2011 August | 60 Second Marketer

August 31st, 2011

Inbound Marketing Tips from Brian Halligan, Co-Founder of HubSpot

When Brian Halligan and Darmesh Shah started HubSpot, the concept of inbound marketing wasn’t part of the marketing director’s vocabulary. But today, it would be virtually impossible to find a marketing director who isn’t familiar with the concept of inbound marketing.

Improve your inbound marketing strategy and attract more customers to your brand with these tips from Brian Halligan

Brian was one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Dreamforce event, which is an annual trade show put on by Salesforce.com. He spoke to a packed audience at Dreamfest in a presentation entitled, “Killing It: How Inbound Marketing Can Help You Crush the Competition.”

Here are just some of the important concepts Brian shared with more than 300 people during his presentation.

The Marketing Playbook is Broken: The concept of pounding someone over the head with a sales message has gone the way of the horse and buggy. Today, sophisticated marketers are using inbound marketing techniques to build a lasting relationship with their prospects and customers. Inbound marketing is a proven methodology that reduces marketing costs and improves marketing ROI.
Track Your Results. There’s an old saying, “Things that are measured invariably improve.” If you’re not measuring the results of your inbound marketing program, then you’re not forcing yourself to improve your track record.
TOFU, MOFU and BOFU: HubSpot measures metrics at the Top of the Funnel (traffic to their blog, e-book downloads, etc.), at the Middle of the Funnel (conversations with prospects, repeat visits, etc.) and at the Bottom of the Funnel (conversions, lapsed customers, etc.). By measuring their results over three distinct areas, they’re able to zero-in on specific disciplines that need improvement.
The CMO of the Future Will Be DARC: The next time you’re hiring a CMO, you should ask these four questions: 1) Do they live in the Digital world? 2) Are they Analytical? 3) Are they Research-oriented? 4) And are they Content creators? If so, you’re off to a good start. If not, keep looking.
Social Media Guidelines: At HubSpot, you won’t find a long legal document outlining their corporate social media guidelines. Instead, their social media guidelines can be summed up in just 3 words – “Use Common Sense.” By providing employees the freedom (and respect) they desire, HubSpot is instilling a sense of trust. Better still, they’re encouraging employees to put out interesting, innovative social media content that would get squashed at most other corporations.
Write Like a Human, Not a Marketer. One of the hardest things for many corporations to get over is the tendency to write like a marketer (or, worse yet, a corporation). But your customer doesn’t want to have a conversation with a corporation, they want to have a conversation with a human. So make sure everything you put out sounds … well, human.
Boring Blogs Don’t Get Shared: If you find yourself writing about your company Holiday party on your blog, stop wasting your time. People visit blogs to get tips on how to make their lives better. Keep your blog posts short, easy-to-read and packed with helpful content. That way, prospects will come back for more and, better still, share them with others.

The Bottom Line: It’s one thing to read about the inbound marketing concepts Brian touched on in his presentation, but it’s another thing entirely to put them into action. Here are some steps you can take to ensure your inbound marketing program is as successful as possible.

Test Your Way To Success. Are you conducting A/B Split Tests with your landing pages? The HubSpot platform allows you to conduct these kinds of tests so that you can continuously improve your results.
Write Content that Gets Shared. When visitors share your content, it’s their way of referring new customers to your business. Track which blog posts and white papers get shared the most. By doing so, you’ll learn what’s working and, more importantly, what’s not working.
Trust the Data. Your hunches about what works and what doesn’t work are just that – hunches. Track your results and trust what the results tell you. Mayor Bloomberg of New York City sums this up brilliantly when he says, “In God we trust. Everyone else, bring data.”

What are some of your best tips for using inbound marketing to generate new leads for your business? Let us know your thoughts and share them with other members of the HubSpot family.

About the Author: Jamie Turner is the Founder of the 60 Second Marketer. He is an in-demand marketing speaker and is currently writing a book entitled “Go Mobile” with Jeanne Hopkins, the Director of Marketing for HubSpot.

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August 30th, 2011

Top 7 SEO Mistakes to Avoid

As a marketer, you probably spent a lot of time and effort crafting your website to help catch potential customers’ attention, capture new leads, and ultimately generate new customers. However, if your website does not rank well in the top search engines, odds are that you will never get in front of your prospective clients and all of your hard work will be wasted. While Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, can be a complicated process, if you steer clear of these top 7 on-site mistakes, you’ll be on your way to a better ranked page.

1.) Targeting for the Wrong Keywords: Choosing what keywords you want your site to rank for is a critically important part of the SEO process and unfortunately, one that commonly fraught with mistakes. When deciding what keywords you want your site to rank for, make sure you are taking the perspective of someone who would be searching for information that your site provides. Instead of picking words that just describe your site, ensure that you pick words that are commonly searched by end-consumers.

2.) Keyword Stuffing: A few years ago, you could cram a bunch of keywords into a poorly written article with little context and satisfy the search engine’s keyword density requirements. However, since then the people over at Google and the other main search engines have wised up, and now sites can actually be delisted on the engines for content that contains keywords but is not contextual or helpful. Bottom line: make sure your content contains keywords, but still delivers value to the end-reader.

3.) Overuse of Flash: Flash allows you to create some interesting visuals on your site, but while those cool graphics may be eye catching to your users, all of the content within Flash is completely invisible to search engines whose crawlers are unable to read it. To rank higher on search engines, limit your use of flash or provide an html version of the site that is easier for the crawlers to read.

4.) JavaScript Navigation: JavaScript is often used in navigation for websites. However, much like Flash, search engines have a hard time reading JavaScript. This is a problem when used in navigation because engines cannot follow your links and assign appropriate authority to your pages. You can still use JavaScript, but make sure you create a sitemap that the engines can crawl or put links in a noscript tag.

