Robbert van den Heuvel is owner of the first Dutch Certified HubSpot Partner: Heuvel Marketing.

People used to refer to the Internet as "The Wild Wild West." It was a time you could try anything, break all the rules, with a no-holds barred attitude.  But just as the West was tamed, eventually the Internet "settled down," rules were put in place, resulting in more structure and less "black hat."   (Yes, some people still call traffic driving methods "white hat" (legitimate) or "black hat" (can get you banned by the search engines).

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.

For all those inbound marketing enthusiasts out there, we’ve got some great news for you. There are a lot of exciting Milwaukee inbound marketing events coming up, and you're invited. You don’t want to miss out on these awesome opportunities to brainstorm, collaborate, and network with fellow inbound marketers in your industry.

Most people know and understand traditional or outbound marketing -- after all, we're inundated with it in the form of radio and television commercials, print advertising, billboards and constant online advertising.  But how many companies really know what inbound marketing is, and have a deep understanding of how to effectively generate loyal customers and convert "lookers" into buyers? 

Traditionally, small and medium sized businesses have been placed at a marketing disadvantage. Television, radio, and even print advertising, can often be too expensive for most locally owned businesses, therefore making any kind of traditional advertising out of reach. However, with the popularity of inbound marketing teaming up with online marketing, now small and medium sized businesses have discovered that it's a game changer.

The following infographic was created as part of our Inbound Marketing series focusing on the parts of the marketing sales funnel: TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU.

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?" 

For the third year in a row, part of the Stream Creative team will be flying to Boston to attend Inbound12, a conference hosted by HubSpot. As a HubSpot Silver level agency partner, this event is something we look forward to each year. This year over 2000 inbound marketers from around the world will be attending the conference to learn more about inbound marketing from HubSpot.

LinkedIn is more than an online resume platform. Many different benefits can come from taking full advantage of the various opportunities with LinkedIn. Groups are used in LinkedIn as way for individuals and professionals from similar industries to share interesting topics and create discussions.