8 Things to Consider When Designing a Site for Lead Generation and Inbound Marketing

 

What steps should a company take when it wants to transform its website from an informational, brochure-style one to a lead-generating marketing tool?

In the case of our client Praxis Consulting, a new website meant addressing their clients' and prospects' needs with content, content, content!

Praxis is a subrogation services company, which means they help insurance companies determine the at-fault party in auto accidents. Up until now, they've done just fine attracting business despite their very services-centric website, but that business didn't come in through their site; it came from traditional avenues such as trade shows, cold calls, etc. In essence, they realized they weren't taking advantage of this very important tool and were thus overlooking a huge source of leads by not speaking directly to their audience online.

Our solution was a content-rich site with multiple landing pages, and customer-centric language that would speak directly to insurance industry professionals. We also chose to build it on HubSpot's lead generation CMS to account for SEO and inbound marketing best practices.

Following are our objectives for this site, which should top the list for any company looking to make the transition from a navel-gazing informational site to a prospect-friendly one that attracts inbound traffic and leads:

• Position Praxis as THE expert in the subrogation industry. By placing Praxis's thought leadership content (such as benchmarking studies, eBooks, processes and industry acknowledgements) front and center, it's clear that Praxis is driving the conversation on subrogation and recovery.
• Directly address customer and prospect's needs in the context of the industry at large, rather than focus solely on Praxis's offerings.
• Enhance ability to be found by prospects in internet searches with extensive content and ability for easy and quick regular updates that will work to drastically improve Praxis's online rankng.
• Decrease bounce rate. In other words, we want people to DO something once they get to the homepage, rather than leave without clicking through and learning more. (Getting them there is only half the battle!)
• Introduce lead generation capabilities for Praxis's sales team. There are approximately 10 landing pages on the site where users are encouraged to offer their contact information in return for proprietary information. This information is then stored in a private database.
• Detailed lead details. Once someone offers their information, Praxis gets a digest of every page they've ever looked at and every page they look at going forward. This will allow for targeted messaging as it will give the sales team an indication of what problems prospects are trying to solve.  We will also get email updates when a lead returns to the site.
• Compare Praxis's success to that of its earnest competitors' in terms of online rankings and top keywords.
• Make it look pretty. Hey, it's a superficial world we live in!
  

The only thing we're missing now is a blog, something we highly suggest, but hey, it's not for everybody. We have a feeling we'll get our way eventually, though!

Five Common Traits of The Unintentionally Successful Accidental Personal Brand

This article was originally written for Dan Schawbel's Personal Branding Blog. 

For most people there is one path to recognition, status and authority-slaving away, day in and day out, mastering a craft, drawing attention to achievements, and hoping that one day all that hard work will coalesce into a recognized personal brand. There is, however, the exception: the Accidental Personal Brand. This is the person who emerges from the ether, gains the attention of the masses, and benefits from the opportunities that inevitably come with an attentive audience.

To most of us, these lucky few are supremely unworthy. If, for example, you're a struggling (but talented!) writer, who hunches over your computer for several hours a day working endlessly to entertain your audience and build your platform, you likely cringe whenever you hear that the Internet phenomenon du jour has secured a book deal with an unheard-of advance, based on a blog started on a whim.

Learn from the non-deliberate

And I can't help but agree that to the untrained eye, most Accidental Personal Brands (APBs) seem to have nothing more than dumb luck on their side, but-stick with me here-not all accidental personal brands are untalented or undeserving. And either way, what's important here is that we can learn quite a bit from the paths they take-from the very non-deliberate way in which their personal brands emerge to the very deliberate ways in which they capitalize on the opportunities that follow.

