INBOUND ACCELERATOR

Email marketing is an important element in any inbound marketing program, especially for connecting with leads who convert on your website, in order to offer additional content and value that may lead to a completed sale. So what factors lead to effective use of email marketing for inbound?

There was a day when a key part of a financial company’s branding strategy was based on a physical portrayal of its stability: the building itself. Large, solid, imposing structures, bank buildings have long been emblematic of the way the institutions want their customers to perceive them.

But with the rapid and nearly complete shift of financial services to digital and largely invisible infrastructures in the last 25 years, the need to build a brand identify of stability, authority and trust can no longer be met with a concrete structure. Particularly in the B2B financial technology arena, that brand identity must be built through careful curation of thought leadership, content and analyst relationships.

Sometimes the best way to learn how to do something right is by facing the consequences of doing it all wrong.

When it comes to hiring, I’ve made mistakes. And regretted them. But, I’ve also learned from them. Those mistakes, combined with what I know now about how I like to structure the workplace, have led me to develop a few guidelines I now keep in mind whenever I am hiring.

As a spa owner, you only have so much time available to manage your marketing efforts because you are also juggling dozens of other management tasks from ordering supplies and greeting clients to setting up schedules and, possibly, making sure the garbage is taken out at the end of the day. You don’t have time to be on every possible social media network.

Instead, focus your energy on the top networks your best customers are using.

In most cases, that will be Facebook (used by nearly 3 of 4 American adults), and Instagram (used by more than half of all young adults under age 30, an age group less active on Facebook).

Who will you find on social media?

The short answer is almost everyone! But where you will find different demographics of people — meaning different target markets — varies by age, education level, career and gender.

Calls-to-action, also called CTAs, are the essential link between your blog posts, emails, website home page or social media posts and the landing pages where visitors can access marketing offers and convert into leads.

While the advertising and sales concept of a call-to-action is to ask for the sale, when implementing inbound marketing to generate and nurture leads online, CTAs and the offers to which they link are often less about making a sale today and more about securing a contact and connection through which to build rapport over time. (Learn more about how even public relations can use CTAs through this video.)

Are you looking for a way to generate qualified leads that doesn’t involve cold calls, mass mailings (digital or print), or a heavy investment in paid advertising? Maybe a strategy that will not only provide leads, but also establish your company as a thought leader in your industry and a trusted source of information for current customers and prospects alike?

That is what inbound marketing can do. And often for a lower cost-per-lead than traditional outbound marketing. So, what do you need to do to create your first inbound marketing campaign?

Are you tasked with social media marketing for a business or brand? If so, you’ve seen plenty of statistics thrown your way. But which ones are worth paying attention to?

Here are 4 statistics we think you should pay attention to and why (Source):

It can be tempting to think of all B2C marketing as being the type of impulse decision to which you can appeal with an emotion-driven campaign showing happy, strong, cool people. Not everything is as simple as a refreshing soft drink on a hot day or a pair of shoes that totally make the outfit.

At JONES, we have experienced the side of B2C marketing that requires engaging consumers with useable and useful information, understanding that larger investments have a longer sales cycle, and that especially now, with the world in our pocket, consumers research a wide range of products before making their final decision. The lessons we’ve learned through marketing financial services, higher education, personal electronics and even nutritional supplements for endurance athletes can be applied to a wide range of other B2C products and services.

Video, in some form, has become an essential element in most companies’ marketing content strategy, whether as an explainer video on the home page of a website, as live video on Facebook, or to be used in personal presentations and trade show settings.

In many cases, companies are employing all of these video formats and more. But despite the availability of technology at an affordable rate (in some cases, already in your pocket in the form of a cell phone), creating a high quality video for marketing purposes still comes at a cost.