably fooled some people, but not me (again, in fun). 

The real question is what affect will the changed title tags have on their conversions.

My t-shirt size is men’s medium.  Visit my Find and Convert website for my mailing address. 

Bernie Borges

Tags: Hubspot, seo agency, website conversions

 

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This podcast summarizes a session I recently conducted at the first annual  Inbound Marketing Summit September 8th in Cambridge, MA.  The event was sponsored by Hubspot, the providers of the industry’s leading inbound marketing system and WebsiteGrader.com.  There were about 300 people in attendance and through the use of social media the event reached nearly 100,000 people. 

I conducted a session called “Closed Loop Marketing.”  A link to the presentation slides are available here.

The keynote speakers were David Meerman Scott and Seth Godin both well known authors, bloggers and speakers.  They didn’t disappoint with their clever insights into contemporary marketing. 

Here is one of my “take aways” from each keynoter:

Scott: “you can’t measure everything…what is the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning?…of the receptionist?…the guys cutting the grass in front of the building?”  His point is that the way we measure contemporary marketing is not the same as it used to be.

Godin: “when you look at a cow, it’s pretty boring, but if you color it purple people notice it.”  His point is that marketing has to stand out.  It needs to be different and attention-grabbing to cut through all the bad marketing which clutters our brain every day. 

My session covererd the four pillars of closing the loop between marketing and sales:

1) Key Relationships: marketers must know each of the executive stakeholders and their measurement criteria and be aligned with them to effectively measure results (see Scott’s point above).

2) Strategies: know behavior of your target market, design proper messaging, listen to online communities, allocate resources wisely, think “small” (long tail strategies)

3) Best Practices: “eat lunch with stakeholders,” know your competition and industry thought leaders, propagate your content, test, measure, revise (TMR), don’t be afraid to experiment.

4) Measurement Strategies: measure leads, sales, “buzz,” brand, cost-per (fill in the blank).  Use tools to measure ranging from manual calculations, free or inexpensive tools, to elaborate and costly tools based on your budget and marketing programs.

In this session I placed a lot of emphasis on rolling out marketing programs that are well aligned with key stakeholders and that your measurement strategies agree with your key stakeholder’s goals and criteria.

The full presentation videos for all the sessions from IMS08 will be available on the Inbound Marketing Summit Website in the near future.  I also recommend you check out the full Flickr slideshow on the Inbound Marketing Summit at  www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ims08/.

How do you close the loop between marketing and sales in your business? 

Tags: closing the loop between marketing and sales, David Meerman Scott, Hubspot, Inbound Marketing Summit, Seth Godin, social media

 

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This our first video podcast.  It’s not Hollywood quality, but we’ll get to that someday (maybe).  This is an introductory podcast on Twitter aimed at marketers who have heard about it but haven’t yet jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

Twitter is a micro blogging platform used by individuals and businesses to communicate rapidly about anything they want.  You can search for people and businesses using keywords.  As you find people of interest you can choose to “follow” them in Twitter.  Each person you follow is sent an email notice with a link to your Twitter profile.  They can choose to follow you (or not). 

Optionally you can require that people send a request to follow you.  This is the way to create a private Twitter community.  The default is that anyone can follow you.

Twitter is being embraced by early adopter businesses.  Examples of companies using Twitter include Oracle, Apple, Comcast and the Los Angeles Fire Department.  Locally in Tampa Bay, ABC Action News uses Twitter to communicate breaking news throughout the day.

A small company who is using Twitter effectively is inbound marketing pioneer, Hubspot.  Several staffers at Hubspot are actively “tweeting” throughout the day.  Additionally, Hubspot has a company branded Twitter profile used to communicate new blog posts and updates on company activities.  They get it!

One big advantage of Twitter is access to good content.  If you build a following of people with common interests you will benefit from links they provide to interesting content such as blog posts and articles.  You should be one of those who contributes good content to your community.  Your following will appreciate it.

I liken Twitter to “many to many instant messaging.”  Businesses can use Twitter as an effective platform by setting up private communities of subject matter experts who help each other out.

Follow Bernie Borges on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay and Chuck Palm on http://twitter.com/chuckpalm

Tags: Hubspot, Introduction to Twitter, micro blogging, Twitter

Business blogging is a hot topic.  I recently podcasted on the importance of having a blogging strategy.

Yesterday, Chris Brogan wrote a great post with 9 ways to promote your blog.  I agree with all his tips, especially sharing your best blog posts (not all your blog posts) with your network. 

But, I want to be direct about an observation many of us in the Internet marketing world experience.  Business blogging is getting harder.  Business blogging requires a big commitment.  Guys like Chris Brogan of CrossTech Media, Mike Volpe of Hubspot and Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research spend a lot of their time blogging because it’s a big part of their business.  And, not only do they have a lot of good content to share with us, they have developed a loyal following through their blogs.

What about the average business competing to sell widgets every day?   How do you develop a strong business blog with limited time for blogging?