But first, a look at some of the most compelling recent APBs:

Joe the Plumber rocketed from a random commenter on Obama's small-business tax policy to the mascot for middle-class America. He's since released a book, signed a record deal, made more than a few paid personal appearances, and the list goes on. Jared Fogle lost nearly 100 pounds on his Subway sandwich diet, but gained national attention, a 10-year stint as the Subway spokesperson and a slew of speaking gigs. After Ken Jennings won 74 games of Jeopardy!, he was added to the Guinness Book of World Records, he wrote two books, secured a regular column with Mental Floss, and continues to entertain several media opportunities.

Jon and Kate Gosselin managed to transform their sextuplets into a media empire, including a reality show, books and speaking engagements; a ton of cash, and a high-profile divorce. Octomom secured an upcoming reality show that will feed the country's obsession with her and her octuplets. Levi Johnston got national recognition for getting a vice presidential candidate's daughter pregnant and continues to capitalize on his newfound fame-although his long-term success as an APB remains to be seen. Bloggers are plucked out of the blogosphere daily for book deals and other opportunities.

You get the point.

So now for the real question: What are the key elements that distinguish these APBs and how do they compare to the steps you're taking to build your personal brand?

5 common traits

Subject matter. Whether inane or ingenious, the content or actions that got our favorite APBs noticed are authentic. All too often people over think their messages/content/actions in attempt to cater to the perceived needs of their target audiences, but being formulaic and over-curating your every move are tactics that are at odds with accessibility, transparency and passion-the qualities that generate real audiences.

Audience building. Their audiences came to them, not the other way around. This is not to say that this is the only way, or even the best way, to build your audience, but it's worth noting that our sample APBs' audiences congregated around what was offered (whether its value was sheer entertainment, informational or otherwise). Many disproportionately focus on getting more followers, more email addresses or just more attention-essentially spending more time shamelessly promoting themselves-than on offering value to these audiences. Think of the so-called "experts" or "gurus" you find on Twitter. You know the ones-they've got 50,000 followers, are following 60,000 people, and don't have an expert or guru-esque tweet to speak of. So, no matter how big their audience, they don't own it, and therefore won't be able to leverage it as a selling point.

Platform agnostic. These APBs transcend platform. None of them are limited to writing, blogging, speaking, singing or any one other thing. Although they might have been discovered for one of these things, their personal brand is versatile and goes beyond the competency responsible for their rise to notoriety. Essentially, they are the brand and revenue streams flow outward from what they've established.

Continual brand reinforcement. In other words, don't rest on your laurels waiting for the next opportunity to come to you. This is one piece of advice that APBs tend to bypass, which is why so many of them fade into oblivion after their fast rise to prominence. The key is to have complete ownership over your assets and your audience. Depending on your goals, this could mean the regular production and distribution of thought leadership, publishing your own book (without somebody else's green light), or creating videos and other online content that allow you to speak directly with your audience, and keep them coming back to YOU for more.

A pivotal moment. For each one of these people there was a pivotal moment when they were confronted with an opportunity, whether related or unrelated to their original platform. And the decisions they made at that moment is what may very well determine their staying (or going) power. When building your personal brand, you might have very specific goals in mind, but the opportunities that result aren't always in sync with your plans. If your only plan is to make the most money as quickly as possible, then take what you can get. If, however, you want to build a long-lasting empire, well then, you're better off bypassing the accidental and focusing on the strategic.

Triathlons and Twitter: How One Small Business Is Using Social Media to Build Its Audience One Tweet at a Time

Around here we find our frequent conversations about social media ending with, "Hey, it's not rocket science." I know many people like to make it seem as though what we do is incredibly esoteric and that only the most experienced, knowledgeable person could even begin to think about undertaking it, but when it comes to social media, that's just not true. Yes, it's true that it takes a lot of work and that any brand needs a coherent strategy and that your company needs to be on board to make it happen, but do you really need a ton of expertise to master it? I'm not going to lie... No.

