The term Inbound Marketing was introduced by HubSpot for the first time in 2006 as “an approach focused on attracting customers through content and interactions that are helpful and relevant.” This is a multi-component strategy that includes search engine optimization (SEO), blogging, creating text, visual and video content, email marketing, social network marketing (SMM).

 

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is not an invasive way to attract consumers to a brand. It is not intended to interrupt users constantly without their permission as we know Outbound marketing does (billboards, ads, press releases, etc.). Inbound messages are not intrusive at all. On the contrary, they attract those who are looking for answers. By using Inbound Marketing tools, you help your potential customers find you more easily online. Provide them with enough information about your product or services and they will be able to make an informative decision about purchasing what you are offering.

 

 

Nowadays, it would be very unusual if a company does not use Inbound Marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. To find out where you should put your efforts in 2018, do not stop reading. Here are four Inbound marketing trends that will help your business become even more successful in 2018.

 

Chatbot

We hope that you are still not tired of listening about artificial intelligence (AI) and the benefits it has on business. Chatbots are a type of AI technology that is becoming a powerful tool for Inbound Marketing. Why?

Over the last few years, people have begun using messaging applications more than social networks to keep in touch with one another.  What is interesting is that they use them more and more as a way to communicate with brands too. A chatbot is a computer program that makes it possible for brands to provide 24/7 customer service on the biggest messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Viber, Skype, and more. These virtual assistants answer user questions via automated messages. At the same time, they collect valuable information and statistics about their preferences. Companies can then use the gathered data to improve and update their marketing strategies.

 

Guest blogging

Everybody knows that having a blog where you publish articles regularly is an extremely successful method for generating organic traffic to your site. Millions of articles are published online every day. Blogging has grown into an actual industry. It evolves continuously and competition is becoming fierce. A good way to spice things up while attracting new customers is through guest blogging. This means that your article will be published on another website or blog. Although this is not a new practice at all, 2018 has set big expectations about it.

NOTA BENNE! Publishing an informative and quality article on a website that has less than 1000 visits per month and users who do not share its content would be totally meaningless. When you blog on popular websites with good rating and of relevance to your business, you will bring quality traffic and adequate potential customers back to your page. And this is directly related to the number of sales if the page offers some kind of product or service, such as “eCommerce website development” for example.

 

Podcast

A podcast is an audio show that is broadcasted over the Internet. More and more companies are incorporating such type of content creation in their brand awareness strategies. Consumers can listen to podcasts anywhere, even in the shower! Although this is a relatively new tool for Inbound Marketing, 11% of marketers are planning to include it in their marketing strategy in 2018.

Podcasts provide informative content in a very convenient way. They are extremely user-friendly. It’s nice to listen to something interesting without the need to constantly stare at the computer screen, phone or tablet. Podcasts are the favorite blogs of people with limited spare time.

Creating a podcast does not require any investment. The best part is that after broadcasting it, you can transcribe the dialogue and publish it as a blog post with a link to further increase the traffic to your website. Eric Siu, co-host of Marketing School along with Neil Patel, says that once they began making podcasts, their website traffic increased by up to 25-30%!

 

Live video

When we talk about trends in Inbound Marketing, we cannot miss mentioning live videos which will still keep a top position in 2018. People like live streaming and statistics show it clearly:

• 82% of users prefer watching a live video to reading a blog post;
• Live videos are viewed three times more than regular videos on Facebook;
• The most viewed live videos are about breaking news and conferences (56%) followed by concerts (43%);
• 67% are more likely to buy a ticket for a concert or conference after watching a live video about.

That’s why your brand should start live streaming interesting brand happenings. Share about an event you are attending or an interview with an expert someone, show people behind the scenes stories, anything that matters to you and your target audience.

 

What other Inbound marketing trends you think will rule in 2018? Share with us in the comment section below.

In June 2017, Facebook announced that more than 2.01 billion people are actively using the platform every month. And the average stay of 20 minutes per visit! The impact of this social network is inevitable for both end users and businesses.  Considering the fact that most people visit it more than once a day.

What do people see in their individual News Feeds? Once they have opened Facebook the news are determined by a complex algorithm that is constantly evolving and improving. Why? Because Facebook wants to create a community, where the information you receive is specifically tailored to your preferences and interests. You have noticed that, right?

Let’s look at the changes Facebook made recently and what their effect on business is.

 

Fewer links to low-quality websites

 

One of the main goals is to reduce the negative experiences of users that have clicked on links leading them to poor quality web pages. Pages with non-informative content, and compulsive or shocking ads. After carefully researching and analyzing thousands of links, Facebook created a special AI (Artificial Intelligence). The algorithm that checks every single link. Those of them shared on the platform and will be ranked according to their content quality. In this way, links with bad ranking will appear lower in the News Feed. While those of good quality will be shown up in the News Feed. The result: users will see less misleading and more informative posts.