5.) Focusing Too Much on Meta Descriptions: A meta description is the text that a user will see under a search title when browsing through search engine results. This text is important as it may help drive higher CTRs once users have reached the search result page, but it is no longer used as a ranking factor in any of the major search engines. This means that while you should craft good marketing copy that will entice users to click on your link, your time may be more effectively spent crafting title tags and other SEO elements that will get your page moving up in the rankings.

6.) Not Having Fresh Content: Fresh content indicates to search engines that your site is relevant, and thus ranks higher in search results. Therefore, having a site that remains untouched for months at a time is a surefire way to tumble in the search results. An easy way to ensure that your site is being updated frequently enough is by adding a blog to your site. Update it with relevant articles and polls 3 to 4 times a week to help boost your page rank.

7.) Thinking SEO is a One-Time Project: SEO is not a one-time exercise. Auditing your site and completing major overhauls to site structure and other SEO cornerstones is only the beginning of the SEO process. You must continue to upload keyword-rich content, maintain best practices when creating title tags, and continually be looking for sources for inbound links in order to stay on top in the search engines.

Sometimes SEO can feel like a moving target, with the search engines continually switching algorithms and never fully disclosing their methods. However, if you can manage to avoid these mistakes, you are on your way to SEO success.

Posted by Nicole Hall, Account Manager with Mobilize Worldwide. Mobilize Worldwide develops mobile apps, mobile ad campaigns, mobile websites and just about anything else related to mobile marketing for brands interested in growing their sales and revenue using this new and emerging medium.

SEO | 1 Comment »

August 24th, 2011

Steve Jobs Resigns from Apple

If you’ve been hanging around the 60 Second Marketer for any length of time, you know I’m a huge Steve Jobs fan.

He’s the only guy I know who has become a billionaire not once, not twice, but on three separate occasions.

So, it’s with great sadness that I report that Mr. Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple, apparently for health reasons.

Here’s a 60 Second Snapshot of the story as reported by Reuters. (For the full story, click here.)

(Reuters) – Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs on Wednesday resigned as chief executive of Apple Inc in a stunning move that ended his 14-year reign at the technology giant he co-founded in a garage.

It's a sad day for Apple enthusiasts around the globe.

Apple shares dived as much as 7 percent in after-hours trade after the pancreatic cancer survivor and industry icon, who has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since January 17, announced he will be replaced by COO and longtime heir apparent Tim Cook.

Analysts do not expect Jobs’ resignation — which had long been foreseen — to derail the company’s fabled product-launch roadmap, including possibly a new iPhone in September and a third iteration of the iPad tablet in 2012.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come,” he said in a brief letter announcing his resignation.

Jobs’ often-gaunt appearance has sparked questions about his health and his ability to continue at Apple.

“I will say to investors: don’t panic and remain calm, it’s the right thing to do. Steve will be chairman and Cook is CEO,” said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.

Analysts again expressed confidence in the Apple bench, headed by longtime company No. 2 and supply-chain maven Cook.

“Investors are very comfortable with Tim Cook even though Jobs has been a driver of innovation and clearly an Apple success. Tim has shown Apple can still outperform extremely well when he’s been acting as CEO,” said Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross.

“I don’t know if it’s a health issue. I don’t know if it is a shock. Most likely it was going to happen at some point. Why today versus another day? I don’t know.”

Posted by a very sad Jamie Turner. All the best, Steve. You’re one of my heroes.

Category Apple | Comment No Comments »

August 23rd, 2011

The 6 Most Important Tools to Help Drive Traffic to Your Website

Marketing your business online is imperative today, since a new Pew Internet survey revealed that 92% of online adults rely on both search engines and email – with a large portion of those surveyed doing so daily. SEO and email marketing, therefore, are incredibly important.

While email marketing is relatively straightforward, many become overwhelmed when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. SEO is simply a type of marketing whereby you work to rank your company’s website high on the search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo for certain keywords and phrases related to your business.

Businesses large and small can benefit greatly from SEO – as long as they use the appropriate tools and methods. If you get the formula right, you can increase your company’s online visibility; this visibility can bring you, in turn, more online visitors who will likely convert to customers.

Here are some of the tools we have found extremely helpful when it comes to top-ranking our clients:

1. Google Keyword Tool
Google’s own tool for keyword research has yet to be surpassed in ease and usability by any other tool. This tool provides an easy way to research keywords – just input your keyword and see the related keywords and phrases that other people are using on Google. For instance, you can do an “Exact Match” search and type in the keyword “Atlanta florist” and see that people are also searching for “florist in Atlanta,” “florist Atlanta,” “best Atlanta florist,” and so on.

2. Majestic SEO
Majestic SEO is a tool used for analyzing backlinks. Backlinks are those inbound links that come into your site and are measured by the search engines to determine rankings. The Majestic SEO link checker works quickly to analyze a site’s backlinks, providing information about the page, the domain, the referring domains, and top backlinks to the URL/domain and other important factors that contribute to a site’s search engine ranking.

3. Raven Tools
Raven Tools maximizes the efficiency of an internet marketing campaign; there are multiple features that make this tool useful. First, Raven Tools makes it easier to compile detailed, organized and comprehensive reports for clients and for the purposes of tracking as well. For instance, Raven Tools provides a way to track links coming into the site being analyzed as well as sites going into other sites (like those of your competitors). Also, Raven Tools provides a way to find people to mutually build links with by scanning keywords.

4. SEOToolbar
Aaron Wall’s SEO Toolbar operates as a reverse engineering tool on Mozilla Firefox. It is very useful for analyzing the sites of your competitors to reverse engineer your own SEO strategy. With tools on the toolbar like the SEOMoz Open Site Explorer, Blekko and SEMRush in addition to the toolbar’s own information about a site’s age, page rank, inbound links and more, the tool provides the ability to perform comprehensive site analyses.

5. Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools
These Google tools provide information about many important factors, including your site’s incoming traffic. They also allows you to track things like keyword, social media and email campaigns, communicate with Google and diagnose and troubleshoot any problems with your site that might hinder your marketing and SEO campaigns.

6. SEMRush
Another useful Keyword tool, SEMRush, allows you to view important factors about the site you are viewing, including who the site’s competitors are in organic search, what the site’s organic keywords are and more.

From keyword research to reverse engineering the competition, these tools allow businesses to develop a SEO strategy via in-depth information gathering. With these tools and an understanding of the fundamentals of SEO, small businesses can not only rank higher on the Google search engine results pages, but they can also likely see more customers as a result of their improved positions.

About the author: Jason Hennessey is an internationally-known Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert. As the CEO of Everspark, Hennessey oversees search marketing campaigns for high profile celebrities, lawyers, politicians and Fortune 500 companies. Hennessey was previously the Chief of Staff at Stompernet, the world’s largest search engine training company.

SEO | No Comments »

Tags: search engine optimization SEO

August 17th, 2011

8 Email Marketing Tips to Help You Supercharge Your Next Campaign

Are you trying to figure out how to supercharge your next email marketing campaign? If so, here are 8 quick tips that can help you get started.

1. Analyze your current marketing efforts.

As you kick-start your email marketing efforts, start by assessing where you’ve been. How many print or direct mail campaigns are you creating, and which ones can be converted to email? How many people are you currently reaching, and how many more would you like to reach through email? If your current email campaigns need a facelift, where should you start? Sure, it’s a lot to think about, but now’s the time to critique your current situation and set some email marketing milestones.

2. Stand out with design.

Superb design helps your emails grab attention and makes you memorable. Have a designer craft unique email stationery that enhances your brand. Or, if you’ve got HTML chops, freestyle your own design.

3. Take stock of your contacts.

Your email list should include people who are members of your organization, have bought something from you in past 18 months or have signed up to receive your emails. If contacts don’t meet this criteria, don’t mail to them. Customize a signup form to capture new subscribers, then, post the form everywhere—on your website, blog, Twitter profile, Facebook page and more.

4. Search and segment.

Think about the best way to segment your contacts into groups. If you allowed subscribers to select an audience group on your signup form, you’ll already have a few segments to start with. You can segment by any piece of data you collected on your signup form, or by other data, such as signup date. You can also segment based upon response activity once you’ve sent out a few email campaigns.

5. Create targeted content.

The time of the all-for-one eblast is long gone. Savvy marketers send smaller, more targeted mailings based on their audience members’ unique interests and preferences. Set up welcome triggers that automatically send to new subscribers, and personalize the content based upon audience group. Create date-based triggers that arrive in your members’ inboxes based on special events—birthdays, anniversaries or purchase dates. Send more frequently to your biggest fans, and offer special promotions to subscribers in your city.

6. Get in on the data lovin.’

Once you’ve hit send, don’t walk away. In fact, we won’t fault you for obsessively refreshing your campaign’s response page (we do it too) to find out who’s opening, clicking, sharing and signing up for your emails. Those numbers help you see what’s working well, and what needs a little work. Compare a few months’ worth of campaigns, and take time to analyze the trends that emerge.

7. Test, refine and, hey, have a conversation.

If you see a dip in your open or click-through rates, it may be time to tweak your sending frequency or retool your content. Set up split tests, and experiment with subject lines, email length or the wording of a special offer. Create a survey to ask your audience what you’re doing well and what they’d like to see more of. You may be surprised how willing your subscribers are to provide feedback.

8. Push the limits.

If your email efforts are humming along, you may be tempted to keep business as usual. Sure, continue the things that are working, but also consider how you can innovate. A new design will shake things up visually, and varied content will keep readers on their toes.

About Emma: Emma is an email marketing service designed to help small and mid-size companies—and the agencies that serve them—engage their audiences in style.

About Molly Niendorf: Molly is part of Emma’s Brand team and helps anchor the Portland office. Which is not to imply that the Portland office might float away, because it will not. But she anchors it nonetheless, helping to write Emma content and resources for our customers. Prior to joining Emma, Molly worked at a financial firm in San Francisco. Prior to that, she taught for two years as part of the Teach for America program, albeit in Las Vegas, which is more like three years in a less neon-y town. Molly holds a communications studies degree from Northwestern University and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Antioch University in Culver City, California. It’s not a particularly neon-y place.

Category Email marketing | Comment No Comments »

Tags: Email marketing Email marketing best practices email marketing strategies

August 16th, 2011

How People Use Smartphones [INFOGRAPHIC]

How are people using smartphones? That’s a question Google asked in their ThinkInsights study. Here are some of the answers.

Category General Marketing | Comment 2 Comments »

Tags: how do people use smartphones Mobile Marketing smartphone statistics Smartphone usage

August 16th, 2011

How to Ask Your CEO for a Bigger Marketing Budget

If you are like most managers, when it comes down to it, you are downright scared of being direct and to the point and telling your CEO in no uncertain terms, “I want more money for marketing!”

Think about it. There’s a conspiracy that encourages people to bury their most important wants and desires. Many management consultants advise using probing and consultative questions to draw people out. They say to avoid being direct and straight-forward. People hem and haw and they are even afraid to ask you what they want to ask you the most. They feel vulnerable about being honest and up-front. It petrifies even the best of us!

Yet when it comes to being successful in business, being frank, open and clearly asking people to give you what you want is what wins the day.

John Baker, a veteran Fortune 25 management and leadership consultant and author of the new book The Asking Formula – Ask For What You Want And Get It, says the world would be a better place if marketers were totally up front and said “I’m selling windows today; are you buying?”

Is asking for a bigger marketing budget at the top of your to do list? If so, here are some tips on how you can ask your CEO for a bigger budget.

