How to Build Links Without Content, Tell Stories With Data & Avoid B2B Tunnel Vision [Inbound Industry Report]
Inbound Marketing Industry Report, highlighting top articles and news stories from the second week of November, 2012.
Content Is Key, But Not The Only One
If you haven’t yet seen the latest episode of SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday, check it out for two main reasons: Rand Fishkin’s (@randfish) first-ever beardless appearance, and more importantly, his talk on tips for staying competitive in SEO using tactics besides content marketing.
What other routes can you take? Here’s what Fishkin suggests:
- Relationships, reputation and word-of-mouth
- Advertising
- Viral products and services
- Community building and engagement
Remember that inbound marketing is not just about SEO or content or social; it’s about integrating all of these into a strategic campaign, and investing where you can win.
And, with any marketing program, it’s crucial you report and communicate the data behind your activities on a daily basis. But, what if you aren’t the one presenting the data? It takes solid communication techniques to simplify complex data in time-compressed situations. Avinash Kaushik (@avinash) shares his six quick presentation tips to create a powerful story.
Do B2B Marketers Have Tunnel Vision?
As mentioned above, inbound marketing is not about a single focus, but activities that work together for results. Along a similar note, Eric Wittlake (@wittlake) talks about B2B marketers’ too-keen focus on lead generation and the opportunity missed by not thinking further through the funnel.
And, going beyond customer acquisition, marketers have the opportunity to help build and sustain customer loyalty. To do so, Eric Zeitoun suggests a focus on customers’ trigger moments: “Strong brands can truly re-engage with consumers on a deeper level by embracing those moments and analyzing how they inform changes in attitudes.”
What’s New?
- Have you noticed Google’s search options are no longer along the left-hand side of the page? If not, you will soon—everyone in the U.S. will receive this new interface, with vertical search options moved to the top, mirroring Google’s mobile search results page.
- Ecommerce darling Zappos is in hot water after its customer email exposure in January. Recent legal issues had Zappos citing its terms of service to help these matters go into arbitration, but a federal court has ruled the agreement invalid since customers weren’t required to click through the terms before accepting.
- Pinterest is gearing up for the holidays by introducing secret boards that can be kept private, or shared with select friends and family, should you choose. Personally, I’m pretty pumped for this feature, and surprised Pinterest hasn’t rolled out it out sooner.
- Like many print newspapers, circulation of Ohio’s largest newspaper, The Plain Dealer, has steadily declined over the years. About 170 employees are launching Save the Plain Dealer, a campaign to alert readers of the industry changes.
- Are you an addicted Instagrammer? Now, you can flaunt your filtered photos even more with Instagram’s new web profiles. Slightly reminiscent of Facebook Timeline, profiles feature a mosaic of your photos at the top, with organized thumbnails below. Check out mine below for what to expect.
Social Success: Election Day 2012 & Digital Maturity
MarketingLand shared a collection of resources and information surrounding internet-related activity and last week’s election. A few interesting ways social has impacted the polls: Facebook and FourSquare offered real-time maps of voting; Google, Bing and Yahoo! showed results in response to related searches; and Twitter’s #Election2012 hashtag helped users stay on top of the news.
Social media success extends past political events, with a newly released study from Capgemini Consulting that says “digitally mature” companies are more profitable than their counterparts. The takeaway here? It pays to invest in digital, and adopt social business values across your entire organization.
What articles made your top list last week? We'd like to hear your opinions.
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