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Although I've never been very proud of my math skills, there is definitely some math I can easily wrap my head around, especially when it involves marketing.
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that we HubSpotters aren't confident in the success of cold calling as a sales and marketing tactic. Our top inbound marketing article of the past week uses some interesting math that only further emphasizes why you shouldn't be either.
Author: John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing
According to author Mahan Khalsa, cold calling results in about a 1-3% success rate for getting an initial appointment, yet when the same call is made with a referral, the success rate increases to about 40%. Quite a stark contrast, right?
John Jantsch's article emphasizes the importance of referrals for successful marketing and sales and points out how social technologies allow you to connect with prospects and customers to help you get referrals.
Marketing Takeaway: Cold calling is not an effective sales method. Use social media and other online technologies to enhance your marketing.
Author: Rohit Bhargava of Influential Marketing Blog
Rohit's article explores the topic of consumer generated marketing (CGM) campaigns, which, while they can be a great, free marketing tactic, they can also come with the downside of lack of control.
To help you determine if a CGM campaign is the right choice for your company, Rohit highlights and explains several different types of these campaigns, along with examples of real-life companies like Folgers, Doritos and Pepsi that have implemented them.
Marketing Takeaway: Before you launch a CGM campaign, take the time to evaluate and determine which type -- if any -- is right for you.
Author: Ben Parr on Mashable
If you're an entrepreneur, chances are you come up with a lot of questions over the course of launching and building your small business.
This Mashable article recognizes that, for small business owners, finding the right answers from experts can be extremely helpful. Therefore, author Ben Parr has put together a handy list of online tools that can be used to connect with the right people who have answers. Suggested tools include Quora, OnStartups Answers, Hacker News, Twitter and OPEN Forum.
Marketing Takeaway: The internet has a wealth of information and free, expert resources. Take advantage of it, for goodness' sake!
Author: Darren Rowse of Problogger
We've all been overwhelmed at times, but when it comes to your business, you can't afford to let your overwhelming feels affect productivity.
Darren's article offers some of his own, personal tips for working through those feelings to get stuff done. They include:
- Focusing on the things you can control,
- Breaking it down into bite sized tasks,
- Talking to others, and
- Start working.
Marketing Takeaway: Feeling overwhelmed happens. Don't let it get the best of you.
Author: Mari Smith on OPEN Forum
Are you using your Facebook presence to your business' best advantage? Having one can be a great social media asset, but there are ways to transform it from something good to something great.
Mari offers her best advice on using Facebook to help achieve business and marketing goals. Some of her suggestions include using your personal profile for professional networking, adding an attractive landing page to your fan page, responding to fans promptly and personally, and getting your fans involved in product and content creation.
Marketing Takeaway: Tossing together a Facebook fan page for your business isn't enough. Be more successful on Facebook by creating an engaging and interactive presence.
Photo by Danny
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