(Obviously, once companies get bigger and have more brand capital, social media interaction does become more complicated. They need nuanced strategies for different audiences, and they really do need an agency that has social media expertise to put it all together for them. It's simply not a wise use of resources to commit their internal team to figuring out social media when those people might not even be interested and there are agencies that do it better. Take us, for instance. :) )

When it comes to small businesses and start-ups, social media can be a really powerful tool, especially if it's undertaken by those at the center of the company. Sure, everyone talks about this, but I know from firsthand experience that smaller business owners often don't really believe that they could find a voice and an audience in blogging or on Facebook, Twitter or other online communities, which is just not the case.

The reality is that small businesses have two really key things going for them: 1. Their senior decision makers also tend to be the people doing a lot of the in-the-trenches work, so it's easy for them to decide on a strategy/voice and implement that. There's no bureaucracy, no approval process, no figuring out who's going to write updates or blog posts. 2. They've got passion. Who starts a business who doesn't have a love for or interest in some aspect of what they do and the community? That means they know their target audience really well, that they can offer specialized expertise and insights, and create content that is meaningful and effective. They also know who the influencers in the community are, what people are buzzing about, and all the other things that make it clear that they are members of the community too.

All of which brings me to Paul Bashforth (that's him looking all studly and triathlete-y during a real, live race), who, along with three friends, started a niche clothing brand for triathletes, True Motion. He and his partners currently hold regular jobs while they start their business, so they don't have a ton of time or money to commit to marketing and advertising. But from early on, Paul recognized that good content could set his company apart, and he's become a real convert to the power of social media. He also knows how important audience generation is (which inspired him to email Gretel's recent post on the topic to his partners. He's not sure if they've read it, but he's hoping it will get them all on the same page.)

After some free drinks (for me) and free consulting* (for him) the night before last, he has embarked on a campaign to really learn and use Twitter. He's retweeting, linking to relevant posts related to the trialthlete community, and referencing other Twitter users who are in the community. He's got his own handle (@truemotionpaul) and a company presence (@truemotiontri). On his personal account, he tweets about anything and everything (triathlons, yes, but also family, work, life and other normal stuff -- he is a normal human being after all), while on the company one, he's started carving out a niche with clothing/gear-related tweets, as well as general commentary on the goings on at True Motion. Literally, within days he's seen his followers increase and has started truly building his audience.

And why not? He's an obsessive athlete who loves triathlons. (Not to mention, he's the only man I know with whom I can swap stories about cleanly-shaved legs.) He and his brand are genuine community supporters and enthusiasts, and in joining the online conversation, he's steadily building brand awareness and loyalty.

*As much as I hate giving away free consulting, a promise of free drinks is usually enough to twist my arm. That is, as long as I get to choose the place!

Audience Generation 101: Why do I need to build AND own my audience?

 

The term "Audience Generation" has been gaining in popularity lately due to its direct relevance to social media. But what is often considered common vocabulary by marketers, is sometimes pretty confusing to lay people. And because one of my goals in life is to not be like other marketers, I thought I would explain the ins and outs of audience generation in terms the general public might actually understand.

For instance, yesterday I was talking with an incredibly talented chef we're working with.* He's a somewhat reluctant social media convert who exhibits all of the tell-tale signs of a novice: infrequent tweets, a blog without posts (although it does have a title!), and a general overall confusion as to the benefits of both. Basically, he's diving in because he knows he has to, but he doesn't know a whole lot more than that. As a chef who has been written up by every lauded food publication, approached by the appropriate food channels (although nothing has come to fruition to date), and cooked at the venerable James Beard House as well as the restaurants of many-a-noted chef, he never foresaw the need to market himself. His job until now has been to wake up every day, head into the kitchen, and prepare amazing food. Sounds like a reasonable recipe to me (clever pun totally intended). That said, you can imagine his surprise when he discovered that there's a bustling online "foodie" (I hate that word) community that he's not a part of, and that some of these seeming foodie posers are even getting plucked out of the ether and offered huge opportunities. And therein lies the point of this article: while in the old days (err, ten years ago), it was necessary that one had talent to gain recognition, nowadays it's pretty fair to say you just need to know how to play the game, and that means building an audience--a loyal one at that.