Baker spent several years studying the fears and trepidation people demonstrate in situations across the whole spectrum of human interactions. He concluded that people do not know the best way to get what they want. He then documented the simplest tactics and strategies that he observed in the people who were getting exactly what they were after. His discovery was absolutely earthshattering in simplicity.

Very simply, the most successful people ask for what they want. Then they give the three very best reasons that explain why it makes perfect sense to say yes.

Here’s an example.

A company intrapreneur has worked for months with the target top executive, created a devastatingly beautiful project plan, addressed scheduling and pricing issues, developed an integration plan, customization plans, a communications strategy, etc. After all of the time, effort and energy he knows that he has overcome the financial, technological and even the human issues with flying colors. What he doesn’t know is if the executive will commit the marketing money needed to set it all in motion.

Even the most experienced, young and old are often stumped over asking someone for a clean and final decision. They stumble and bumble their way through touchy feely talk about their hobbies, the weather, their pets, family or weekend plans, anything but what they are really after.

Oh sure, all sorts of experts tell you that it’s important to build a relationship, or you have to draw out the prospect, or listen for buying clues, and any number of other items, but the crucial, bottom line issue is that they never get around to asking the big question.

Yet the quickest and best way to ask for the answer you need is to go right up to his client and say:

“Will you please approve the marketing budget now? I‘ve answered all your questions. You’ve seen the correlations between multiple repeat tests and predicted results. You’ve expressed support for the all the ideas and everyone is standing by. You’ve seen how everything works, how well integrated it will be, that it’s going to make a real difference. How about it?”

“It is crucial,” Bakers says, “to identify the exact most important request, and brainstorm before you decide on the best reasons. Each reason needs to be carefully selected from a larger number of options and be backed by three important facts.”

It’s about that easy, and the power of this strategy is more than a little amazing. Baker has shown that this method can be successfully used to penetrate difficult accounts, close difficult sales calls, shorten a sales cycle, protect price margins, reduce meeting time, speed up Powerpoint presentations, structure personnel reviews, sales letters, company communications with suppliers, corporate memos and even email messages.

What’s more it is proven to be quite helpful in corporate and business personal interactions with personnel, especially with supervisors and staff.

And it really helps if you put your money here your mouth is:

“Let’s implement the plan as follows. You approve the budget today. I’ll meet with your top three Directors by the end of the week. We’ll finalize the deployment, assign responsibility for the action items, identify the start date and set the implementation schedule, and document the action planning on the company-wide calendar. Then we’ll kick things off and monitor the progress and the results each day. And it will happen in less than a week!”

“Conversations are clearer and there is less misunderstanding and I earn lots of points for being thoughtful”, he says.

Baker’s formula has three key rules:

Only offer information that is meaningful. The rest is trivial.
Get to the point and ask for what it is you want.
Be quick about it.

Building a relationship is great, but taking responsibility and delivering the results is what builds trust. The biggest problem with never getting a direct answer, is that it gets in the way of the real progress. It’s pointless. It wastes time and effort. It allows for procrastination. It enables people to avoid rejection. After all, if you are busy probing the needs of the prospect you don’t have to risk actually doing the work.

Can you image a vendor at a ballpark consultatively selling you a hot dog: “On a 1 – 10 scale rate your level of discomfort with your hunger?” “Tell me your main objective with the hot dog?” “When you had a hot dog before, how satisfied were you with the mustard and ketchup ratio?”

Isn’t he more effective when he just yells:

“Hot dogs, hot dogs, come and get your hot dogs!”

Just give me the damn hot dog!

John Baker has held top leadership positions in sales, client service and operations in Fortune 25 companies for more than 25 years. John is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with BA and MBA degrees. He is a member of the National Speakers Association, a noted speaker on topics of leadership, leader development, and building winning organizations. John lives in Minnesota with his family. His new book The Asking Formula – Ask For What You Want And Get It is scheduled for late fall 2011 release. For more information visit www.theaskingformula.com

Category General Marketing, Marketing Best Practices, Marketing Tips | Comment 1 Comment »

Tags: how to ask for a bigger budget Marketing Best Practices marketing budget marketing budget as a percent of sales

August 15th, 2011

How to Supercharge Your Email Campaigns by Integrating Them with Facebook and Twitter

Facebook or Twitter: Do you know which social network your subscribers use most? Their preference could frame how they interact with your email marketing campaign.

ExactTarget discovered that Facebook and Twitter users show different expectations when interacting with brands online. This means you can reframe your conversation with targeted content based on your subscribers’ social network of choice.

Catering your campaign to subscribers’ social media habits creates valuable, shareable content that will keep them talking (and engaging!).

The Content: Facebook Users

According to the study, Facebook users place the most value in entertainment and making public statements about their brand affiliation. 39% of Facebook fans liked a brand’s page to make a statement showing their support.

In the world of email marketing, entertainment can equal relevance and variety in your content, upping its shareability value.

Providing entertainment in your marketing messages means knowing your audience well and giving your subscribers more than a sales pitch. Cosmetics company Bare Escentuals offers subscribers both relevance and variety in their campaign.

Along with promotional emails, they also send a monthly newsletter packed with tips and comments from the staff. This example from February focused on dreams and inspiration with staff contributions:

…and a cleverly themed product placement:

Their strategy goes beyond the average sales email with quality, engaging content that should appeal to a Facebook user’s penchant for entertainment.

Engage their desire to make a statement for your brand by adding share buttons to articles in your broadcast messages.

Key Point:
Create variety in your messages to entertain your Facebook segment. Add social links your subscribers can use to show off their brand affiliation to friends.

The Content: Twitter Users

Consumers on Twitter show greater interests in news updates, interaction and exclusive deals and offers. ExactTarget’s study reveals that 20% of Twitter users follow a brand for the interaction. Only 14% of consumers choose email subscriptions for the same reason.

