When writing blog post content or creating content for posting on social media, most of us have a primary type of content we lean towards as our go to type. It’s often the type we are most interested in consuming, but the truth is that to be successful marketers, we need to create content that appeals to our personas as they move through their buyer’s journey, not just the content we personally find interesting. There are four main categories of content that when used, are key to a successful inbound marketing strategy.
We were recently on vacation and got hooked on watching Chopped and after watching hours of episodes a surprising pattern emerged that you can use to improve your inbound marketing.
The fundamental goal of marketing is to increase business sales by increasing public awareness of a product or service. For many years, marketers have been using a variety of outbound marketing strategies -- e-mail blasts, telemarketing, direct mail, TV, radio, and print advertising just to name a few -- in order to reach their target audience and engage potential buyers. However, these tactics are not as effective as they once were.
Business is booming. You’ve built more custom houses and completed more renovations over this past year than the three previous years combined. You’re netting a few million more in revenue and you feel pretty good. As you sit at your well-oiled mahogany desk, you notice a white envelope peaking out from under the newest issue of Professional Remodeler. You pull it out and open it to find a letter from your outsourced marketing team requesting a meeting to review and renew your contract. As you take a sip of your coffee, the wheels in your head begin turning. Business is great, your men are busy, money keeps rolling in, and your clients are happy. Why should you continue marketing? You’re exactly where you want to be.
Join me this spring as I will be offering eight courses that will help your business stay on the cutting edge of marketing technology. Learn how to build a successful blog, manage your Facebook and Twitter pages more effectively, and write captivating e-mails to attract more clients. Using in-depth marketing tools like Google Analytics, you can discover how to interpret consumer data and create a powerful website with Wordpress. Read on for more information!
Ranking well in search engine results is one of the most critical ways medical and surgical practices gain organic (free) web exposure. In fact, 60% of clicks go to the top three organic search results and 75% of users never scroll past the first page. A high search engine ranking will increase your website traffic by attracting people who are interested in your services. Once they reach your website, you will provide opportunities for them to connect with you by requesting more information or booking an appointment. (Read more about how to create these opportunities here.)
When it comes to content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO), you have to make sure the content you write is timely. What does it mean to be timely? The dictionary defines "timely" as an meaning done or occurring at a favorable or useful time. These are the things the search engines look for when determining your rankings. Let's look at an example of an both a timely, and untimely blog post for right now.
According to the Facebook’s most recently released statistics, there are approximately 1.55 billion monthly active users on Facebook with the average user spending 20+ minutes a day on the site, which accounts for nearly 20% of their total Internet time. If you think that’s a lot, check out the average American. In his presentation of Facebook, Inc.’s quarterly progress, CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced that the average American user spends 40 minutes a day on Facebook. If you do the math, you’ll find that number adds up to 10 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes, and 20 seconds annually. It’s no wonder Facebook is considered the world’s most popular networking site.
Take a look around and you’ll see that we are in the midst of a technological boom that is sweeping the nation. It’s no surprise that the old marketing methods (like commercials and newspaper advertising) we have grown so accustomed to are being buried by digital marketing techniques. In fact, statistics show that traditional marketing (also known as outbound marketing) is starting to lose its overall effectiveness. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, is growing in popularity among health care professionals because it embraces the new ways in which people seek medical treatment.