I don’t know if my tip is the silver bullet….But, here it is.  Think “small.”  Forget what you’ve been taught about “thinking big.”  Think small! 

Target your blog for a narrow audience with a very narrow topic.  Don’t worry about what you can write about, unless you don’t have a subject matter expert (in which case don’t even consider this idea).  You’ll be surprised how much you can write about a narrow topic.

Most businesses have a well defined target market.  Pick a segment of your target market and start a blog on it.  Maybe it’s a very specific industry segment such as office furniture dealers.  Just write about office furniture dealers.  If you have more than one person in your company qualified to write about this narrow topic, that’s even better.

There are at least three advantages to a narrow approach to business blogging.

1. You don’t have to write very often.  If you write about once per week or so, that is sufficient.  Just be consistent and write good content for your target audience.  Don’t write every other month, then once a week, then every other month.  Your blog will go stale.

2. The probability of your blog being noticed is greater because it is so narrow.  In fact, if you get a little lucky, you may get a handful of people in your narrow niche that really embrace your blog and promote it for you to others in your niche.  If that happens, you’ll find out that your niche is bigger than you thought.

3. Less competition.  Tecnhorati is currently tracking 112 million blogs.  In your narrow niche you’ll only be competing with 10 of them.  Ok, I made up this (second) number.  My point is you’ll compete with a fewer number of blogs for mindshare in your narrow niche.

4. Promoting your blog will be easier.  Just refer to Chris Brogan’s list of 9 ways to promote your blog.  If you do just half the suggestions made by Chris, your blog has great potential to become popular and give your business great exposure and open new doors for your business.

I said there are three good reasons for a narrow niche blog strategy, but I gave you four reasons.  I thought the fourth reason might be added to Chris Brogan’s list for an even 10.

Send me a link to your niche blog.

Tags: business blogging, Chris Brogan, CrossTech Media, Forrester Research, Hubspot, Jeremiah Owyang, Mike Volpe

While it’s recognized that only about 12% of the Fortune 500 have a corporate blog, those that do take it seriously.  Companies such as Intel, Google, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Dell and Kodak have devoted people resources to their corporate blogging strategies.

The companies in this list are Fortune ranking companies.  But, companies like Junta42 and Hubspot are not Fortune ranked companies (in fact considerably smaller) and they devote equally impressive resources to corporate blogging.

I’ll single out two blogging trailblazers from each category above.  Matt Cutts is the corporate blogging face of Google.  And, Mike Volpe is the corporate blogging face of Hubspot. 

Matt Cuts is often seen at Internet conferences in a t-shirt and jeans talking about whatever topic is hot at the conference de-jour.  Matt is also very active in his blog which appears to be sponsored by Google, or at least sanctioned by Google.  Matt is the official “webmaster” guy who represents everything Google.  In my opinion Google has very effectively humanized their corporate identity through Matt.  He is a regular guy.  He is not an executive.  He doesn’t speak over any one’s head.  In fact, he is a like-able guy who speaks in plain English.  Even if you don’t like Google’s position on topics as represented by Matt, it’s hard to have a hostile view of Matt, as the face of Google.  He is truly a regular guy.

Hubpot’s blog is branded under their name.  In full disclosure, I am a fan of the Hubspot Internet Marketing platform.  One of many things Hubspot does well is devote time and energy to their blog.  The main guy who is the corporate blogging face for Hubspot is Mike Volpe.  Mike’s title is V.P. Marketing, a pretty mundane title for a cutting edge Internet company.  I’ll forgive him for this because Mike does an excellent job of blogging on a myriad of Internet Marketing topics (he has help from some of his colleagues too).  In essence, Mike is educating and evangelizing the benefits of corporate blogging for Internet Marketing benefits.  Hubspot is a young company.  Their rapid brand growth is evidence of how effective corporate blogging can be. 

Corporate blogging can’t be effective without first deciding that it is important to your business.  Those businesses who think the benefits can’t be measured haven’t studied it enough.  These are the same companies who will eventually be blind-sided by their competitor’s corporate blgging strategy. 

The biggest risk to a corporate blogging strategy is not recognizing that it should be part of a bigger picture social media strategy.  You wouldn’t launch an advertising campaign without first setting the corporate marketing strategy.  The advertising should support the corporate marketing strategy.

Social media is fast becoming a strategic element in corporate marketing.  In some businesses people’s jobs are being defined under the social media umbrella, and in some cases whole departments.  We’re starting to see titles such as “Chief Blogger,” and “V.P. Communities and Conversations.” 

The commitment these companies are showing is to a strategy of conversations with people they want to converse with. 

Being in the conversations is everything in a social media strategy.

The online publication B2B Online covered this topic recently.

I am sometimes asked about my title: “chief find officer.”  Hmmm…Maybe it’s time for a title change…

Tags: corporate blogging, Hubspot, internet marketing, Matt Cutts, social media