We meet with marketing professionals frequently and many are solely responsible for creating content for email, social media, blog and inbound marketing strategies. When we ask who and what departments these individuals work with to help generate ideas and stories for their channels, we oftentimes hear that the task never moves outside the marketing department or if it’s a one-person role, the marketing manager’s personal day-to-day responsibilities.  Our question is always the same: If you don’t step outside your silo, how can you avoid quality and consistency issues, burnout or most importantly, tell the full story?

Are you considering redesigning your website? Be sure to think about it from a marketing perspective more than from an IT perspective. In other words, focus on the messaging and content rather than the functionality. 

Failure to respond via social channels can lead up to a 15% increase in churn rate for existing customers (Gartner_inc).  From a business perspective, 15% is a big number for a churn rate. No business wants to lose customers because of failing to interact with them via social media.

I applaud companies and inbound marketers for taking a chance and testing new technologies such as QR codes (abbreviated from Quick Response Codes). After all, an important part of inbound marketing is testing and measuring. But the excitement of new technology can sometimes cause marketers to use tactics that leave me asking the question, "I wonder what they were thinking?" 

HubSpot already offers an incredible closed loop marketing system aimed at helping companies get found online. Their software and inbound marketing methodology builds brand awareness, increases online visibility and can turn your website into a valuable lead generation tool.

This is a formal warning to all parents with young children: iPads, smartphones and technology will turn your kids into freaks. They will no longer want to press buttons and will think that all devices function via touchscreen technology.

If you've struggled reaching your prospects via traditional marketing, it might be time to try something new. How about starting a lemonade stand?

Article originally written and published for Inbound Marketing University

Article originally written and published for Inbound Marketing University

Are you one of those business professionals who have a LinkedIn profile but only use it to accept connection requests? Do you wonder how exactly you can use LinkedIn to increase sales and revenue?