 

Effect on business:

These changes will take effect gradually. It is expected that in the upcoming months, posts leading to good quality websites will notice some increase in traffic. While those that do not – a slight decline in traffic. Of course, this will vary from user to user. And corporate pages will still be able to freely share stories and posts of interest to their followers. Therefore, you should carefully review your online shop and website content. Providing excellent online user experience will help Facebook rank your shared website links higher.

 

More informative links

 

According to one Facebook survey, there is a group of users who share a large number of links daily thus spamming other users’ News Feeds. To reduce the impact of spammers and the spreading of problematic links such as clickbait, misleading headlines, and sensations, the Facebook team constantly strives to decrease the visibility of those links. However, post ranking is not determined solely by this fact. So initially this new change will only affect links (link to an article, for example), and NOT domains, pages, videos, photos, check-ins, statuses.

 

Effect on business:

Most Facebook users will not notice any major changes in their News Feed. But this is not of no importance to the business. Тhose who reach a larger audience by sharing spammers’ links may see a small decline in the number of people reached by these specific posts (posts shared by spammers). In other words: Be careful what you share on your corporate Facebook wall. If you share a link posted by a spammer on your professional profile, this particular link will reach fewer people. And this leads to losses of potential customers. You don’t want that happen, right?

 

Prioritizing links to faster loading pages

 

About 40% of website visitors will abandon the page if it hasn’t loaded in three seconds. To reduce the user waiting time and improve their satisfaction, Facebook is taking actions. Prioritizing those links in the News Feed witch loads more quickly compared to slower ones. You too would rather spend your time reading something interesting than waiting for it to load, right?

Whether a link loads faster or not depends on both: website loading speed and users’ Internet connection. These two are also taken into consideration when Facebook places a link higher or lower in the News Feed.

 

Effect on business:

This adjustment will not cause any dramatic changes in your News Feed. But websites that load more slowly can see a drop in referral traffic. Therefore, it is important to improve your website loading speed as well as its mobile version. This is not important only for link rankings on Facebook but also in Google. Most of all it is fundamental for your customers’ satisfaction with your user-friendly design.

You wouldn’t like to miss sales in your online store because your website is loading slowly, right?

If you need more detailed information about how to launch your next Facebook marketing campaign, check out our 8 essential elements of a Facebook campaign.

Just a few years ago you would probably be reading this article on your desktop PC, behind your massive monitor, while the coolers gently break the silence around you. And now you are probably on your laptop, mobile phone, or even your smartwatch. Enjoying this piece on a rock, in a pool or by the seashore…

 

Our point is that the digital environment changes in great leaps, new communication opportunities pop up every day and our imagination is the only thing that can limit us. Speaking of imagination it’s good to mention the increasingly creative ways marketers are employing in other to impress us enough to buy their products. So today we will be talking about video marketing!

 

Video Marketing in numbers

 

The simple facts show that in 2017 visual media will continue to hold a key spot in the sales strategies of commercial and non-commercial organizations alike. Let’s leave the numbers talking:

 

-> video promotions increase the click-through rate (CTR) with 200-300%
-> video ads are responsible for about 35% of all ad spending online

-> video clips increase the landing page conversions with about 80%

-> around 90% of online users have their buying decisions influenced by video materials

-> mobile phone video consumption is increasing with 100% every year

 

Impressive, right?

 

What’s more impressive is the ton of benefits you can gain when using video marketing for your corporate goals. Not only you are representing your brand in a more interesting in an engaging way, but you are also leaving a permanent mark in the minds of your viewers. People are increasingly turning to visual media to save time and to process the influx of daily information they encounter more easily. Connecting text to visuals is a way to more clearly convey the message of your brand.

 

What about our favorite topic – SEO optimization? For starters, videos are a wonderful source of content. Content that Google and the other search engines are constantly striving to receive. So optimize your videos just like you would optimize any other content piece – relevant tags, titles, and descriptions, call-to-action, images. After that results are just a matter of time.

 

Of course, we should not go and blindly produce video content just for the sake of it. Not only it has to have a clear purpose and end goal, but a good video will also follow a few rules of thumb.

 

Don’t sell – tell a story!

 

We know how tempting it is to go directly for sales, but don’t let your videos focus on that. Instead, try to find added value for the end client. Of course, it’s always recommended you have a clear call-to-action but it has to be just part of your story, not its core. Relevance, value, emotional engagement – good practices are valid for all content types.

 

Educate the viewer!

 

People appreciate it when a video is not just amusing, but also useful, capable of solving a problem they might have. Take advantage of your specific industry insights and educate your users. Over 65% of people nowadays prefer to learn from video guides compared to more traditional articles and books. Webinars, client testimonials, case studies, and in-depth analysis – you have numerous opportunities to demand attention.