The key to keeping your Twitter segment engaged is sending exclusive deals and timely updates to keep them in the know about your brand or product.

UrbanDaddy’s Perks newsletter is a perfect example of the insider deals that would appeal to your Twitter segment:

Don’t have special members-only discounts to offer? Try sending some exclusive videos or downloads, like The Static Jacks did with a special music video just for their email subscribers:

(Screenshot of YouTube player that links to the video in the email.)

West Elm demonstrates staying in the know and ahead of the curve with their “sneak peek” email, looking ahead to fall design trends well in advance of the season:

Their subject line and message speak to both being in the loop and getting exclusive information on product updates, something that could connect with the preferences of your Twitter segment.

Remember: Twitter users are also all about the interaction. Feedback surveys are a great way to encourage interaction in your newsletters. Shoes.com steps it up with featured reviews submitted by their customers:

Encourage Twitter subscribers to follow your brand if you’re active on Twitter as well. Frame your call to action around insider information like Bluefly does with theirs:

Key Point:
Content for your Twitter segment is all about staying up to date and in the loop and offering exclusive access to deals. Add interaction with feedback surveys and featured customer reviews for even better engagement.

The How-To: Segmenting by Social Network

Before you can start targeting content, you need to know which of your subscribers use which social networks. You can then segment your list to send specialized content based on their preferences.

For current subscribers, include a survey in your broadcast messages asking which social network they use most frequently. Segment your list based on their responses.

For new subscribers, ask whether they use Facebook or Twitter by adding selections to your web form, or include a survey in your welcome message after they opt-in to your list so you can start segmenting them right away.

Now you can send the Twitter users on your list the latest developments and news updates, while subscribers using Facebook receive plenty of entertaining content that they can share on their wall to show off support for your brand.

The Conclusion: Email Has the Most Fans

Social networking might be the next big thing in communication, but 93% of online consumers still choose to interact with brands through email subscriptions rather than on a social network. The email conversation is the most important, and you can keep it going with messages targeted to your subscribers’ online behavior.

Have you considered leveraging your subscribers’ choice of social network to send better targeted content?

What do you think the benefits could be for your brand?

About the Author: Rebekah Henson is a published playwright and SEO writing expert who writes about building an online following through email marketing at AWeber, the leading email service provider for small-to-medium businesses. You can find more tips on marketing with email at the AWeber blog, or see how you can grow your own business with email at aweber.com.

Category Email marketing | Comment 1 Comment »

Tags: Email marketing Email marketing best practices email marketing strategies

August 14th, 2011

45 Best Mobile Apps for Business

By some estimates, there are more than 400,000 iPhone apps and more than 300,000 Android apps on the market today. That makes it very difficult for the average businessperson to weed out the bad apps and focus on the good ones.

Well, I have some good news.

I’m currently writing a book called Go Mobile with Jeanne Hopkins, who is the Director of Marketing at HubSpot.

In the process of doing research for the book, we’ve narrowed down what we think are some of the best apps to improve productivity, provide news and information and help you connect with customers and prospects.

Here’s our list of the 45 best apps for businesspeople. It’s not a complete list, so if we missed any of your favorites, let us know in the comment section below.

News and Information Applications

ABC News Mobile: This application is for all those who love to be in the know. You can receive text alerts about breaking news, watch video, listen to podcasts or read articles all on your mobile phone.

CNN Mobile: Interested in staying up-to-date on the latest news from around the globe? CNN Mobile gives you the ability to read the latest stories and watch CNN live on your smartphone.

Google Books: Interested in re-reading the Declaration of Independence or Dante’s Inferno? Download Google Books to your smartphone and you’re ready to roll. I’m reading Ben Franklin’s Autobiography on Google Books right now and it’s fascinating.

Google Maps: What would men do without Google Maps? They’d have to ask for directions, which, of course, will never happen. Fortunately, Google invented their Map app for guys (like myself) who are too stubborn to stop and ask directions.

There are hundreds of thousands of smartphone apps. Which ones are best for business? Here's our list.

The Huffington Post: The mobile version of this popular news and opinion online newspaper features breaking news, blogs and original content.

Kindle: You can use your smartphone to preview books that you might like to buy later. Clean and customizable, the app permits you to preview the first chapter, as well as to add bookmarks, notes, and highlights.

MobiTV: Missing your favorite TV shows is no longer an issue. With MobiTV you can watch shows whenever and wherever on your mobile phone.

NPR News: Even if you can’t catch all of the news from NPR at home or in the car, you can still start your day with NPR News for your smartphone. You can listen to national news stories on demand, or allow the app to use your smartphone’s GPS to pinpoint local content.

Stitcher: This mobile application lets you get your news on the go by streaming up-to-date audio content about business, sports, politics and entertainment.

The Weather Channel: The Weather Channel’s app and the mobile version of weather.com provide up to date weather information, text alerts, animated maps and more.

Windows Live Messenger: You can chat with your friends on Windows Live Messenger on the go with their mobile application.

Productivity

CamCard: Let’s you scan business cards and automatically add that information to your phone’s contact list and/or your Outlook or Gmail account.

Evernote: After you create a text note, photo or audio note, you can synch them to your pc or to the web.

Instapaper: Through Instapaper you can save Web articles you browsed on your iPhone for later reading, using a browser bookmarklet. The Instapaper Website reformats your saved articles (sans Flash ads and clutter) for quick reading on the desktop.

Yammer: Yammer brings together all of a company’s employees inside a private, secure enterprise social network. This enterprise platform lets businesses set up a Twitter-like service allowing for the open exchange of ideas, links, and documents within enterprise communities.

Financial Tools

Bloomberg Mobile: Use this app when you’re on the go to access financial news, stock quotes, company descriptions, market leaders and laggers, price charts, market-trends analysis, customized lists of stocks, and more.

