A couple of years ago our company, JASE Group, decided that we were going to commit wholeheartedly to inbound marketing. The marketing and advertising strategies we had previously used for our company just were not working as effectively as we hoped.
Our process began as a test project around our blog material and extended out to a few of the social communities we were actively involved in. We began creating a massive amount of content then instigated, created and encouraged as many links back to this content as possible.
Guess what? It worked. And it still works. Every day.
Lead generation from our company website and blog has easily tripled in the volume of quality leads. We have essentially hired an additional sales member (our website) without the payroll of an additional person.
With inbound marketing we apply less efforts to traditional time consuming advertising campaigns - no more phone book ads, no more (offline) television commercials, no more radio advertising, no more trade show exhibits.
Our internet marketing initiatives have made us more effective towards the goals of our sales team. The leads we generate from our online web entities are more qualified than previous offline initiatives’ leads.
We are more efficient. Period. Time spent is more directly attributable to results.
Our current online marketing initiatives are much less expensive than traditional campaigns. Couple this with the points made above, and we have a winner.
Since we spend much less time worrying every single detail of outbound marketing items such as media buys and almost-impossible-to-measure-ROI, we have more time to work on our clients’ initiatives.
I found myself this afternoon driving around Town Center in Virginia Beach looking for a parking space before a lunch meeting at Gordon Biersch. For those of you that do not live in Virginia Beach, Town Center is ‘the’ business mecca in Southside Hampton Roads.
In front of me at a stop light was this (photo below) mobile truck advertisement. With a quick glance you can tell the ad is for a television program. I can make a logical guess that the advertiser just wants me to tune in to the tv show.
But what if the advertiser were to display a website address (URL) on the ad. Wouldn’t that make more sense? A website builds community. A website builds loyalty. A website builds a list of consumers that like you that could potentially buy from you. A website creates a location for more (lesser expensive) advertising. A website provides a location for past shows on video. I could go on but you get the picture.
Don’t miss out with your advertising. Don’t think that inbound marketing sources are only from online tentacles branching from your web hub. Use your offline techniques to build a more loyal online community.
A good internet video, says Kelsey Group (www.kelseygroup.com) analyst Michael Boland, can be more powerful than traditional advertising because viewers are sitting at their computers instead of on their couches.
Watch a TV ad, and you’re likely to do no more than make a mental note of the product. Watch an ad on YouTube, and you can immediately search the company’s website. “It’s that lean-forward medium,” Boland says.
I sent out this quick tweet last night to my JZ, Twitter and Facebook network but thougth I’d run it by you guys in the blog network to see what your thoughts are.
TBS MLB playoffs are “presented by BlackBerry”. Not Rim. Product brand recognition bigger than company brand. Good thing?
What do you think? Should a company make it standard practice to spend millions of dollars to brand one of their products rather than their company name? Should the MLB playoffs on TBS be “presented by Rim”?
No need for those expensive satellite feeds anymore, I’m guessing. When you have a story to report just whip out the laptop, throw in the air card from your favorite ISP, and pop open a Skype video connection back to the office / television station.
I snapped this photograph real quick tonight with the BlackBerry while watching the 11:00 PM news on television on WTKR TV 3 in Hampton Roads (VA).
Good for WTKR! Very resourceful reporting from Mexico.
Online advertising allows you to advertise to your customers when they are looking for your product or service. In other words, when they want to buy.
Watch a TV ad, and you’re likely to do no more than make a mental note of the product. Watch an ad on YouTube, and you can immediately search the company’s website.
Online advertising allows you to advertise to your customers when they are looking for your product or service. In other words, when they want to buy.
Watch a TV ad, and you’re likely to do no more than make a mental note of the product. Watch an ad on YouTube, and you can immediately search the company’s website.
To learn more about online advertising and how it can add value to your business, talk to our team. We are always ready to chat.
I watched every commercial during the Super Bowl this year. At least, I thought I did. Somehow I missed this one. Hilarious!
We were out last night with friends and Jennifer & Cameron when she asked if I thought the shankopotamus commercial was funny. Embarrassingly, I said I didn’t remember that one.
So today I hunted it down on YouTube. Funny. Funny. Funny. E*TRADE has a good thing going with their baby commercials. See for yourself. What do you think?
See the E*TRADE Super Bowl commercial outtakes here.