Less Paper – More Time The blog of the paper-less office experts – Click2Scan

The Rules of Marketing Have Changed

2012 is definitely going to be a year of seismic change for us. Our complete reversal of thinking was been triggered by Martin finding and recommending Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah's Inbound Marketing self-help book. The quiet period between Christmas and New Year gave us time to sit down and rethink our strategy based on the insights introduced to us.

Having been an avid contributor to the blogosphere for quite a while, from Facebook to Twitter and from Flickr to my own photography website, many of the tactics were no real surprise but act as a good confirmation that I was shooting in the right direction. The real eye-openers were the statistics and dramatic changes in internet users' behaviour, prompting the turnaround many companies have not yet attempted: moving from focusing on outbound marketing to inbound marketing.

What is inbound marketing?

Simply put: Getting found by potential customers rather than actively attempting to interrupt their daily activities.

... and why the sudden change?

Because people have much, much more control over what they see or hear and can easily block it out:

• Spam filters take out unwanted emails (research from MarketingSherpa suggests that email open rates have fallen from around 40% in 2004 to just under 20% nowadays!)
• Most people research from trustworthy sources before making a decision (TripAdvisor, Reevoo, forums, and many other review-based communities)
• Caller ID and 'do not call' registries cut down on cold calling
• Daily post is now just a mix of junk advertising and bills, so you can no longer look forward to opening the post in the morning (yet tearing it up is quite satisfying!)
• TV watchers can fast-forward through adverts on recorded programmes
• Advert-heavy trade magazines are losing subscriptions to blogs (which are searchable, influenced by positive social response and mostly advert-free)
• Workplaces are listening to Sonos systems or their iPods instead of radio, also blocking out a whole wave of advertising

It has become so much quicker, easier and cheaper to find what you want online without distraction or interruption. A lot of businesses have realised this and have stopped going to less effective trade shows (for example) and are simply sitting at their desk and searching Google, saving travel and accommodation costs whilst being much more effective.

Us marketing folk have to now change our attitude towards the type of marketing strategy used. We've gone from preaching 80% outbound (overtly disruptive) and 20% inbound marketing to switching it right around. 80% inbound and 20% outbound is now the right mix. Now, the challenge is getting your colleagues to agree and really step up to the challenge. Use the information here to "wow" and persuade them, and you can't go much wrong.

P'd off!

The four Ps we have learned to trust: Product, Price, Place, Promotion are no longer relevant online and their absence has made for a much larger, open playing field.

Time to think V.E.P.A:  Valuable, Easy to use, Prominent, Action orientated. Your web content has to really grab the user's attention by being useful to them and by having a point. People aren't going to waste time on content from which they will not gain anything, so you will need to give something useful away first to gain the trust and interest of a potential customer. The easiest and most helpful thing to give away is knowledge. It doesn't cost you anything and you then have a platform from which you can prove that you know what you are talking about.

The most effective platform to project your wisdom from is a blog. It's all about setting up an interesting, valuable, unique content-making factory. Keyword cramming is no longer effective, as with many old 'black hat' techniques which are slowly being fended off as the Google algorithm evolves. Google's aim is to give searchers the best quality content based on search terms used and they are getting better at providing that by the day, so it's about being on the ball. If you are consistently creating genuinely good content you really cannot go wrong.

All tooled up

You have so many social media tools at your disposal you probably don't know what to do with them!

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, to name a few. If you haven't already, create a profile for your business straight away. This is a huge subject to cover, but in short my advice is:

• Tweet interesting blog posts and mention relevant Twitter users – you will eventually get a retweet, and exposure brings along a following
• Be active and respond quickly
• Utilise LinkedIn Groups and Answers to demonstrate helpfulness in your market area
• Keep a uniform branding across all profiles, in your colouring and display pictures
• Start making engaging videos and put them on your YouTube Channel (just you talking about a subject will be powerful)

Monitor to excess

Most importantly, make sure you are keeping a watchful eye over your progress. You need to know what is working and what is not. Use Google Analytics EVERYWHERE and, yes, I'm being literal. We have 9 different website profiles on Google Analytics, with more data being produced than you can shake a stick at. This is where you need to be. Use a website grader to see a whole range of helpful statistics, with warnings and suggestions to help you improve your website.

Trial and error is the game, and you will need to play around with content to see which bits work better than others.

Here's the line to repeat to your manager: Inbound marketing is an investment rather than an ongoing expense. Gain their support and then start your interesting journey deep into the social mediasphere!

Edit: 19th Jan 2011 – You might find this visual helpful