Marketing with Mike

Using Social Media to Drive Lead Generation

Mike Volpe — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:51:00 GMT

Social media and the social web can be used to drive leads and sales for your business, if you use it in the right way.

Start by growing your following and publishing interesting and useful content
Then, next to the content you are promoting in social media, include calls to action and offers next to that content - the second and more detailed content piece or free trial is what drives the leads
Make sure you have content both at the top of the funnel and at the middle of the funnel

How to Encourage Positive Product Reviews

Mike Volpe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:35:00 GMT

With the huge boost in user generated content on websites allowing product and business reviews like Amazon, Yelp, and more, how can you try to get more positive reviews?

Co-create with key influencers
Find fans before the launch
Ask people you know to write the first few reviews
As your fans to leave positive reviews

Download file for iPod or iPhone.

Marketing 2.0 Book Review

Mike Volpe — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:57:00 GMT

Bernie Borges has written "Marketing 2.0", and I think it is a great inbound marketing book that you should buy. Here's why:

It is a complete vision of inbound marketing it is not just about social media, blogging or lead generation - it is a holistic view of inbound marketing
It has great specific examples and case studies from lots of different industries

Buy "Marketing 2.0" at Amazon.com

Disclosure - I wrote the foreward to the book and Bernie gave me a free copy!

Download file for iPod and iPhone.

Great Upcoming Sales and Marketing Events

Mike Volpe — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:40:00 GMT

There are some great upcoming sales and marketing events you should check out, especially if you are near any of them in person.

After the Cutting - How Successful Companies Sell Their Way Back to the Top - Boston (Waltham) - November 3

This event has CEOs and sales and markeitng experts talking to a CEO level audience about the best practices in sales and marketing during a recession. It should be a fantastic event, they have a long history of great events with 300+ people. You can register for both a live in person lunch or the live web-video. Use the discount code HUB1109 to save $$$.

Silicon Valley AMA Event - Mountain View, CA - October 22

HubSpot is sponsoring and Brian Halligan is speaking at the "Using Social Media for B2B Lead Generation" event, and I bet you can get a copy of the new book there too.

MeshMarketing Conference - Toronto, ON - October 22

Dharmesh Shah is speaking at this fantastic event in Toronto, and I also bet you can have him autograph your copy of the Inbound Marketing Book there too

Marketing Profs Digital Mixer - Chicago - October 21-22

This is the second annual event bringing together markeitng geeks to chat about what is coming next. I'll be speaking on the second day with a case study about business blogging. Register and use code DMSPK09 to save $$$.

Business Marketing Association (BMA) - Chigaco - October 21

The BMA Chicago is hosting a breakfast speaker series about social media marketing, and I have the opportunity to speak as part of the series this day. Learn more about the event.

Book Review - Inbound Marketing

Mike Volpe — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:30:00 GMT

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah have written Inbound Marketing, which hits bookstores today!

Here is why I like the book:

A complete vision of inbound marketing it is not just about social media, blogging or lead generation - it is a holistic view
To do list and questions throughout, making it an interactive guide
It draws heavily on our experiences growing HubSpot from a brand new company, to over 1800 customers and 100 employees in just 3 years

Disclosure - it was written by my bosses (and I got my copy for free)!

Buy "Inbound Marketing" on Amazon.com

Download file for iPod and iPhone.

What should Karen Rubin be for Halloween on HubSpot TV?

Mike Volpe — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:58:00 GMT

What should my co-host Karen Rubin be for Halloween on HubSpot TV?

She promised me that if I wear a banana costume she has then I can pick what she has to wear.

Please leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

I'll pick the best 5 ideas or so and then maybe we can vote. A couple suggestions to get your creative juices flowing are below.

Lead Generation and Conversion in Inbound Marketing and Social Media

Mike Volpe — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:30:00 GMT

I had the opportunity to speak today at The BIG Conference about how to generate leads and sales through inbound marketing.

You have fans - so NOW what? Conversion, Landing Pages, Offers

The offer and landing page are important parts of any lead generation marketing campaign. This is where the conversion takes place to fill the top of the sales funnel. You work really hard on all your blogging and social media efforts, but without attractive offers and optimized landing pages, all that effort goes to waste. There is a lot that goes into a successful landing page from the offer to the call-to-action, to the landing page layout. This session will cover all the basics of how to convert more of your traffic into leads and sales and actually make something worthwhile out of all your inbound marketing effort.

Yes, it is ok to sell things through social media.

