Successful inbound marketers understand the link between campaign development, content marketing and branding, and the power it holds to staying competitive while boosting ROI. In fact, according to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2015 Report, companies are three times more likely to see a higher ROI on inbound marketing campaigns than outbound. With the right mix of content contributors and promotion of content, businesses will experience more traffic, engagement, lead generation and sales.

According to HubSpot’s report, organizations that saw the largest increase in ROI from 2014 to 2015, expanded their content creation strategies by employing and including contributions from not only staff writers, but also guest contributors and freelancer / third party writers. Companies that called on fewer guest and staff contributors experienced a definitively lower ROI for the year. What this tells us is that successful inbound content creation, takes as much balance as walking a tight rope.

Qualifying prospective customers is an essential function for many companies that want to nurture and convert the best prospects. It is also an important factor in analyzing information about less qualified leads and determining factors that could be used to increase their level of qualification. A valuable resource that has allowed HubSpot users to establish a scoring system that assigns point values to contacts based on individual contact properties, form submissions and list memberships is called Custom Lead Scoring. Its benefits include:

Bloggers and content producers often feel like they carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Between managing stakeholder requests and begging for team content contributions, creating fresh topics can be a constant struggle in the quest to engage readers and drive website traffic.

Inbound Wisconsin is a conference that will give sales and marketing professionals the opportunity to learn strategies with highly actionable instruction that is guaranteed to help businesses grow. The event is in collaboration with HubSpot, Google, Relevance.com and other leading technology companies.

The Stream Creative office is a magical place every spring as the team gears up for March Madness festivities. We complete our brackets and post them for all to see, the kegerator is filled with the beer of choice, Jason brings in his projector and screen, and some family members even join us to “work remotely” by setting up shop in our conference room. While many of our team members root for Wisconsin to go far, this year the majority have the Badgers going all the way. Not surprising considering the talent, heart and impressive stats the roster had coming into the tournament.

Has your marketing and communication team identified the role content marketing plays in your public relations strategy? Producing relevant content that positions your business and its leaders and industry experts, along with collaborating with influential partners, can have a profound effect on your ability to expand reach, expand relationships and strengthen your brand. Part one ofNotable Ways Content Marketing is Making an Impression on PR focused on collaborative content – specifically guest blogs, influencer outreach and establishing partnerships. In part two, the focus shifts to four additional key areas that can improve your brand’s PR evolution and content marketing integration.

Content creation has been cited as one of the most relevant digital marketing trends for 2015 with one third of marketers citing this strategy as a key focus in the year ahead. Widely known as the foundation of a strong inbound marketing campaign, it’s not surprising that even B2B companies are producing more content today than they were a year ago. Strong content producers understand the value this tactic brings to improving customer relationships and loyalty, boosting engagement and raising brand awareness.

While some marketers may have not yet recognized the profound effect content marketing is having on public relations, others are noticing the natural extension both functions form in relationship with one another. Acontent marketing strategy should be representative of your brand and voice, convey your business’ main principles, all while being entertaining, useful and relevant. If you are a PR professional, do these objectives sound much different from the work you are doing to communicate how your business is making an impact on your industry? The bottom line is, both functions of content creation and PR are built on the foundation of establishing relationships and motivating others to become ambassadors for your brand. Check out these key impressions that content marketing has made, and will continue to make on PR:

Last week, we had the pleasure of helping our friends and partners with PR 20/20 launch their new website. As fellow inbound marketers based out of Cleveland, Ohio, the PR 20/20 team created exceptional content and imagery while our Stream Creative web team assisted with the design and development of the site. One element of the website that is a favorite of both groups is the team page - highlighting the company’s philosophy of creating a “culture of we,” along with personalized bios and individual / group interests and passions.

The personalities, expertise and ethics of the people that make up a company are as important as the company’s reputation and achievements. Creating a team page that offers unique insight into a company’s culture and character adds value to any site where client / agency partnerships are an important part of business relations. Additionally, it adds a personal element and credibility that builds trust with partners and clients. These are 5 of our favorite elements of PR 20/20’s website team page that are great examples of how to make employees stand out, while exhibiting unity: 

1. Put a face & personality to the name. Most companies include professional photos of key personnel on their team page that will help partners, clients and prospects put a face to the name. PR 20/20 took this feature a step further by not only including a headshot of each of their team members, but personal photos with friends and family to showcase each unique personality. Multiple photos of the team at social functions were incorporated on the site page to display camaraderie, teamwork and most importantly, the fun that the group enjoys together.

2. Explain what has contributed to professional expertise to establish credibility. Rather than including the traditionally, often stuffy bio information, PR 20/20 included individual team member’s “professional moments”, “favorite moments” or “fun facts” both personally and professionally to allow their staff to highlight skills, areas of expertise and other industry credentials. 

3. Include fun, personal passions and interests that make individuals approachable and showcase personalities. Each individual team member’s page includes a listing of personal passions and interests that correspond with photos of friends, family and hobbies. The value of including interesting personal information makes the individual more approachable to the reader - offering possible commonalities and interests. The bottom line is that it portrays the company as a group of real people and will likely give clients and prospects something to talk about next time they chat with their PR 20/20 partner. 

4. Include personal social media handles or links. A company is only as strong as its team and this philosophy shines through when a team member shares their expertise via social channels. While it’s important to position a company as an industry expert, oftentimes team members have much to contribute via their personal blogs, relevant publications and other content they read or research on a daily basis. The information shared through an employee's personal social channels is a reflection of the company’s expertise as a whole. Including an employee’s personal social handles or links is a great way to encourage readers to get to know your staff and the knowledge they offer, by following their daily postings.

5. Encourage team members to provide descriptive quotes for their colleagues’ pages – further showcasing personalities, expertise and work ethic. One of our favorite elements of the PR 20/20 team page is the “testimonial” quotes fellow team members provided for each individual’s bio page. The quotes not only represent who the employee is as an individual, but also the strength of their individual role and incredible value they bring to the team (as told by their colleagues). 

Team bio & about pages are one of the most important components of any website. PR 20/20 did an incredible job putting a face to the personalities that make up their team, allowing website visitors to view the “realness” of their company. Adding a human touch can help build credibility and position your company and its representatives not only as thought leaders, but partners that clients and prospects will respect. 

How can you add greater personalization to showcase the expertise and unique personalities of your team on your company bio or about page?

Building buyer personas is one of the critical first steps to developing and implementing a lead generating marketing campaign for your business or client. Identifying your ideal customer and interviewing key individuals or groups of individuals who align with the characteristics of that ideal customer, is the spot-on way to gather information needed to create the most detailed persona outline. Individuals or groups may include current customers, prospective customers, and third party networks. Information collected that will provide valuable insight for your persona development may include both demographic and psychographic information, needs, interests, goals, challenges,pain points, social networks used, areas where the prospect interacts with others or does research online, and more.