Internet Marketing Course BLOG

By Rick Burnes
HubSpot Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
April 22, 2009

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Great advice about how small businesses can generate content consistently AND painlessly. Another idea from the B2B world – if you distribute your product or service thru a distribution network, you may find that one or more of your distributors have blogs and have blogged about a successful application of your company’s products to solve one of their customer’s problems. “Steal” the blog content for your blog – if you tell that distributor what you’re up to, they’ll LOVE the extra mileage you give their content! A classic Win-Win!

“If you’re a small business owner or a professional marketer getting started with inbound marketing, you’re probably worried about content.

You understand that content is the best way to win the SEO lottery and get found on the web — but you’re worried that producing all that content will be hard. You and your staff (if you have one!) weren’t trained as professional writers and the prospect of regular blog responsibilities is daunting.

I don’t blame you. I worked in the news business for seven years before joining HubSpot, and the prospect of producing new, original content everyday is overwhelming to me, too.

Here’s a secret: Writing a useful, popular blog doesn’t require that you come up with spellbinding new ideas every day. You should be able to create useful content from things you’re already doing on a regular basis.

To do this, you need to be in a content mindset. Instead of trying to come up with ideas when you sit down to write blog posts, look for posts throughout the day.

Here are five more specific ways you can do this:”

Read the entire article online by clicking on the following link:

Does Your Company Have the Content Mindset?

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By Christina Mejia
ChiefMarketer.com
December 20, 2008

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): A great post by this Chief Marketer analyst on how Obama won the “Internet election campaign” by taking Web 2.0 tactics to the extreme. My personal experience with the Obama campaign’s 21st century tactics was wireless phone-based. I signed up to receive text message updates from the campaign, and did I ever receive updates!

“One thing the recent presidential election has taught us is that this country has changed – both from a social and a marketing perspective. While history books will forever mark November 4, 2008 as the first time Americans elected an African-American President (or any non-Caucasian President for that matter), the Obama for America campaign will be viewed by today’s marketers as a comprehensive case study in how to build a brand in a Web 2.0 world.

As has been dissected by several social media marketing analysts and experts, Barack Obama clearly won the numbers game, dominating John McCain in all areas of social media activity from YouTube video views to Facebook “Fans” and Twitter “Followers.” A key part of Obama’s success was the campaign’s early adoption of social media strategies and their ability to maintain a constant high level of activity (regular updates throughout the campaign, all the while maintaining a consistent brand image and message.) And the essential lesson learned from the success of the Obama campaign: “that people united around a common purpose can achieve great things.”

So what’s the lesson for marketers?”

Example: Obama’s Thanksgiving Address Posted on Change.gov and YouTube

Read the entire article by clicking on this link:

“The Social Success of Obama”

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by Rick Burnes
Hubspot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
November 18, 2008

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): What an insightful and helpful article! Rick Burnes does a masterful job of integrating the next round of Internet Marketing initiatives and showing how they can form the basis of a comprehensive online “Inbound Marketing” strategy. The comparison of Inbound Marketing tools to “Outbound Marketing” tools is spot-on. An excerpt with one of the charts from this blog entry is given below. I suggest you STOP whatever you’re doing, take 10 minutes and read the entire article (link below). You will not be disappointed!

“What Is Inbound Marketing?”

“Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are poorly targeted and that interrupt people. They use cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows.

Technology is making these techniques less effective and more expensive. Caller ID blocks cold calls, TiVo makes T.V. advertising less effective, spam filters block mass emails and tools like RSS are making print and display advertising less effective. It’s still possible to get a message out via these channels, but it costs more.

Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head.

Instead of interrupting people with television ads, they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information.

Instead of driving their message into a crowd over and over again like a sledgehammer, they attract highly qualified customers to their business like a magnet.”

Read the entire article by clicking on this link:

“Inbound marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web”

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by Bernie Borges
FindandConnect.com
November 13, 2008

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): I had heard bits and pieces (pardon the pun!) about these viral videos from Blendtec, but had never heard the entire story. Well, here it is, including an iPhone “blending” demonstration!

“Yesterday’s keynote at Pubcon was George Wright, the Marketing Director at Blendtec. He told the story of how they have used viral video to exponentially grow their business in the past two years. If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s a textbook case study on viral marketing on the social web. Here it is…

Blendtec is a Utah Manufacturer of commercial high performance blending products for restaurants. They also have a retail product called the Total blender that uses the same technology as their commercial products.

George joined the company less than three years ago. He quickly learned that Blendtec has great products but didn’t have brand recognition. Great products with a weak brand equals weak sales.

He recommended to Tom Dickson, Blentec’s CEO they do a brand campaign. Tom, said sure go ahead. And btw, your budget is $50. Not $50 per month. Just $50.

George turned lemon into lemonade….”

Read the entire article by clicking on the following link:

“Viral Video Pays Big at Blendtec”

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Karen Rubin and Rick Burnes
HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
October 31, 2008

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Why did HubSpot want to interview Larry Weber about the future of marketing and branding? Because Larry, as it says on the Digital Influence Group Web site, “is a globally known expert in public relations and marketing services. Passionate about the convergence of technology, the web and communications, he is a frequent public speaker on the future of marketing, the social web and building communities online.”

Larry also wrote one of the first (and best) overviews of social media marketing. Titled, “Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business”, the book has been out about 15 months – the revised second edition is due out in January ’09.

So sit back and enjoy a really thought-provoking conversation with an acknowledged social media marketing guru (video lasts 30 minutes).

Read Karen and Rick’s comments by clicking on the following link:

Larry Weber on the Future of Marketing and Branding

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Link to: Internet Marketing Course