Yes, it is ok to evaluate your blog as a source of leads and customers.

See the presentation to learn more!

Case Study on Social Media Marketing Lead Generation - #sherpaB2B09

Mike Volpe — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:00:00 GMT

I had the great opportunity to speak to a bunch of my marketing peers at the Marketing Sherpa B2B Demand Generation Summit in Boston today (#sherpaB2B09). It was part of a panel discussion, and there were no slides, but my notes are below Enjoy and share!

Background on Social Media for Lead Generation

Why is social media marketing important?

We have built a bubble around us to block out these outbound marketing messages
Only through more inbound marketing approaches can you attract people who have built this bubble around them
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are all 100% controlled by the user who decides if they want to start communicating with you - unlike email, phone and direct mail where anyone can contact you, and then you have to tell them to stop 2. What is a social media marketing campaign?

At HubSpot, we have no social media marketing campaigns

Using social media and inbound marketing is a way of life. We are always trying to have an ongoing dialog with our market

Example: Social Media Marketing for Lead Generation Case Study

At HubSpot, we did a webinar on "How to Use Twitter for Marketing and PR" in March 2008 (this was way before Twitter had achieved mainstream popularity).

Step 1: Start by building assets

Blog - 5,000 subscribers at the time (we have over 20,000 RSS and email subscribers today)
LinkedIn Group - about 5,000 members at the time (there are over 40,000 members today)
Twitter Company Account - About 1,000 followers of @HubSpot at the time (we have over 20,000 today)
Facebook Fan Page - About 500 fans at the time (we have over 6,000 fans today)

Step 2: Use your marketing assets to promote your offer

Wrote a blog article about Twitter marketing tips that also mentioned the webinar
Emailed an appropriate segment of our opt-in house list about the webinar
Posted the webinar as an event on Facebook and LinkedIn
Added links on the webinar registration page to share with your friends on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook

Lead Generation Results for this Case Study

Landing page conversion rate over 50%
Over 4,000 people registered for the webinar (4,000 leads!)
Triple the size of our largest previous webinar (we have since grown to as many as 8,000 people registering for a HubSpot webinar)
Over 30% of the webinar registrants were not on our email list
1,200 completely new leads!
Hundreds of qualified leads for the sales team, generating hundreds of opportunities representing over $500,000 in pipeline created
SEO: The blog article and the archived webinar rank extremely well, even today - 18 months later

First page of Google organic search for phrases like "Twitter Marketing" and "Twitter PR"
#1 Google ranking for "Twitter for Marketing and PR", "Twitter for Marketing", "Twitter Webinar"

Blog: One of top 10 most popular blog articles ever

Over 20,000 people have read the article, leaving over 100 comments
Over 1,500 people found that blog article about the webinar during last month, over 18 months later

The archived webinar has been viewed over 16,000 times, over 1,000 of those in the last 30 days
Total cost $3,000 - About $1,000 for webinar software, plus our time to create the content (probably a total of 40 hours at an estimated cost of $2000 at $50/hour)

Final Advice on Social Media Marketing for Lead Generation

Think about social media marketing as part of a holistic inbound marketing strategy
Social media marketing is not a campaign, it is a marketing lifestyle
Blogging and publishing content is essential to social media success
Archive your social content and optimize it for search engines to make it perform for months into the future
Focus on building long term marketing assets

Webinar: Twitter for Marketing and PR

Want to learn more about using Twitter for Marketing and PR?

Download the free webinar for tips and tricks to drive inbound marketing using Twitter.

Quick Landing Page Tips from #sherpab2b09

Mike Volpe — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:42:00 GMT

I am listening in at the Marketing Sherpa B2B Lead Generation Summit #sherpab2b09. (HubSpot TV is live streaming the event if you want to tune in.) Here are some notes from the landing page session run by Flint McGlaughlin from MarketingExperiments.

Top Landing Page Mistakes to Avoid

Lack of Clarity - Do people visiting your landing page know (a) Where am I? (b) What can I do here? (c) Why should I do it?
Undisciplined Eye-Path - Make sure you lead people's eyes in a single direction towards the action you want - try a page with a single column or at least one big column in the middle.
Insufficient Value Promise - Make sure the message on the button and headline talk about the benefit of completing the form.
Excessive Friction - Do your best to eliminate steps, questions and friction- try to balance quality and quantity.