CNNMoney: With breaking business stories and complete in-depth market coverage in a customizable format, CNNMoney provides real-time reporting of financial news and analysis, as well as data and charts.

Expensify: Takes some of the hassle out of creating expense reports by allowing you to report expenses as they happen while you’re on the move.

iStockManager: For continuous access to – and control over – your TD Ameritrade account, use iStockManager. You can get equity and option trading, streaming data, real-time balances and positions, news, and more on your mobile device.

XE Currency: Convert the currencies of more than 180 countries at up-to-the-minute rates. The app saves the last conversion just in case you may need to repeat it offline, too.

Organizers/Time Savers

1Password: To maintain your usernames and passwords on your iPhone in one place, try 1Password. The mobile app syncs with the desktop version, as well. If you wish, you can use it to store other personal information, too, such as your Social Security number and credit card numbers.

Barcode Scanner: Barcode Scanner handles bar codes – including 2D QR codes – and lets you look up the associated product or URL for instant price checks and comparison shopping.

Craigsphone: Search and browse Craigslist posts near your current GPS location, and bookmark relevant listings, with Craigsphone. The app also has tools for posting your own listings with photos and maps.

PageOnce: Use PageOnce to track credit card transactions, check your bank account status, monitor frequent-flyer miles and itineraries, and get alerts when bills are due and itineraries change.

Utilities

Analytics App: Full mobile service for your Google Analytics data. You can check everything from reports to specific data, and the tidy interface makes it even easier to navigate than the web-based service.

AntiDroidTheft: If you lose your phone, AntiDroidTheft turns on remote GPS tracking so that you can determine its location. You can also trigger the phone’s camera to shoot an image that might help you locate the handset.

AndroZip: The powerful AndroZip File Manager works with archives, including 7ZIPhone, BZIP2, GZIPhone, RAR, TAR, and ZIPhone files. You can use it to create GZIP, TAR, or ZIPhone archives, too. Free.

Fring: Really cool mobile app that lets you place free calls or chat with anyone from your Skype, ICQ, Google Talk, MSN, Twitter, or SIP contacts.

SmrtGuard: Can remotely track – and lock – your smartphone if it goes missing. The Pro version lets you perform automatic wireless backup and restore.

Soonr: Need to access your PC directly from the handset? Enter Soonr, a free mobile client that brings remote PC access to your phone: search files, view documents, check emails, run programs and more.

Talk to Me: Originally, Talk To Me translated only English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian, with its speech-to-speech functionality. Now it has many other languages from which to choose.

Vlingo: Replaces every instance where you have to type on your smartphone with voice commands. It covers your phone’s basic messaging functions, voice calls, Facebook updates, and personal notes. On Android and BlackBerry, the app will even read your incoming messages to you.

Social and Location-Based Applications

Bump: This is a terrific application that allows you to exchange contact information, photos, social networking information and calendar events just by “bumping” your phone with another Bump user.

Facebook: You can update your Facebook page on the fly with their mobile version. You can even update your Facebook Places profile, which lets people know where you’re eating, drinking, relaxing or just hanging out.

Foursquare: Ready to “check-in” to your favorite restaurant, bar, mall or retail store? If you do it enough, you’ll become Mayor or be eligible for discount coupons.

Google+: This is much like Facebook, only better. (Seriously.) If the cluttered atmosphere of Facebook drives you a little batty, click this link and accept our invitation to join Google+.

Gowalla: Much like Foursquare, Gowalla allows you to share your location with friends, all the while accumulating digital souvenirs that may be redeemable for real life rewards.

Hootsuite: Using HootSuite, you can manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts within an elegant, clean user interface. HootSuite stands out from other social network managers for its extra features: You can schedule updates, set columns to monitor keywords and hash tags, and translate updates in other languages .

LinkedIn: Ready to exchange LinkedIn contacts just by bumping your phone? Or perhaps you want read someone’s profile while you’re waiting for them at a restaurant. If that sounds enticing, then this application is for you.

Loopt: Allows you to connect with your friends by sharing your location and status with friends. With Loopt, you can find your friends on a map and view their photo and status updates in real-time.

Mass Text Message: Text up to ten friends with just one click by downloading the Mass Text Message app and creating custom groups of contacts.

Qik: A new, faster way to share videos with all of your friends, Qik allows you to record and instantly upload videos to the internet or stream live video straight from your phone. You can also 2-way video chat or send video mail.

Skype: Verizon Wireless users can now use Skype through their phones with free Skype-to-Skype calling and IM without using their mobile minutes. Users with other carriers can get a Skype To Go number that they can reach from any mobile phone.

Twitter: You don’t have to be sitting behind a desk to update your Twitter status. The mobile version lets you stay connected wherever you are.

Yelp: This application can give you restaurant reviews on the fly. Better still, their augmented reality mobile application lets you look through your mobile screen and places tags with reviews over the restaurants on that street.

YouTube: You can now check out the latest YouTube craze straight from your mobile phone. You can search for and watch videos or record and upload your own videos.

Did we miss anything on our list? If so, just provide the name, description and URL of your favorite mobile phone apps in the comment section below.

Jamie Turner is the co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media. He is the Founder of the 60 Second Marketer and is also a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe. His next book, Go Mobile, will be published by John Wiley & Sons in 2012.

Category Mobile Marketing, Mobile Media | Comment 1 Comment »

Tags: marketing mobile mobile apps Mobile Marketing Mobile Marketing Best Practices Mobile media

August 11th, 2011

How Has Standard & Poor’s Miscalculated Credit Rating Affected Your Trust in their Brand?

Standard & Poor’s, those marvelous people who gave AAA ratings to the organizations that cause the 2008 global collapse, downgraded the credit rating of the United States — even after admitting there was a $2 trillion mistake in their calculations.

