COMMENTS
Great Content Social Proof is important, this information was very specific and actual and not conceptual and that whats significant to my business. Informative information not speculation is key in any type of marketing!
Cool! I love how you used video in this blog post. Love the real-life examples -- inspirational!
Rick, thanks for stopping by the office and putting together this video with Pam and myself. It was fun talking with you and we continue to love sharing what we are learning each day.
/kff
Kyle, My pleasure! It was a lot of fun to spend time with you guys!
Great conversation, thanks Rick.
Separate note - what do you think of the notion of PR as a cost-effective B2B inbound marketing tool compared to other forms of marketing? Particularly if you used a pay-per-article-placed agency (like
Publicity Guaranteed, et al?)
Thanks again, I enjoy your blog!
-Dan
Dan, If you were talking about traditional PR, I'd say no, but with a pay-per-article placed, maybe.
Maybe, because I still think it's far more efficient to create content on your site. If media orgs find it interesting, they'll pick it up, and if they don't, you still benefit from the SEO annuity of the content you created.
Also, you often pay significant coordination costs when you work w/ a PR agency to place articles. If you create your own content, you can just do it.
Good stuff guys!
I like that...
we've done a lot of work to make sure that we're found...
so true!
This was a great service to your readers/followers. The real life experience shared by people who have perfected the art of Social Media is valuable. Keep it up!
Wanted to jump in on the topic Daniel brought up, as a PR person at heart I actually think that PR is still the most cost-effective way to generate leads...when done properly. The reason I say that is two fold:
1) You must take away the old notion of PR as simply media relations. PR is PUBLIC relations. That is any communication you are doing with your publics. So at BreakingPoint this includes our blog and Twitter, but also doing interviews with publications that link back to those places and bring in leads. Put the public back in your PR.
2) When chosen carefully you can really hit a homerun with the media these days, but you need to tie it into an offer on your site or some sort of resource. This might be your blog, but it could also be a news white paper or product launch. The key is to tie in any PR that you do into a marketing campaign on your site.
When done properly you are talking a nearly free means for lead generation and these days you can do most of that yourself with no need for a PR agency, no matter how they bill.
My unsolicited two cents ;)
/kff
If we consider the free HubSpot trial and provide confidential information (i.e., who our competitors are), will HubSpot sales people then solicit the competition if we decide to not use HubSpot?
Kyle -- Thanks for a couple typically great points. I completely agree with you. I'm simply not describing new PR as PR. Semantics ... :)
@ Joe
The names of your competitors are confidential? Really? I think if I knew your company name and URL I could find a bunch of your competitors pretty easily just in Google and Hoovers and other places online.
But, I can tell you that we are not using this information to contact other companies. We just believe the best way to sell our software is to let you use it yourself and see if you like it. And we don't do any cold calling, so I am not even sure how we would approach those other companies, even if we wanted to.
For reference, the full terms of use of HubSpot software are at: http://www.hubspot.com/terms-of-use
Mike Volpe
VP Inbound Marketing
HubSpot
@Mike,
I think my question is a fair question. I've entertained services like yours only to invite them into "my world" and work for my competition when I chose not to use them. In fact, one service I hired for several months did solicit business from my competition.