 

Start with a bang!

 

20% of online viewers close the videos in the initial 10 seconds. If you miss your chance to wow them in those 10 seconds then you might as well count them gone. So don’t get wrapped up in complicated introductions while gradually getting to the point. Simply make sure that you have an explosive start that will glue the user to the screen from the first moment.

 

Don’t be boring!

 

This might be self-explanatory but let us specify what we mean exactly. If you are creating a video with a purely marketing purpose you risk to lose the viewer’s attention and make your piece non-shareable. This is especially true in B2B where clients and decision-makers are a little more specific. But just because there is a serious businessman on the other side doesn’t mean that they are lacking any sense of humor. Hubspot is one good example of how you can impress your B2B audience while avoiding the dry and boring presentation of info.

 

Optimize away!

 

How do videos work? You shoot/create it, edit, montage and upload it online, right? Wrong! Long before we should think about the public distribution of our video, we should make sure we have taken care of its optimization. As we mentioned earlier, the important elements are the same as with other content pieces – make sure to put proper titles and descriptions, add relevant tags and add your video in a sitemap. You have to be ready for the search engine robots long before they first crawl your new content.

 

Well, do you feel more confident in using video content already? Bursting with ideas for your next video marketing campaign? Or you simply feel you need a refresh of your brand identity? Regardless of the case, we will be happy to learn more about your projects and ensure their success.

When you engage with your prospects, leads and existing customers via an email marketing campaign, you are exercising a privilege, not a right.

If we forget that we are bound to commit other errors that will deem our marketing efforts useless.

Using email as a communication channel is a little tricky because:

• You cannot take the direct contact for granted
• You don’t always know who is on the other side
• It is tough to change strategies during the course of the conversation

So, here are six things that you definitely want to avoid in your email marketing campaigns.

1. Non-Segmented Lists

Keeping an eye on all your mailing lists, rearranging them and reclassifying them might be a tedious task but undoubtedly necessary.

If I am a loyal customer of your brand, I wouldn’t feel okay if I constantly receive your offers and promotions for new signups. And if I am a money saver, I wouldn’t be very impressed with your expensive new product, even if it is proven to be of the highest quality.

You get the idea – think before you send!

2. Unclean Lists

The same logic as above applies here, but with added importance. Unclean lists not only diminish the efficacy of your email marketing campaign, but you are just begging to be labeled as a spammer by the spam filters.

Instead of continuously sending messages and newsletters to your hard bounces and full email inboxes, just remove them from your list and be done with it. Failing to do so will damage your sender reputation, sometimes irreversibly. Failing to do so will damage your sender reputation, sometimes irreversibly.

3. Ignoring CAN-SPAM

CAN-SPAM was the first official set of rules that became a standard for sending commercial email messages. It was first enacted in 2003 and gives you an exact definition of the Can Do’s and Can’t Do’s when you engage in email marketing. For a rundown of its most important requirements, you can check the regulations from the Federal Trade Commission.

4. Wrong Send Times

Send times matter, especially if your list is large. You need diversification. While your EU users are happy, your US users on the other end of the world might not appreciate that and simply ignore the message.

For example, one of our first email campaigns was rolling for some time when we realized that most of the emails were opened at around 5 pm. Meanwhile, we were distributing the messages at 6 pm. Changing this by only an hour showed a tremendous increase in open rates.

5. No Clear Value

This is a trap most often encountered with newsletters. When you have to produce content frequently, there is a chance that sooner or later you will exhaust your ideas or start repeating yourself.

Do not send email content just for the sake of sending it!

Make sure that the people you are reaching will receive something beneficial to them, something engaging – such as content that is relevant to their business, occupation, or lifestyle.

Only send emails to your list that offer clear value.

Remember that the hardest part is to get people to even open your email – don’t lose them just before the finish line!

6. No Attention to Detail

If you are a perfectionist by nature, you may have a head start at email marketing and properly using it for a campaign. The attention to every little detail will ensure that your efforts go the right way.

Starting from the subject line, you are already in the battle of drawing attention. Be too familiar or too pushy and you are just asking the user on the other side to ignore you or mark your messages as spam.

The content itself has to be adapted to your target group. The best option is to present it in both text and HTML formats, and let your recipient decide which is most suitable.

Finish it off with some awesome design to achieve the desired Wow! effect. Keep in mind that responsive design is more important than ever as mobile users already represent a huge share of the market and you don’t want to put them off.

I hope you avoid making mistakes others have already tested for you. Be patient, be logical and always think like you are on the other side of the email you are about to send.

…or simply trust the professionals and check our Marketing Services, delivered by a trained in-house team. Making sure your messages always arrive at their destination!