My mom used to leave me notes and lists of chores right in my spot at the kitchen table, an easy drop for her on her way out in the morning. I couldn't eat breakfast without moving it out of the way, making the lists hard to ignore.
This should be the case with your company's online presence -- you need to be found in places where your target audience will naturally look for information.
One of the keys to getting found online is to have a broad online presence, but targeted in the places that make sense for you and for your potential clients, which is a recurring lesson among this week's top five news stories from InboundMarketing.com:
1. How Broad is Your Footprint on the Web?
Author: Bernie Borges
Lesson: Spread and Diversify Your Content
With millions of pages and more being created every day, it may seem impossible for your company to get found online. But according to Borges, broadening your online footprint is best accomplished by spreading and diversifying fresh content. As he says, "most marketers still think being found on the web means being found in a search engine either in an organic listing, or in a paid listing (PPC). This is a limited view of effective inbound marketing on the web."
Borges recently spoke to a prospective buyer who could not pinpoint where he had come across Borges, yet in the past week he had found his company's website, blog and a podcast. Borges emphasizes that sellers who want to succeed in the coming decades need to have strong content across a variety of web platforms and engage with relevant communities.
2. YouTube CTA Overlay Lets You Drive Users Elsewhere
Author: Marketing Vox
Lesson: Use Multimedia Channels to Drive Traffic
This new feature on YouTube adds a call-to-action overlay to videos; advertisers can now redirect viewers to their site or product through links in this overlay. (Here's an article that explains how to add the overlays.) Before, a viewer might have watched a video or commercial and then moved on to another clip, promptly forgetting any marketing messages. Now, an organization can bring the viewer to their site instantly.
Non-profits such as charity:water have already benefited from this new feature. YouTube recently put a video supporting charity:water on its homepage, which resulted in $10,000 in donations for the organization in a single day.
3. A Checklist to Choose Which Internet Marketing Channel is Right for Your Business
Author: Rand Fishkin
Lesson: Know Your Company & Your Resources
In his post, Fishkin addresses the following question: "If a client came to you with $1 million to invest in a single Internet marketing channel, which one would you choose?" Fishkin has put together a series of graphs and charts that show how a company could measure its budget, goals and available talent to determine which channel would have the highest ROI.
So, before you can attempt to bring in more visitors to your site and convert more of these visitors to leads, it's important to know your own capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. After taking these into account, you will have more insight to choose the internet marketing channel that will be the most effective for you.
4. Strategic Blogging and Some Tactics to Nail It
Author: Chris Brogan
Lesson: Go With What Works for You
This post by Brogan discusses various strategies to take with blogging for business to get back that ROI. Brogan emphasizes that a strategy does not have to be set in stone, it should be malleable, aligning with your company's current needs and goals.
There are many different ways to use a blog to accomplish a goal -- from how-to posts to posts that spotlight a customer or a case study. Figure out your goals first, and then choose the best strategy for you.
5. 7 Tips on how B2B marketers can leverage social media
Author: Brian Carroll
Lesson: You Have to Give to Get
The lesson here reflects a basic principle of good inbound marketing. Carroll's tips reiterate the teaching that you cannot expect to get visitors, leads, comments, customers, retweets, or whatever it may be, unless you give valuable content by sharing blog posts, e-books, whitepapers, presentations, webinars with people who are interested in that information.
Using social media is an easy way to share content, absorb others' content, to be helpful and to receive help from others. Establishing yourself as a trusted source in your industry can be accomplished through the continued use of social networks, but only if you are willing to listen and share.
Photo: SewPixie .: actually sewing :.
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