I explained all of this to him briefly and I think he really got it. But then again, maybe not. Just in case, I've set out to spell it out a bit more for him and anyone else out there who doesn't consume marketing jargon on a daily basis (in which case I envy you).

So, here's the lowdown on audience generation and a few ways you can put it to work for yourself, your company or your brand:

First of all, what is audience generation?
It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like: the generation of an audience. More specifically, an audience of people who find genuine value in what you have to say or offer. Audience generation is by no means unique to social media, but social media and user-generated content sites like YouTube have really elevated its usefulness to new levels.

In the world of traditional advertising and marketing, marketers would literally buy their desired audiences through media buyers who would identify the best publications, TV stations, billboards or websites on which to place their ads. The idea was that your brilliant artwork would grace the space next to content that your audience was interested in. And thus would be born a psychological association between your brand and that content. Clever, right? I guess, but only if it's your only option, which it's not. The alternative here is to skip the middle man and produce the interesting content yourself, rather than simply existing next to it.

Another endangered form of audience generation is list-buying, whereby you define your target audience to your favorite list broker (yes, this is a real job title) and he or she will identify the perfect list of unsuspecting victims to whom your unsolicited email or snail mail campaign will be sent. Sure, you can reach the masses with both of these methods but you're certainly not doing yourself any favors in terms of gaining their loyalty or "owning" them, which is really the goal here.

Okay, so how do I generate my audience?
This really deserves its own post (consider it noted-I'll write a follow-up post soon). For now, here are the basics:

• Identify the platforms where your audience congregates. In the case of our above-mentioned chef, it would be a huge mistake for him not to be on Twitter since all the food groupies (admittedly, me included) are there in droves. He'll also need to go ahead and get some posts up on his blog.
• "If you build it they will come" need not apply here. Simply having a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn account, or a blog, will not bring your audience to you. You've got to produce interesting content. Ask yourself: Who is my audience and what kind of content do they want from me? From our chef, I'd want to hear about the inner workings of his restaurant, what new items he's putting on the menu, cooking tips, and what his life looks like outside of work. I want details that aren't available on his official site. After all, the reason people "follow" you is because they want to be led (through your life). Hey, there's nothing wrong with a healthy mix of voyeurism and vicarious living.
• Engage. This means listening to others and joining in on the conversation. You need to become the perfect online host. Leave comments for other people, share their interesting thoughts with your audiences, and offer them value at every step.

The good thing about audience generation is that it just takes a little common sense, which is sometimes also the bad thing about audience generation. Put it this way: if you're a fairly socially-adjusted person who knows what it means to capture your real life friends' loyalty, you should be fine.

We've covered the WHAT? and the HOW? Let's move on to the WHY?

Building and Owning your own loyal audience will allow you to bypass traditional channels.
Creating your own private media channels-meaning blogs, newsletters, social media profiles and others-will allow you to get the word out on whatever it is you're working on or doing without having to rely on traditional methods like press release-PR, advertising, and other such techniques that are falling by the wayside. It also gives you a lot more freedom to say or present your message however you like. But again, it's not enough to simply create the channels, you also have to make sure you are continually building your audience. And further, that your audience arrived organically (not via ads or trickery techniques that conned them into visiting you!). Audience generation can be achieved through organic search methods, too, but that will be included in the follow-up to this post. (See above for brief tips on generating your audience.)

With a big audience can come big opportunities...
So while our extraordinarily talented chef is slaving away over hot veal cheeks at his restaurant each night, people who could only dream of having a portion of his talent are sitting online talking about it...and they're reaping the benefits as a result (that is, the benefits of a growing audience of people who want to hear about veal cheeks). What kind of benefits are we talking about here? A couple of my favorite early examples of opportunities that came about due purely to having a big audience (but certainly not due to having a remarkable amount of talent) are the Chocolate Rain guy on YouTube and good ol' Tila Tequila.