Warren Buffet commented that, if anything, their actions affected his opinion of Standard & Poor’s more than it affected his opinion of the United States.

What’s your opinion? How has Standard & Poor’s miscalculated credit rating affected your trust in their brand?

Category General Marketing | Comment 3 Comments »

August 10th, 2011

Microsoft Tag vs. QR Codes: The Debate Continues

A few months ago, a member of the 60 Second Marketer community started a discussion on our LinkedIn group that asked, “I am curious about everyone’s thoughts on Microsoft Tags vs. QR Codes.”

You can join that discussion by clicking the link above. In the meantime, you might also enjoy our analysis of the comments and information we received about the Microsoft Tag vs. QR Code debate. (Some very level-headed information was kindly provided by Nick Martin, the Online Community Manager at Microsoft Tag.)

Here’s our report, written by Nicole Hall at Mobilize Worldwide.

While these two codes both fall into the category of a 2D code, many people have differing opinions on which will win out to become the most widely accepted technology. So what is the fuss really all about?

We took a look at the 5 factors most commonly discussed in the debate to help you decide which code is best for your business.

Open vs. Closed Source: One of the biggest differences between the codes is whether they are open or closed sources. QR codes are open source, meaning they can be created by many companies, and each company’s code reader should be able to read every other company’s QR codes. Meanwhile, Microsoft Tag’s technology is closed, meaning you can only create and scan Microsoft Tags using Microsoft’s platform. While some believe the open nature of QR codes will help them gain traction and become more widespread in the market place, others argue that by controlling the entire scanning process, Microsoft will be better able to assure quality, and thus rise to the top.

Adoption Rates: Though QR code companies and Microsoft are both extremely tight lipped about their numbers except to say that they are experiencing extreme growth, many 3^rd parties have speculated about each code’s share of the market. According to Nellymoser, who is a partner of Microsoft Tag, Tag has an overwhelming presence in the print publications industry, with campaigns in publications such as Allure, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.

However, in most other areas QR codes seem to be dominating the space. In fact, Burson Marsteller recently reported that 22% of the Fortune 50 companies are using QR to promote their business. Companies using QR codes include retailers such as Walmart, manufacturers like Ford Motors and entertainment companies such as HBO, to name a few. Additionally, ScanLife QR code readers are preloaded on to many Android devices, increasing the adoption rate amongst these owners. Microsoft Tags are not preloaded on any devices, despite the fact that Windows Phones are also a Microsoft product.

Scanability: Scanability is one of the hottest topics in the debate over codes, but unfortunately there is no definitive evidence one way or the other. While Microsoft has put out research indicating their codes are successfully read up to twice as often as QR codes, 3^rd party research is not available to back up these claims. Anecdotal evidence however, indicates that the codes tend to be fairly evenly matched, but that QR codes scanability can be hampered depending on what codes and code readers are being used.

Customizability: One of Microsoft’s initial selling points was that, unlike QR codes, they could incorporate colors and custom logos into their tags. But now QR codes are catching up on this front. The codes can operate successfully with a 30% margin of error, meaning designers have been able to get creative with graphics and logos. Microsoft Tags can also include your logo, but typically work by layering a field of dots over a picture, as opposed to actually incorporating it into the design. This makes it easy to create a custom code without a graphic designer, but many argue it does not look as sleek. Check out some examples below and decide for yourself. And, for more cool QR codes, check out Mashable’s article.

Custom Microsoft Tag for Iams

Custom Microsoft Tag for Jay Baer book, Now

Custom QR Code for Corkbin

Custom QR Code for Magic Hat

Cost: It is completely free to create Microsoft Tags and to download their reader. Additionally, their metrics, which include the frequency, time frame, and geography of all scans, come free of charge. Microsoft has guaranteed that all of their services will remain free until at least 2015, and they will give 2 years notice before charging for any service, so a price hike is not a concern for their users. This cost structure differs slightly from most QR code companies which do not charge to create or scan codes, but often do charge a “premium” rate to achieve similar metrics.

While there are some definite differences between the two codes, much of their popularity will come down to individual preference. Regardless of which code wins out, the continuing adoption of one or both of these codes is a definite win for mobile marketers.

Category 2D Codes, General Marketing, Microsoft, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, QR Codes | Comment 18 Comments »

Tags: 2D Codes adoption rate Android closed source Microsoft Tag mobile Mobile Marketing open source QR Codes ScanLife scans smartphones

August 9th, 2011

How Often Do You Access LinkedIn?

Recently, Lab42 surveyed 500 Americans who were registered LinkedIn users to discover how they used their profile and to see if they valued LinkedIn as a professional networking tool.

One of their research questions was, “How Often Do You Access LinkedIn?” The results of the question are provided in the pie chart below.

LinkedIn | 3 Comments »

Tags: LinkedIn for business LinkedIn marketing LinkedIn tips Tips for using LinkedIn using LinkedIn for marketing

August 8th, 2011

5 Awesome Mobile Campaigns You Can Learn From

You and your company may not have much in common with marketing giants such as Starbucks, the Westin, or Heineken, but even without these companies’ deep pockets, you can still take a cue from their successful mobile campaigns. Check out some of the most innovative mobile campaigns over the past few years, and what learnings you can apply to your own campaigns.

Starbucks: Try as we might, it’s really hard to create a top 5 list for mobile without including Starbucks in some way. The coffee giant has used many different mobile channels to reach their consumers including SMS, Apps, and mobile web. However, the coolest mobile integration to date is their mobile payment system which centers around linking gift cards with a QR code on the users phone that the baristas can scan to take money off the gift card. What makes this cool is that not only did the intrigue of the campaign drive visits, it streamlined the payment process for users once they were in the store.

