Marketing with Mike

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

Can you balance duplicate content vs. more inbound links for inbound marketing?

Mike Volpe — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:45:00 GMT

One possible technique for online marketing is to take your articles and copy and paste them onto ezine websites around the web to get more links into your website. Does the increased inbound links to your website balance out the negative effects of having duplicate content?

Probably not. The links will not be that valuable because the search engines do not give a lot of authority to websites that consist of mostly duplicate content.

Download video for iPod or iPhone

Inbound Marketing for Recruiting

Mike Volpe — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:55:00 GMT

This is a clever video that the creator sent to me. I think it is a great summary of the concept of inbound marketing, specifically for the recruiting industry.

New Treatment to Increase Lead Flow and Marketing Stamina

Mike Volpe — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:04:00 GMT

Let me know how we did on this one.

Hat tip to Brian Thorne and Amy Burrill for starring, Rebecca Corliss for filming and editing, and me (for the script).

What are the marketing goals of blogging?

Mike Volpe — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:38:00 GMT

A new question: What are the marketing goals of blogging? I think some of the goals for launching a blog are:

Improve SEO performance - blog articles help with SEO a lot by increasing your presence on the web and attracting more links into your website
Build thought leadership and bradn - if your blog has interesting content, it can build your brand as a thought leader in the market
Increase social media performance - you are a lot more interesting in social media if you are writing and then promoting interesting blog articles (instead of telling people what you had for lunch)
Get more leads and sales - by adding calls to action to your blog, you can get blog visitors to convert into leads and customers for your business

Download video for iPhone and iPod

Why Free Services Sometimes Totally Suck

Mike Volpe — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:20:00 GMT

When a free service stops working, what do you do? What if you rely on it for personal or business purposes? Who do you turn to for support on a free service?

Yesterday I have had real problems with a couple free services. First, something is messed up between Blip.tv and Feedburner and iTunes for the www.HubSpot.tv podcast. Somewhere along the way, the feed is broken, so iTunes does not have the most recent episodes. Second, my Twitter account got "suspended" for some reason. No more Twitter. Goodbye 9,000+ friends and lots of conversations... boo. Lucky for me, it got mysteriously reinstated about an hour later.

The problem is not that things break. That happens. The problem is what do you do to fix it. With all of them, you can submit a request and wait (Twitter can take up to 30 days!) or search for answers other people have posted in forums or on blogs. but there is no way to solve your problem now with a back and forth with a live human. You need to use email (slow) or find your own answer (hard).

All I want is an 800# where I can call and someone will fix my problem, live with me on the line. I would even pay for it. Maybe $25 or $50... just for this one problem.

What do you think? Have you had challenges with free services?

Should you start using a Blog or Twitter first for marketing?

Mike Volpe — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:31:00 GMT

Often people ask me which is more effective, Twitter or a blog. As you can see in the video, a blog is much more effective because it has a lot of benefits over Twitter.

Blog articles help you be more interesting on Twitter - it is hard to be interesting in 140 characters, it is much easier with a link to a blog article
Blog articles perform well in SEO (search engine optimization)
Everyone can read blogs, not many people use Twitter

Download video for iPod or iPhone

New Marketing Executive Webinar Series with Eloqua, OneSource, HubSpot and On24

Mike Volpe — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:30:00 GMT

I'm participating in a new webinar series with Eloqua, OneSource and On24 targeted at marketing executives at medium and large sized companies that are trying to understand the new marketing landscape. This is a different audience and topic from my usual webinars. We expect a smaller audience, and the topics will be more "thought and theory" than "how to".

"Join marketing executives from HubSpot, Eloqua, OneSource and ON24 for one or more events in the "Insight2Action" webinar series. These focused 45 minute sessions will offer practical insights on gathering, analyzing and using marketing data to drive decisions about your marketing programs--optimizing ROI and lead generation. At the end of each session there will be a question & answer/discussion period where you can share thoughts with the panelists and your peers"

Register now -->

#NYTFail #IranElection - Why Twitter Users Need to Think Before Tweeting

Mike Volpe — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:44:00 GMT

A big topic on Twitter today related to the Iran Elections was the #NYTfail topic accusing the New York Times of subjecting Iranian demonstrators to potential danger by "exposing" the usernames of people on Twitter and tweeting from Iran.

For example, this tweet was really popular: "Please RT! NYT publishing sensitive names of Iranians on Twitter. Get them to stop! #NYTfail #iranelection"

Really? Someone's Twitter username is a secure piece of data? Isn't Twitter totally public and open? (Yes, it is!) Your Twitter username is no less public than your website URL or LinkedIn profile. Your tweets are broadcast around the world, indexed by Google, stored in lots of databases. Your followers names are public and easily accessible, as are all of your tweets and the people you follow. If you want to remain anonymous, you need to use an anonymous name and be careful not to mention anything personally identifiable.

So, as far as the #NYTfail #iranelection thing... get over it! The New York Times did nothing wrong, and probably did a lot right by publishing the story and spreading more light on what is happening in Iran.