If you're not familiar with them, the basics are this: A couple years ago, Tay Zonday, a.k.a. "The Chocolate Rain Guy," released a basic video of him singing "Chocolate Rain" in an amusing voice on YouTube. For some reason that I'll never understand, people liked it and it was viewed millions of times. (To date the original video has been viewed 39,386,940 times.) Dr. Pepper saw this video as the perfect basis for its Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper campaign and paid Zonday a rumored $200K for the rights (and to appear in the resulting commercials). Not bad for a kid with a funny voice and a webcam.

As for Tila Tequila, she's famous for having a ton of friends on MySpace. Yep, that's it. But as this story goes, friends + engagement = loyal audience = opportunity. Tila signed with VH1 to produce one of the worst reality shows in history (which is saying a lot): "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila." Basically the producers weren't after her talent, they were after her audience. They just needed something to pull that audience in so they made up a show for her and the rest is history. (She's had numerous other opportunities beyond this as well.)

Of course, opportunities resulting from having a large audience aren't limited to pop culture; they're prevalent across industries-businesses are generating never-before-achieved visibility, leads, and hugely lucrative opportunities as a result of building and tending to their audiences. This is further why there are so many fake experts out there trying to cash in by collecting followers. (Not to worry, I'm working on a post about them, too.)

Sorry, it's not you; it's them.
In other words, the reason that the likes of Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton can get book deals, and so-and-so can get her own show when you can't even get an infomercial, is not because they've been secretly harboring the Great American Novel (or are particularly camera friendly); it's because they have large, dedicated audiences. Mystery solved, right? Uh, right. (Knowing this dirty little secret will either make you feel a lot better or a lot worse about society depending on how hard you're willing to work.) My advice is to play the game. And have some fun while you're at it. Generate audiences by engaging in things you're interested in. There are worse ways to get your name out there, ya know?

You can market to your audience in the future.
So it's true that not everyone is going to become an instant Internet-phenom. The worst case scenario-which is actually not so shabby-is that you will build a database of people who are interested in what you have to say. That means that when you do have something to announce or promote, they'll be there listening, and you won't have to pay for space or bribe a third party to get the word out for you. In the case of our chef, this could be a cookbook, a new restaurant, or, hey, the announcement of his new show (should he get one). Whoever's involved with him will certainly appreciate the exposure.

How is Audience Generation different than public relations? Can't I just ask my publicist to help me build an audience?
I think I've written enough here, but just know that audience generation and public relations are related but not at all the same. And yes, your publicist can help you build your audience but this should be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. Authenticity and transparency are key. If your publicist can't maintain those two things, go it alone.

And to think I set out to write a short post...

The End.

* If you follow me on Twitter, you know that food is one of my great passions and, thus, one of my personal new business initiatives.

My new lead generation-fueled love affair with LinkedIn

 

There was a time—not too long ago—when I firmly believed that LinkedIn was just one big job-seeking and networking love fest. And if you've been reading this blog for a while, you know our collective feelings about business people "networking" (in the most traditional and nauseating sense), and that this isn't something I say fondly.

But recently the tides have changed, and I've become somewhat of a LinkedIn junkie. What changed? I discovered how active the community there really is, the quality of the discussions and the incredible amount of traffic and leads it was bringing to our clients. Yep, LinkedIn is an inbound marketing machine. (Did I really just say inbound marketing machine? Oy.) I only wish it hadn't taken me three years of using it to figure it out.

But first, to clarify, I don't believe that "So and so sent me a message on LinkedIn and now we're talkin' business" qualifies as a case study on using LinkedIn for lead generation. The event must be uniquely limited to the platform at hand, whereas in that example, the same thing could have easily happened over email (or Facebook, or Twitter, or...you get it). Now, if the person got a hold of you on LinkedIn because they happened to see your contribution to a discussion in a group there, or arrived as one of your shared connections, well, that's another story altogether.

Anyway, I'll cut to the chase and tell you a few ways we've used LinkedIn to generate leads and other business opportunities for ourselves and for clients.