It's Twitter Day! - Funny Spoof Office Video

Mike Volpe — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:52:00 GMT

We tried to have a little bit of fun at HubSpot mocking Twitter in an office environment and how some companies are obsessed with it. How did we do? is it funny? (I actually can't tell if I laugh because I know all the people, or it is actually funny.) Do you have ideas for another funny office video?

Inbound Marketing for the Home Appliance and Electronics Industry

Mike Volpe — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:23:00 GMT

I have the pleasure today of speaking at the BrandSource National Convention, where they have asked me to talk about inbound marketing (and especially social media). In addition to may latestmaterial, I added a few slides and examples relevant to this particular audience. But, we're looking for more ideas from you! See below and leave a comment.

View presentation below, or download PPTX file.

Additional Inbound Marketing and Social Media Marketing Resources:

What are your ideas?

What ideas do you have for how a local appliance and electronics retailer could do to leverage inbound marketing (publishing online content, optimizing for search, leveraging social media)? Leave your ideas in a comment below?

What video equipment and tools should I use for marketing?

Mike Volpe — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:30:00 GMT

I use video a lot for creating marketing content, mostly because I hate to type and I think and speak a lot faster than I can type. So for video I do marketing webinars, a great marketing video podcast, this smaller marketing podcast and lots of other marketing video through and with the team at HubSpot.

To be honest, for most people the first steps are easy. I do all these "Marketing with Mike" videos just using a webcam and a PC and edit with either Windows Movie Maker (free!) or Camtasia (expensive). You can use Quicktime Pro ($30) to convert the video formats if you need to, because Windows Movie Maker does not do a good job of supporting the iTunes formats.

What is much more important than the equipment is the content. For all these videos, I have notes to guide me, and I try to take topics from videos that come directly from people I have met in person or online, so I know the videos will be on topics interesting to all of you (hopefully).

Remember, think content before production value.

Download video for iPod and iPhone.

Internet & Technology Summit 2009 Keynote Marketing Presentation

Mike Volpe — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:30:00 GMT

Today I have the honor of being the keynote speaker at the Internet & Technology Summit 2009 hosted by Tampa Bay CEO Magazine where I spoke about the changes happening in marketing. I'll try to update the post later with notes or audio/video.

View the presentation slides below, or Download PPT file.

Internet & Technology Summit Video 2 from Tampa Bay CEO Magazine on Vimeo.

Are paid links really that bad of an idea?

Mike Volpe — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:31:00 GMT

Yes.

But first, let's talk about why people buy paid links. Links are really important for ranking higher in the search engines. Because of this, some website started selling links because people would buy them to increase their search engine rankings.

Google's Paid Links Policy (from http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66736)

"Google and most other search engines use links to determine reputation. A site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. Link-based analysis is an extremely useful way of measuring a site's value, and has greatly improved the quality of web search. Both the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of links count towards this rating."

"However, some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results."

More relevant discussions I found:

Do you think you are smarter than Google? If so, go ahead and buy all the paid links you want. But I will bet $1 every time that Google is smarter than you are. And if you buy enough paid links to have a big effect on your marketing, then Google will find out and you will be penalized.

Download video for iPod and iPhone.

How long does it take for the “get found” part of inbound marketing to start?

Mike Volpe — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:19:00 GMT

If you are launching a new inbound marketing program for a website, there are a number of variables that determine how long it might be until you see measurable results.

The age of your website. The older your website is, the sooner you might see results.
The amount of content you have. If you have more content, you have a better chance of seeing results sooner.
The number of inbound links you have. If you have more links into your website, you have a better level of authority with the search engines, and you might see results sooner.
The competition in your market. If you have competitors that are well established online, it will take longer for you to
The amount of effort you put in. The results you see from inbound marketing are completely based on how much time and effort you put into it. If you blog once a week and spend a bit of time in social media you'll see results, but you'll get a lot more a lot faster if you blog 3-5 times a week and spend a lot of time making friends in your industry online.

For a well established company that has a lot of inbound links and has been around for years, but never did an effective optimization of their website, they could start to see results in a matter of weeks. If on the other hand you are launching a brand new website in a competitive market, it could take 6 months to see any significant results for getting found in inbound marketing. To size up your website and your competitors' websites, use the free tool http://website.grader.com/

Download video for iPod and iPhone.

Party Time! Celebrate 1 Year of HubSpot TV on Friday August 7

Mike Volpe — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:59:00 GMT

Karen and I have had a lot of fun hosting HubSpot TV for the past year. We hope you have too, and to celebrate we're having a party! Free and open to all.

