In February, HubSpot released a report about the state of inbound marketing in 2010.

Some key findings from the report:

1. Inbound Marketing Channels Continue to Deliver Dramatically Lower Cost Per Lead Than Outbound Channels Do Businesses spending 50% or more of their marketing budget on inbound marketing activities spent 60% less per lead, than businesses spending 50% or more of their marketing on outbound channels. Inbound marketing channels are clearly maintaining their low-cost advantage.
2. Social Media and Blogs Are the Most Rapidly Expanding Category In The Overall Marketing Budget Social media and blogs are becoming marketing powerhouses. They are the fastest growing category in lead generation budgets and they continue to be ranked as the lowest cost lead-generation channel.
3. Businesses Are Generating Real Customers With Social Media and Blogs Are potential customers really reading twitter? Does Facebook do anything more than build brand awareness? The answer is “Yes!”. Over 40% of respondents who used social media channels like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, acquired a customer through each of those channels. Social media is not just for brand awareness – it can be used to directly generate leads that translate into customers.

The difference between the Cost Per Lead of inbound/outbound marketing has been clearly understood by marketers as well. When compared to the average 2009 Lead Generation Budget, the 2010 budgets for inbound marketing have been increasing, while the overall budgets for outbound channels have been steadily decreasing (down 5% in one year). Businesses rate every inbound lead generation channel as being more important than any outbound channel. This trend will clearly be continued in years to come and agencies offering only outbound marketing services have been steadily losing their clientele.

The trend to focus more in inbound marketing rather than outbound, is especially seen in smaller companies. With not much to spend on TV advertising, they have no choice but to turn more of their attention to social media, Facebook being the most popular from the group.

Customer acquisition through blogs is directly related to frequency of blog posts

Although it has been a common knowledge for a while, the survey gives statistical evidence that the more you blog, the better are your chances of attracting that necessary customer. We have also seen the same trend among our own clients. If they have taken blogging seriously and devoted some time for it, then it has paid off. An interesting finding from the survey is, that almost all companies blogging multiple times a day, have acquired clients through their blog. But daily blogging isn’t your only way of attracting customers. Over 50% of companies blogging only once a week have still acquired customers through their blogs. Not bad for an hour a week. And what the data tells us, the frequency of blogging once a week is also the most common approach among companies.

Traditional outbound marketing techniques have been clearly losing their effectiveness. People are spending increasingly more of their time in social networks, so these are the places to go to. Shouting out and hoping people will hear you, is not working anymore. What works is initiating a real conversation with your client and hearing what they have to say. Whether you do that through giving out good advice or something else, is yours to decide.

Download the full report here

Easter holidays have started and of course its raining. Thanks to my kids for finding these funny videos on youtube.

Addictive and funny :)

http://www.youtube.com/realannoyingorange#p/u/3/E4GhMYxE2Lc

Enjoy

A new study from Retrevo Gadgetology suggests that more people are becoming obsessed with their online social circles.

Consider these stats from the survey:

• 48% of people check/update Facebook and/or Twitter after they go to bed.
• 55% of people over 25 have to check in on Facebook at least once a day.
• 49% of people under 25 years old can be interrupted by an electronic message during a meal. (27% for people over 25 years of age).

In the latest privacy-related skirmish between European countries and social networks, Swiss and German privacy authorities have told the Associated Press that they are looking at how Facebook — and possibly Google and other sites as well — allows its users to upload email addresses, photos and other content that either belongs to or includes people who haven’t given their consent to appear on the service. According to the AP story, this would likely include uploading pictures without getting the permission of everyone who appears in the photo, and could also affect the automated importing of email addresses that Facebook, Google and other social networks provide as a way of finding your friends when you join a new service.

“The way it’s organized at the moment, they simply allow anyone who wants to use this service to say they have the consent of their friends or acquaintances,” Swiss commissioner Hanspeter Thuer said of Facebook’s practice of letting users upload photos and email addresses. Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner in the northern German state of Schleswig Holstein, told AP that Facebook’s assertion that it gets consent for the posting of personal information is “total nonsense.” He said that the state has written to Facebook “and told them they’re not abiding by the law in Europe.”

Europe seems determined to play the role of wet blanket for social networks and social media of all kinds. Both Google and Facebook have come under fire from multiple countries and from regulators at the European Union itself over privacy issues. Google has been criticized repeatedly for its Street View service, and Italy recently took the unprecedented step of finding three senior Google executives guilty of privacy law violations for a video that was uploaded to YouTube. But Europe isn’t the only one criticizing the way Google and Facebook handle (or don’t handle) privacy controls: sociologist Danah Boyd gave a talk at the recent South by Southwest Interactive conference slamming both companies for their practices.

(Source: gigaom.com - http://bit.ly/aJ8yt5)

When thinking about how best to serve clients’ content marketing needs, I always try to keep in mind a simple axiom I learned a long time ago.

Don’t waste your time trying to sell a hamburger to a vegetarian.


It may seem simplistic, but the message is very important: Know your audience. Successful content marketing gets that way because its audience finds value in it. Vegetarians won’t find value in food they won’t eat, so they won’t buy it.

Niche appeal = Greater impact

Indium Corporation’s specialty alloys, solders, and solder pastes. However, Indium’s Marketing Communications Director, Rick Short, has crafted a corporate blog strategy that hyper-targets the people who do need his company’s products.

In a  podcast with Bernie Borges, Short discussed the impetus for implementing a very comprehensive blog strategy that has ballooned into 10 blogs by 15 writers. Indium has a corporate culture of helping people understand how to use its products in relevant ways.

To gain trust, a company must be completely honest in all communication with its customers.

Indium Corporation’s blogs are a great example of successful content marketing. Indium’s niche content has narrow appeal but is incredibly valuable to potential customers. By choosing blogs/content as their messaging medium, they allow longer-form communication for what is often very technical content. And the exchange through comments adds to the overall value and engagement.

http://bit.ly/cPakUW

As millions of people are connected to social networks and it’s so easy for information to spread through them, it is very important to brief your employees about how your company intends to use social media for business.  It is also important to remind employees about their own use of social media can affect your business.  It is important for companies and employees to use social media intelligently.

It makes sense to create a social media policy for your business to remind everyone about the responsible use of Twitter and other social media accounts. The policy does not have to restrict much of your employees social media use. They just need to understand how they could affect the way your business is viewed online.  You can also encourage your employees to help in your social media efforts. This way, you are really getting the most of social media. If your employees are going to use social media anyway, you might as well get them to support your company. You shouldn’t force them to post positive messages online but discuss the idea with them.

It is also important to discuss social media with your employees so that they do not affect your online image negatively. They may decide not to endorse your company or tweet about your business but it is still important for your employees not to post anything online or release information about your business that could have an adverse effect on your business.  They may not know how a simple tweet can have a huge impact on your business so it is important to discuss social media with them.