A four part series featuring Jenna Engel

From reading Part 1 and Part 2 you know a little more about Inbound Marketing, and hopefully agree that transforming the outbound marketing you’re currently doing will better accomplish some of your major marketing goals. We’re sure if you’ve come this far, that your next question is… where do I even start?

Once again, here’s Featured Industry Expert Jenna Engel, from Trending Up Sales & Marketing, answering that exact question:

Where to Start?

Every inbound marketing plan needs to start with a measurable, data-based strategy. The strategy for creating a lead-generating machine with your business will include some very specific elements:

• Research and interviews with your ideal target audience
• Goals that you’re aiming for using this plan
• An analysis of your current marketing (and game plan to improve it)
• Content titles based in search engine research that are designed to attract, convert, and close your ideal customers
• A plan to nurture those prospects who aren’t yet ready to purchase
• Education for your sales team on how to use the new strategy elements in their closing process

This sales and marketing strategy is a winning business plan to use your digital presence as an extra, 24/7 seller where your prospects are looking for information: online.

Knowing where to start is essential. Tune in next time to find out where you can download yourself a sweet ‘blueprint’ packed with information about Marketing and Sales by Jena Engel. And remember, if you don’t have the time or the know-how to pull this ‘Inbound Marketing thing’ off, rest assured… together, we can help you get a jumpstart on transforming your marketing. Contact us today!

A four part series featuring Jenna Engel

As you remember in Part 1, we told you a little bit about Inbound vs. Outbound marketing, and you learned (if you didn’t already realize it) that your customers… are online. Now, in Part 2, we’d like to tell you a little about the Inbound Marketing method, as we continue to encourage you to put down the megaphone and pull audiences in. Into your space, where you are the expert and where you can engage in conversations with potential customers and talk to them instead of at them.

Once again, here’s Featured Industry Expert Jenna Engel, from Trending Up Sales & Marketing:

How Does Inbound Work?

Inbound marketing guides ideal customers through their decision-making journey until they’re ready to make a purchase.

Using a strategic marketing plan, inbound marketing sets your digital presence up to meet today’s potential buyers where they are looking for solutions. The method is simple:

• Attract visitors to your site
• Convert the ideal visitors to leads
• Nurture these leads until they close as customers
• Delighting customers converts them to promoters
• Measuring the results allows you to optimize the process

Throughout the inbound marketing process, measuring and analyzing the results ensures that you’re using proven methods that help you meet your business goals. Marketers who check their metrics 3x+ times a week are over 20% more likely to achieve positive ROI. (Hubspot, State of Inbound, 2016)

Attract potential buyers, even passive researchers simply looking to educate themselves, using inbound methods.

Now that you know the Inbound Marketing Method (and just to be clear, that last bullet point doesn’t belong anywhere near the dating process), join us next time and learn how to start. Or, just contact us today to find out how we can start putting Inbound Marketing to work for you!

A four part series featuring Jenna Engel

If your business is still using only traditional (aka “old”) methods of advertising – direct mailers, print ads, TV/radio commercials, you’ve probably noticed that over the last few years, their effectiveness (along with any new customers) has declined. We all know that the yellow pages has all but disappeared, and its been said that up to 44% of direct mail is never opened. Even methods of online advertising has been forced to change, because of the increasing effectiveness of ad blockers and ‘spam’ filters. Shouting from the rooftops in hopes of reaching your target market resulted only in your message getting lost in the crowd, most of whom are holding their hands tightly over their ears in an attempt to escape the constant assault of advertising in their lives.

So, if outbound marketing alone isn’t effective, how do you get your message to your target audience? We’ll answer this question and more, in this four part series, Inbound Marketing 101: How Inbound Marketing Works, Where to Start, and Getting Results.

We’ve asked our first-ever Featured Industry Expert Jenna Engel, from Trending Up Sales & Marketing, for her insight. She will help us help you understand how, and why, transforming the outbound marketing you’re currently doing will accomplish some of your major marketing goals. According to Jenna:

Many contractor marketing strategies include traditional advertising techniques, cold calling, and other outdated methods that make measuring success very difficult. As a result, contractor marketing can be a costly endeavor.

Your potential customers are online.

Nearly 75% of Americans go online on a daily basis. (PewResearchCenter, 2015) Let that sink in. 3 out of 4 people use the internet every single day. These people online include people who are searching for a business exactly like yours: they want to hire a contractor. Are they finding you?

Let’s put it this way: what happens if the prospective clients came right to you and gave you their information, via your website? What if they told you about a problem they were having, and you provided a solution with educational content? What if, through this new communication and relationship, the prospective client now trusted you with their business as a result? That, my friends, is inbound marketing.

Join us next time to find out more about the Inbound Marketing Method (hint: it’s a lot like the dating process), or contact us to find out how we can start putting it to work for you!