Hopefully by now you’ve figured out that just having a website isn’t the end all be all. There is much more to the story. What is the purpose of your Internet presence?
Ten years or more ago, businesses large and small began taking their websites a bit more seriously. With the success of many of the dot coms, it made the web glamorous. The pond, although big, was attractive and it became common knowledge that having a website, of some nature was key.
3/29/10 – Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification to Mark Mathson, President & Founder of Keenpath, as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com).
This certification acknowledges Mathson’s proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.
Mathson joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. In total, 1,300 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.
To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Mathson completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)
The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times’ best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more. (View all professors: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors)
This certification is administered by HubSpot.
About Keenpath
Keenpath is an Internet marketing and social media marketing company that helps businesses get found on the Internet, initiate more leads and convert a higher amount of those leads into customers. Keenpath helps guide your company goal of finding qualified prospects by instituting best practice search engine optimization, blogging and social media campaigns. Based in Great Falls, Montana, Keenpath can be found online at http://keenpath.com
About InboundMarketing.com
InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.
About HubSpot
HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.
People like to be told stories. It doesn’t matter if you are 8 or 88, a story of interest is always appealing, has the power to draw in, and creates an interest in the story teller and who they are. An individual or company aiming to brand themselves need to tell a story.
In a recent discussion with a client in the real estate industry, we discussed ways to truly make their website a hub of useful information to current and prospective customers. At the top of the list was creating genuinely interesting content on their website’s blog. This ranges from telling stories about the local history of the area, highlighting some of the fun things to do, including pictures.
Become a master story teller
Whether speaking or writing on behalf of a small or large business, the end desired impact and hope is the same. To extend the value and importance of your brand. Extended reach can be accomplished with a wide network, whether offline or online. Not only from a public relations perspective, but also a relationship building perspective.
Do you like to be talked at, or conversed with? Its no different with Internet marketing and social media marketing strategy. I was listening to a very interesting webinar featuring Gary Vaynerchuk talking about passion inspired video and creative content, and something that he zeroed in on caught my attention. He said real relationships are key, not the tools.
Business and Consumer Whac-a-Mole
The cycle of word of mouth is intriguing. Don’t view business to consumer and business to business in the traditional sense. Your story, product, service will get sent through the channel of B2B, B2C, BCB, and so forth. Yes that’s right, BCB: Business Consumer Business. How about Consumer Business Consumer. Is that possible? Break the molds, tell the story to your target audience.
At a recent meeting I had with some associates, I was talking to a guy who has become a closer friend, and we like to bounce ideas off each other. I had sent him a LinkedIn invite to connect and reap the benefits of that dimension of an online relationship, however, he told me that at this time he isn’t going to sign up, that he prefers face to face.
I respect that. But at the same time, you can have it both ways. For the sake of time, I didn’t have the opportunity to explain why its important, particular in the industry of business he is working in, however, it got my wheels spinning and I have a few thoughts as to why it is so important to connect online and offline.
Over the past weekend, I had a chance to speak and present at the Missouri River Break event. I presented two sessions on Internet marketing strategy for business. It was worthwhile, an opportunity to meet some excited business owners, individuals and organizations.
The discussions ranged on a variety, but an overall theme came out of the workshops. Use an approach that works best for you, that is tailored to your niche and marketplace, after putting thought and research in to what really matters in your overall marketing objective.
The second session was video streamed live via USTREAM, and a recorded archive video version is available here.
Recorded my thoughts in this short video after completing a presentation on Internet marketing strategies for business. View strategy as the umbrella that can help drive the objectives and goals. Watch below or on YouTube here.
We are an Internet marketing and social media marketing company that helps businesses get found on the Internet, initiate more leads and convert a higher amount of those leads into customers.
At a recent meeting I had with some associates, I was talking to a guy who has become a closer friend, and we like to bounce ideas off each other. I had sent him a LinkedIn invite to connect and reap the benefits of that dimension of an online relationship, however, he told me that at this time he isn’t going to sign up, that he prefers face to face.