RSVP for HubSpot TV Party

HubSpot TV: http://www.hubspot.tv/
iTunes: http://itunes.hubspot.tv/
Promotional Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKaJs4L290A
Party RSVP: http://hstv1year.eventbrite.com/

I hope to see you on August 8!

Learn Video Blogging for B2B at Podcamp Boston

Mike Volpe — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:48:00 GMT

Karen Rubin and I are putting together 2 sessions for Podcamp Boston this weekend - August 8-9, 2009. Come join us!

11:15am - How can you use video podcasting for B2B marketing?
1:30pm - What equipment is best for a video podcast? (Steve Garfield will join us for this one to share his expertise!)

Both are on Sunday, so make sure to show up for day 2 of the conference! And if you are in town Friday, stop by the 1 year anniversary of HubSpot TV as well.

Wire Fence Company Uses Social Media to Get 850% More Leads

Mike Volpe — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:51:00 GMT

850%. Really. I didn't believe it either. But I have talked to him and seen the numbers.

Chalk this one up as another example of a business that you would never think could blog or use social media... proving that it can work for almost any business.

If the video dioes not work for you, use this link.

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What ClickableNow Should Do for Twitter Background Success

Mike Volpe — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:38:00 GMT

My friend Todd Defren from Shift Communications is part of a project to help make links in a Twitter background clickable as announced on Mashable. A worthy goal!

[Correction: When first published this post said the pricing was $20/month. I was wrong. The cost is $20 for a "lifetime" at the time ClickableNow launched. I still don't think this changes their business problem.]

ANOTHER UPDATE: Clickable now has made some changes and is now FREE!

I have not talked to Todd about this project. But from my current understanding I think the business model is flawed. If you pay $20 you can make the links clickable on your profile for anyone who has installed the Firefox addon from ClickableNow. Here is the big problem. The business model relies on a large number of users installing an add-on, and there is no incentive to install the add on.

Why would I pay $20 to reach a tiny number of people that have installed the add-on? I won't. I also won't install the add on to be able to click on the tiny number of users that have added the clickable links. Chicken and the egg.

Here are some suggestions for ClickableNow to drive more adoption:

Partner with an existing Firefox add-on with a big user base and add the ClickableNow functionality to it to get an instant large base of users who can click on the links.
Price the monthly fee for adding the clickable links to your Twitter page based on the number of people that have installed the add on. Today it would be $0.10 a month or something. As more people install it, the price goes up for everyone to a max of $20.
Same as above, except let the early users lock in the low price. The first 10,000 installers pay $1 a month. Then $2 for the next 10,000, up to a max price of $20.
Price the links on a CPC (cost per click) basis, so as a marketer I only pay for the clicks I get, and this will scale with the number of users.
Give away a simple version of the clickable links for free (maybe one link with no tracking stats) and then charge for more advanced version (multiple links and/or tracking stats).

What other ideas do you have to make the ClickableNow business model work?

Twitter Etiquette

Mike Volpe — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:13:00 GMT

I've gotten a bunch of questions recently about etiquette on Twitter. There really are no formal rules, because lots of people use Twitter differently. I know lots of people who have rules that are different from me, and that is fine. Their personal style may be different or maybe they use Twitter "better". You can use twitter however you want (and don't let one of those "social media experts" tell you differently).

While I do not think there are any formally established etiquette for Twittter, I thought I would share how I use it. Let everyone know in the comments if you agree, disagree or have other ideas for what twitter etiquette should be.

My etiquette for reading tweets - You cannot and should not read all tweets. There is just too much volume on Twitter. Twitter is not your email. I snack on Twitter a couple times a day for 10-15 minutes at a time. I read all of the @mvolpe messages and I try to read all my direct messages (DMs). I do not have any messages or DMs sent as text messages because I don't like to let Twitter interrupt my day.

My etiquette for following other people - I follow people that say something interesting to me, seem to have a high value to tweet volume ratio, talk about me or my content or retweet me, or people I have met in person. None of these rules are set in stone, but the more of these things that apply to you, the more likely it is that I will follow you. If you feel like you are left out, just ask me by sending a message like "hey @mvolpe - I love your tweets! Would you mind following me back?"

My etiquette for following people back - I do not automatically follow people back because the follow me. I used to, and I found that I got even more DM spam than I do now, and a lot of the following was coming from robots, so I stopped. I figure that if you followed me and I should follow you back, one of the conditions above will eventually apply to you and you'll get followed that way.