"Answers"
Obviously one of the great (and sometimes, not so great) things about social networks is that people can emerge (or just pose) as experts in their industries. Given a soapbox, many people will use it to spew advice or request it, and that's exactly what happens in the Answers section on LinkedIn. People in your network post questions-provocative, thought-provoking or purely inquisitive-and other users answer them. Of course, many of these questions can lead to opportunities, whether you present yourself as an expert by starting an engaging conversation, or if you provide someone with a solid answer (or point them toward another source who will offer them that answer) and start the dialogue that way.

We've used the Answers section several times to connect our clients with opportunities. For example, we were able to get Bank of America's Annual Report (produced by our client Story Worldwide) featured in the book The Writer's Guide to Annual Reports by Robert Roth. We've also used it to secure speaking engagements, radio interviews and identify business opportunities.

Still others, as pointed out in an article by Copyblogger, use Answers to identify sources for articles they're writing, which could mean media coverage for you...especially if you're in a niche industry where experts are hard for journalists to track down.

Groups
There are thousands of active groups on LinkedIn and I guarantee there are at least a handful that cater to your interests (whether work-related or personal). I currently belong to nine groups, and have elected to get a daily digest (email) of the day's activity from about five of them since I, like many people, don't have the time to hang out on LinkedIn all day to see what's being discussed. These groups and digests are not only a great way to keep up with relevant conversations; they're a great way to get your conversations out there.

I first realized this when our client at Hunt Big Sales posted a link to his e-book Landing Big Sales with an RFP into one of his active groups. Within two days, he got 300 downloads (or leads) from simply making the book known to this one group. Considering his book requires a registration (albeit a free one), this was a welcome outcome.

Needless to say, when we launched our new e-book last week, we took our audience generation campaign over to our LinkedIn groups (as well as Twitter, Facebook and other outlets). And as expected, 49% of our downloads so far have come from these groups.

The Obvious: Connecting with people you don't know
There are a few ways to use LinkedIn in the general networking sense. My favorite example of using LinkedIn to generate new business comes from our partners over at Hubspot. Hubspot allows you to collect information about your leads when they download your thought leadership content (such as e-books, research, white papers, etc.). One of their clients noticed that Bank of America* was particularly active on their site, so they headed over to LinkedIn to attempt to make a subtle and professional connect with the person at hand. As it turns out, by simply opening the floor to further conversation by making this connection, the company was able to secure Bank of America as a client. And not just any client—the biggest client in the company's history.

Of course, this doesn't mean you should just begin connecting to people who you want to work with and start pitching/stalking them. It means you should integrate LinkedIn into your overall sales strategy. After all, because of its professional nature, people are more open to talking shop here than they are on, say, Facebook. There's also something more appealing about receiving a business inquiry over LinkedIn than by email. People, including myself, tend to feel a bit violated when they get a random pitch in their inbox. Email is becoming the 21st century's cold call...and we all know how popular cold calls are.

Updates & Applications
You'll hear a lot of people telling you to stick to just one or two social media platforms. Our philosophy is to use as many (or as few) platforms as necessary to connect with the entirety of your audience. Basically, you need to be where your audience is. And if you make that commitment, whether to one platform or several, you need to do it right. On LinkedIn this means taking advantage of their newish applications, such as posting an RSS feed to your company or personal blog, and sharing presentations with slideshare, as well as posting regular updates and making sure to flesh out your profile as much as possible to show your qualifications, etc. You want to make sure that when people do find you and/or connect with you, you offer them as much ammunition as possible to start a dialogue with you. This may not be your first choice in platforms, but if this is the only place you're going to be found by a certain portion of your target audience, well then, put a little bit of effort into it.

Okay, are you still with me? If so, thanks for reading my coffee-fueled dribble and feel free to connect with me over at LinkedIn...

*This example is unrelated to the previous Bank of America example. Just a coincidence...