Takeaway: Mobile is a tremendous marketing tool, but can also be used as an operational tool that can help streamline your processes. Leveraging both aspects increases the impact of your mobile campaigns.

Heineken: Realizing that people are often multitasking when on their phones, Heineken developed an interactive game that allowed fans to use their mobile phone to play along with the Champions League soccer games. 10 minutes before a UEFA game started, users could unlock the game, which asked them throughout the match to predict what was going to happen. The game, which could also be played on their Facebook page, drove huge engagement numbers for the brand.

Takeaway: People are rarely focused solely on their cell phone, which can cause problems when trying to catch your users attention. But instead of trying to fight through the cross-channel clutter, embrace it, and use it to drive greater engagement.

Shrek: Despite traditionally dismal CTRs on banner ads, the Shrek franchise ran a mobile ad campaign to promote the newest installment, Shrek Ever After. When clicking through a site where the ads were placed, Shrek would overtake the users screen with the words “Tickets” and “Showtimes” printed across his forehead. The campaign saw a CTR of 6.2%, 30 times higher than that of the desktop version.

Takeaway: Mobile banners can be hard to see sometimes, so its important to stand out and have mobile specific creative. This may mean simplifying your campaign to have very clear calls to action, such as the Shrek ad which only offered users 2 options.

Westin: Using geo-enabled mobile banner ads, the Westin targeted consumers in chilly locations to promote their warm-weather destinations. The ads appeared on the Weather Channels mobile site and prompted users to wipe away the “virtual frost” on their phone screens to discover a warm weather getaways. Users were then taken to a mobile landing page that allowed them to book or check on their reservations at 8 of their hotels.

Takeaway: Take advantage of the fact that you can access geographic data about your users on mobile devices. This information can be used to target more appropriate prospects and deliver them a tailored user experience.

Brisk: Okay, okay. I know I already told you about this one a few weeks back with all of the other cool Instagram campaigns, but it’s just such a great idea. This spring, Brisk used popular photo sharing app Instagram to crowdsource a new photo design for their cans at the SXSW conference in Austin. Users uploaded photos they wanted to see on the limited edition can with the hashtag #briskpic for a chance to win. Thousands of entries were submitted, driving significant engagement with users.

Takeaway: Mobile marketing isn’t all about spending millions of dollars on renting SMS codes, running iAd campaigns or developing your own app. You can take advantage of lots of popular apps and mobile sites that already exist, like Instagram, Foursquare and Gowalla, to get your foot in the door of mobile without spending a ton of money.

Category Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Media | Comment 1 Comment »

Tags: Apps Brisk CTR Heineken mobile mobile banners Mobile Display mobile payment mobile web QR Codes Shrek Starbucks Westin

August 5th, 2011

5 Tips on Using Facebook to Grow Your Small- to Mid-Sized Business

If you’re a small- to mid-sized business, you’re probably looking for ways to use social media to attract new customers and prospects. That’s terrific.

In all likelihood, you’re hoping that social media will provide you an inexpensive way to generate buzz for your business. That’s also terrific.

What you may not be counting on is the amount of time it takes to figure out what works on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and all the other social media tools out there.

There are a couple of posts on the 60 Second Marketer that can help you weed out what works and what doesn’t work on Facebook. The first is an infographic with information about who uses Facebook. It’ll help you wrap your mind around what age segment is most likely to respond to your Facebook marketing campaign.

The second post is called The Top 10 Must-Have Applications to Build Your Company Facebook Page. This post will give you some great tips on using Facebook apps to enhance your Facebook page.

You might also be interested in watching my latest YouTube video (also available on the 60 Second Marketer YouTube Channel). It provides 5 tips on using Facebook to promote your small- to mid-sized business.

Enjoy!

Facebook | No Comments »

Tags: Facebook demographic data Facebook marketing facebook tips Facebook Usage marketing with Facebook Who uses Facebook

August 4th, 2011

5 Money-Saving Tips for SmartPhone Users

Running over your cell phone minutes is so 2005. These days, with more and more carriers cutting their unlimited data plans, the real shock when you receive your cell phone bill is likely to be an overage on your data plan. So what can you do to lower those data charges? According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, you should watch out for these top 5 data-draining activities.

How much money is your smartphone really costing you?

Streaming Video or Videoconferencing: Video is definitely one of the hottest things in mobile right now, but beware of how much time you’re spending on YouTube. Just one minute of video can eat up 2 MB of data, so if you’re on a standard 200 MB plan, this can get you into trouble fast. The silver lining: if you can hop on wifi you won’t use up your data and can watch as much video as your heart desires. Our recommendation would be the 60 Second Marketer YouTube Channel!
Streaming Audio: While significantly less of a drain on your data at half a megabyte per minute, streaming audio can sneak up on you and exhaust your data plan quickly. Just 10 minutes a day streaming music from Pandora will break the bank if you’re on a 200 MB plan. Switch to the old-school radio when you can .
Photos: The occasional photo every now and then won’t hurt you, but both sending and viewing photos eat up your data. Posting 10 photos a day can tip you over the edge of a 200 MB plan, not to mention, probably overwhelm your Facebook friends.
Maps: Smartphones are God’s gift to the directionally challenged, but using your phone to look up directions can use up to a megabyte per minute. And because you’re more likely to use maps for an extended period of time, these applications can actually end up being more damaging to your data plan than any other activity.
Web Surfing: While it depends which websites you’re surfing, pages with lots of pictures, video, or animation can drain your data quickly. However, if you stick to text-centered sites, you should be fine.

The bottom line is that media-rich content and activities will blow through your data plan quickly. Either stick to more text and voice related phone activities, or, if you can’t give up the media, upgrade to a 2 Gigabyte plan that gives you more flexibility with your activities.

Category General Marketing, Mobile Media | Comment No Comments »

Tags: data plan mobile phones mobile video mobile web

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