My etiquette for direct messages (DMs) - People who have a lot of followers and follow a lot of people (more than 2,000 of each) get a lot of direct message spam - do not assume they receive or read all of your DMs. I can't and don't. I do my best to read them all, but honestly many good messages get buried in there. Sorry.

My etiquette for retweeting - If I know you well (in person or virtually) and you ask me to retweet something, if it is good I probably will do it. If you say something remarkable, I might retweet it without you asking.

Download video for iPod and iPhone.

O'Reilly Twitter for Marketing Webinar

Mike Volpe — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:16:00 GMT

Here is a presentation about using Twitter for marketing and PR I did a while back. You might also enjoy a whole collection of resources on Twitter for Marketing and PR we put together at HubSpot.

B2B YouTube Video Case Study

Mike Volpe — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:31:00 GMT

Let's say you are a B2B company that sells to marketers and small businesses and want to attract new prospects to your website, as well as spread your thought leadership message about inbound marketing.

What do you do? Lots of things. You blog, make videos, podcast, do webinars, write ebooks, be active in social media and just generally leverage inbound marketing. As part of this, you can also try to create a viral video on YouTube.

Here is our latest attempt at making something remarkable and viral for YouTube. And some thoughts of mine below about it.

A rap song is a good choice because the lyrics are usually easier to understand, so you can make your point more easily. Rap songs are also easier to parody than normal songs, I think.
The song is popular, and old. New songs might be a big hit, but the recall you get with an old song really works. It also helps you get an older demographic (usually better for B2B), rather than just people in their early 20's. This song was chosen after we realized it is now being played at weddings - meaning it is broadly popular.
Get a bit crazy. The more uncomfortable you are during filming, the more likely it will be that your video is funny and remarkable and worth sharing. Find the line, and then go over it. I'm not sure we went far enough in this one.
Try a call to action. You usually get very few click throughs from YouTube to your website. You can drive more traffic by adding a call to action at the end of the video. But don't just put your logo or"visit my website". Try somethign more subtle, we just encouraged people to Google "inbound marketing" (and we were darn sure we dominated the first page of results...)

How did we do? What do you think?

How to Negotiate with Marketing Agencies

Mike Volpe — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:49:00 GMT

Here are some ideas on how to cut down on all that budget you spend with outside agencies. The video was clearly done by someone at an agency or supportive of agencies. I can tell you have done nearly all of the things in this video to negotiate lower rates with agencies for various projects (and it often works). I think that it is up to the agency to say "no" and hopefully (for them) their service is valuable and unique enough that you will still pay for it.

With all that said... the video is still funny and really well done and worth a gander.

University of Iowa Study Shows Marketing Impacts a Firm's Risk

Mike Volpe — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:45:00 GMT

One of the key things that investors typically look for in any investment is a low level of risk (given the predicted return). A new study from the University of Iowa shows that firms that have a stronger brand (usually because of better marketing) have a lower risk, which is appealing to investors.

"Strong brands are associated with stronger cash flows that are more reliable and predictable in the future,"Rego said. "That means debt and equity holders have an easier time predicting the firm's future cash flows and that makes them less risky investments, increasing their long-term financial stability."

For an average company in their sample -- which had $10 billion in long-term debt with a BBB+ credit rating -- Billet said a two-category improvement would save the company almost $40 million in annual debt service alone. (quote from pres release)

This is an interesting finding that shows the value of maintaining a strong brand and the benefits a strong brand can bring to a large business.

"Most corporate executives see marketing as a cost center, not as an investment, but this study should remove all doubt that brands are assets and should be managed as such," Rego said.

No argument here!

Want to see a study that focuses on marketing at small businesses? Everything that I have seen at HubSpot from our 1,400 small businesses using our marketing software shows me that if a small business implements a well run inbound marketing program, they will get a huge marketing ROI (follow that link to see 2 of our studies).

United Breaks Guitars - You Can't Avoid Customer Feedback Anymore

Mike Volpe — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:26:00 GMT

Musician Dave Carrol flew through Chicago, saw the baggage handlers throwing his guitar and told some clearly uninterested United employees. After he landed, he was unhappy with the result from United.

You used to just tell 5 friends when United pissed you off. So far Dave has told 130,000 people via YouTube (and counting...). Hey United.... was that worth a $3500 guitar? Here's to telling a few more people.

Via brandflakesforbreakfast.com