Twitter users need to use their brain. Twitter is a fast moving and quite viral medium, which is good and bad. News travels fast. I have seen Amber Alerts spread fast on Twitter - a good thing. But today the #NYTfail "news" that was completely false and misleading became a hot topic because of hysteria and a herd mentality. Please... if you are on Twitter, use your brain before just blindly retweeting other messages.

Photo credit: michaelbrittain

Content Marketing Case Study

Mike Volpe — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:30:00 GMT

If you have heard me speak before, you know I believe that content is an important part of inbound marketing. Not the only part, but an essential part of it. Here are a couple case study slides from a presentation I am doing this morning.

Driving ROI on Twitter Presentation

Mike Volpe — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:30:00 GMT

I am speaking today at the O'Reilly Twitter Bootcamp in New York City. Here are my slides that talk about the ROI of Twitter.

Download in PowerPoint (PPT) format or click through the slides below.

And of course... follow me on Twitter.

Warning: Twitter and Facebook Can Lead to Robbery

Mike Volpe — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:31:00 GMT

An article on AZ Central (sent to me by Dan Tyre) talks about a man who sent status updates to Twitter and Facebook and believes those led to his home being robbed - because it was clear he was going to be away for some time. Read the full article.

How to protect yourself from social media robbery:

Get a monitored alarm system so the police will get called if you have a break in.
Keep your home address as private as possible - don't publish it on any of your profiles.
Try to keep your travel plans mysterious so it is unclear when you will come home. Maybe just post your photos after you have come home, not during the trip.

Other ideas? What do you think?

Authenticity vs. Authority

Mike Volpe — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:58:00 GMT

I was asked to contribute to an article about authenticy vs. authority along with other marketing folks like Seth Godin, David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan, and Brian Solis.

Part of my contribution is here:

"Marketers need to be authentic, but the primary focus for marketing should be on building authority. Authority is a marketing asset - you can use it to drive more people to your events, content, thought leadership, and products."

Read the whole article and see what others had to say at Mark Olson's article on Authenticity vs. Authority.

Using Online Video for Marketing

Mike Volpe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:45:00 GMT

I've been doing a bunch of work this week to put onto (virtual) paper a lot of the best practices we use at HubSpot for using online video for marketing.

I wrote a blog article about SEO for YouTube, and today Karen Rubin and I are doing a webinar on How to Use Video for Online Marketing. It will be interesting to see how a webinar format is different for us than www.HubSpot.tv

Here are the slides from our webinar - download PPT slides. Enjoy!

New Twitter Data - Tweet Length

Mike Volpe — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:00:00 GMT

HubSpot just released another "State of the Twittersphere" report with lots of new data about Twitter.

This graph shows the length of tweets - you can see a lot of people cram as much as possible into the 140 characters.

By the way, the optimal Tweet length is probably about 110 characters - that allows for better reteeeting of your tweets since you can add 1-2 usernames to that tweet and it will still be under 140 characters.

Update - the report has made the front page of TechMeme with GigaOm leading the charge with their coverage.

Dallas Inbound Marketing Summit - SEO 101 Presentation

Mike Volpe — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:01:00 GMT

Here is my SEO presentation from the Inbound Marketing Summit in Dallas, including all the search engine optimization tips and tricks I covered, and information about how social media impacts search engine optimization. There is still one more IMS in Boston - September 30 to October 1, 2009 - www.InboundMarketingSummit.com.

Download full PPT here or view the slideshow below.

But... How do I get started with Inbound Marketing?

In addition to my presentation, there were a lot of questions about "Where can I learn this stuff? Where is the "101" content?" Well, a big part of what we do for marketing at HubSpot is basic education on inbound marketing. So here are links to some intro or 101 presentations on the basics:

Finally, if you want to learn more, register for the Inbound Marketing University, a free series of online classes to train you on all the basics, there is even certification available (if you can pass the exam).

What did Pets.com miss in their marketing strategy?

Mike Volpe — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:52:00 GMT

Full article here.

Social Media Panel at New England Xpo

Mike Volpe — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:15:00 GMT

Today I am on a social media panel at the New England Small Business Xpo at 3pm EST in the Boston Convention Center. I summarized a few of the expected questions and thought I would post my notes/answers here for anyone who was curious. If you attend the panel today, come by and say hello!

What the importance of content in social media?

SEO and content are critical to success in social media. All three work together. Content (typical blog articles, but can be photos, videos, etc.) is what makes you interesting in social media. Promoting this content in social media helps attract more people to it, which in turn makes it more likely you will get links. Links are what power SEO, so more links will attract more people to your content, which can contribute more followers and friends in social media. If you do not leverage content and search, you are drastically reducing the ROI of your social media time.

How is video important to online communications?

I think it is critical, because people like different types of media, live video can be used to stimulate a community (HubSpot TV as example, with guests like MC Hammer, Biz Stone, etc.)

What's the difference between advertising in social media and engagement in social media for brands?

There is a huge difference. You can do both, but the engagement if done properly is a better long term strategy with better ROI. We use all forms of social media in terms of engagement, but also advertise on Facebook (better ROI than Google AdWords), but the best ROI is through inbound marketing - publishing content, promotion, optimization and engagement.

If companies are becoming publishers, how should they manage their editorial production process?

We publish one of the top marketing blogs (it took 2 years to get there) and have a former NYTimes.com editor as our editor. We review the stats for each blog post and optimize future content based on what we learn. Also, more content is always better. We doubled our subscription and traffic growth rate when we went from publishing 3 times a week to 5 times a week.

Twitter appears to growing very rapidly, what's the future for Twitter? Is Twitter a serious competitor to Facebook? Google?

Twitter might have a better pulse on what is happening NOW than Google, which could be interesting. Google might be called search for the "dead web" and Twitter (or Facebook) for the 'live web". It will be a test for Google to see if they can incorporate the social graph and real time events into their results.

The Problem with Being Slightly Famous

Mike Volpe — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:53:00 GMT

I am friends with a guy named John Wall, who blogs and podcasts at The M Show and on Marketing Over Coffee. John is "slightly famous", because he is known in the marketing world. I am sure that at marketing industry events people come up to him and introduce themselves (I have experienced this sometimes because of HubSpot and HubSpot TV). But in the real world he is completely anonymous. However, according to Google he was the most famous John Wall since he usually ranked toward the top of search results for his name.

But, there is another "John Wall". He is a basketball player. I found him since he was a trending topic today on Twitter for having decided to go to University of Kentucky.

I wonder how this will affect John's personal brand and SEO. Today I noticed a lot of news articles and videos ranking above John's blog for a search on "John Wall". If this new John Wall goes on to the NBA, it will probably be super difficult for the first John to rank on the first page of Google for his name.

Ideas & Thoughts:

Make sure you have the domain that matches the online moniker you use (like I have http://www.mikevolpe.com/) - though even then spelling matters, there is a Mike Volpi (CEO of Joost the online video company) that sometimes people confuse with me
If you have a potentially common name (like John Wall) you can start using your middle name, like David Meerman Scott
Everyone is vulnerable to a potential personal branding issue from someone becoming famous with the same name (remember the movie Office Space and the guy named "Mike Bolton"...ouch!)
Publish lots of content and build lots of authority on ONE domain for your personal brand
John should include "John Wall" in the page title of homepage of The M Show website - he now has to optimize for this term because of a new competitor

What other ideas do you have?

New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) - Search Engine Optimization (SEO 101) Presentation

Mike Volpe — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:44:00 GMT

Continuing the long week of presentations, I spoke to the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Download the slides or view the full presentation below.

Download PPT slides

Additional useful links related to the NEDMA SEO presentation:

Inbound Marketing and SEO for Travel and Tourism Public Relations (PR) - PRSA 2009

Mike Volpe — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:50:00 GMT

I presented at the PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference today on inbound marketing and especially search engine optimization specifically for PR (public relations) in the travel and tourism industry.

Download PPT presentation.

Summary:

PR should include creating more content for the company, and not "we won an award" press releases, but interesting stories about the destinations, services and people who travel
Optimize your press releases using Press Release Grader
PR should help generate more links back to the client website since more links help power your SEO

Inbound Marketing and SEO for Travel and Tourism Public Relations (PR) - PRSA 2009

Low Budget Commercial as Viral Marketing?

Mike Volpe — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:42:00 GMT

David Moore sent this to me. I can't decide if it is funny, or lame, or so lame it is funny? Either way, it made we think, which is more than 99% of videos on YouTube do.

I think it was made for YouTube. It might have been funnier if it were made for TV and then became cult popular on YouTube because it was so low budget that it is funny?

What do you think?

Twitter Grader Algorithm

Mike Volpe — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:01:00 GMT

I got a question on Twitter about how http://Twitter.Grader.com works. I needed more than 140 characters. So here is a super quick and dirty blog post about how Twitter Grader computes the score.

Basically, Twitter Grader measures the authority of any user on Twitter. This authority is computed by looking at the following factors from the entire database (over 2 million users today).

Power of your network. This means both the number of followers you have, as well as the power of your followers (the number of followers they have, etc.).
Amount of interaction and influence. How often do you tweet? How many of your tweets are retweeted? How often do people send @ replies to you?
The basics. Do you have a bio? Do you have a link in your profile? Do you have a photo? Do you update regularly?

The score is a 1-100 rank based on a percentile computation, so if you are in the top 1%, your scores is 99.

Website Redesign Tips and Tricks w/PPT

Mike Volpe — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:40:00 GMT

I ran 5 different webinars this week, and the last two were on the topic of Website Redesign. For people attending the last webinar, I promised to post the slides here to my blog. So, here they are - download website redesign PPT file.

If you want more tips - check out the HubSpot Website Redesign Kit.