how to build your inbound marketing gameplan

Online Marketing Summit Milwaukee, WI | June 28, 2010

How to Build Your Inbound Marketing GamePlan

(#IMGamePlan)

Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer) President PR 20/20

www.PR2020.com 1

What is Inbound Marketing?!

2 @paulroetzer #IMGamePlan

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Get Found

Outbound Marketing

800-555-1234!Annoying!Salesperson!

@paulroetzer #IMGamePlan

Inbound Marketing

Content SEARCH Social Media


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15.5 billion core searches conducted in April 2010

By the Numbers

Source: comScore, Inc

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U.S Internet users watched 30.3 billion videos in April 2010

By the Numbers

Source: comScore, Inc

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More than 1 billion “tweets” estimated per month

By the Numbers

Source: Royal Pingdom

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More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month on Facebook

By the Numbers

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• More than 60 million status updates daily

• More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages

• More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day

• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook

•  More than 100 million active users access Facebook through their mobile devices

By the Numbers

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The Universal Goals: Leads & Loyalty

• Higher retention rates

• Lower cost per sale

•  Increased ROI

• Greater profit margins

• Trust and goodwill

• Strength and stability

The Loyalty Factors


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• Step 1: Clearly define and differentiate your brand.

• Step 2: Design and deploy a content-driven website.

• Step 3: Go beyond prospects, and consider the impact of your marketing efforts on all audiences.

• Step 4: Establish measurable and meaningful campaign objectives designed to achieve the primary goals of leads and loyalty.

The GamePlan in Action"


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• Step 5: Build an integrated campaign: brand, Website, search, social media, content and PR.

• Step 6: Establish dynamic budgets that can be easily shifted based on campaign performance and analytics.

• Step 7: Define campaign timelines with milestones, tasks and responsibilities.

• Step 8: Measure everything, and be willing to adapt and evolve.

The GamePlan in Action"


Discovery: Define, Differentiate & Design!

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The Scouting Report

Conduct a strategic analysis of audiences, the organization and the industry.


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GamePlan Tip: Use SurveyMonkey to conduct discovery audits with internal and external audiences.


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The Foundation: Brand & Website

Your brand and website are the two most important elements of building a strong and profitable inbound marketing campaign.

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Brand Marketing: Define & Differentiate

Every organization must define and differentiate itself.

• Share your story through your website, content, social media activity and public relations.

• Remember that your brand is defined by experiences and perceptions, which now primarily occur online.


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Brand Marketing: Define & Differentiate

•  Who are we (in 160 characters or less, and without meaningless jargon)?

•  What are the three greatest strengths/weaknesses of our brand?

•  What are our greatest opportunities for growth?

•  Who are our buyer personas?

•  What makes us different, remarkable?

•  What value (i.e. expertise, resources, guidance, tools) can we bring to our audiences?

•  What makes customers buy from us the first time (acquisition)? What keeps them coming back (retention)?


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Website: Design, Connect & Grow

• Content Management System (CMS)

• Analytics

• Blog

• Copywriting

• Design

• Landing Pages

• Lead Forms

• Media room

• SEO


Audiences: Segment & Prioritize!

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Think Beyond Prospects . . .

•  Peers

•  Competitors

•  Vendors

•  Partners

•  Job Candidates

•  Media

•  Employees

•  Prospects

•  Customers

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GamePlan Tip: Don’t fight it. Employees, especially younger generations, are active in social media with or without your organization’s support.

• View social media as an opportunity, not an obstacle.

• Establish social media policies, encourage professional behavior, and move on.


Objectives: Set Your Success Factors!

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Winning Leads & Loyalty


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Objective #1: Search Engine Rankings

•  Top 10 keywords

•  Traffic-producing keywords

•  Lead-producing keywords

•  Sale-converting keywords

•  Organic traffic

•  PPC savings

Boost keyword rankings on top search engines.


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Objective #2: Relationships

•  Followers

•  Friends and Fans (aka Likes)

•  Members

•  Blog subscribers and comments

•  References

•  Recommendations

•  Referrals

Establish and strengthen relationships.


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Objective #3: Positioning

•  Media inquiries

•  LinkedIn recommendations

•  Blog subscribers

•  Guest blogging opportunities

•  Content downloads

•  Webinar/event registrations

•  Inbound links

Enhance positioning as a thought leader, innovator and industry expert.


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Objective #4: Brand

•  Media inquiries

•  LinkedIn recommendations

•  Blog subscribers

•  Guest blogging opportunities

•  Content downloads

•  Webinar/event registrations

•  Inbound links

•  Conversion and retention rates

Build brand awareness, comprehension and preference.


Strategies & Tactics: Take an Integrated Approach!

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Driven by Content & Community

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Search Marketing: Get Found

Search marketing refers to the paid and organic activities, including SEO, that help boost your Website’s search engine ranking, drive visitors and generate leads.

In short, it helps your organization get found online when people are searching for your products or services.

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GamePlan Tip: There are no shortcuts in search marketing. Concentrate your efforts on generating inbound links, traffic and leads through creating remarkable content and social media participation.


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Social Media: Monitor, Participate & Publish

Social media is about listening, learning, building relationships and bringing value to the communities relevant to your organization.

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GamePlan Tip: Be authentic and bring value. Social media is about listening, learning, building relationships and bringing value to the communities relevant to your organization.


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Content Marketing: Fresh & Relevant

Content marketing has become the great differentiator — a sustainable competitive advantage that enables you to separate yourself, while driving acquisition (leads) and retention (loyalty).

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GamePlan Tip: Ask yourself . . . Who are our buyer personas? What are their needs and pain points? What value can we bring to the community? What problems can we solve? What can we publish that is relevant?


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Public Relations: Relationships & Communications

Relationships and communications remain the foundation of the PR industry, but they are being fostered through social networks, websites, self-published content, mobile apps and the media (mainstream and social).

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GamePlan Tip: Carefully evaluate your PR agency based on performance and capabilities.

Traditional PR agencies are struggling to adapt to the social Web and remain relevant as clients demand more measurable results.


Budgets: Calculate Time & Money Investments!

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Build Dynamic Budgets

CONVENTIONAL MARKETING pays for interruption and impressions, which means you buy everything.

INBOUND MARKETING pays for production, participation and performance.

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Major Budget Factors

•  Strength of current website and need for design and optimization.

•  Outsourcing of content creation, including copywriting and design of case studies, eBooks, blog posts and white papers.

•  Reliance on paid search (e.g. Google AdWords, IYPs) for short-term lead generation and sales.

•  Brand awareness in target markets.


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Major Budget Factors

•  Aggressiveness of growth goals.

•  Stage of business lifecycle.

•  Inbound marketing competency levels and time availability of marketing team and executives.

•  Strength of competition.

•  Commitment to vision and innovation.


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SAMPLE: Inbound Marketing Budget


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SAMPLE: Inbound Marketing Budget


Timelines: Track Activities & Milestones!

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Project Management

While inbound marketing is all about the “New Rules” of marketing and PR, traditional project-management principles still apply.

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GamePlan Tip: Check out 37Signals Basecamp for a simple and effective project management solution. Visit www.37signals.com.


Measure & Evolve: Use Analytics to Adapt!

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Keep Score of What Matters

•  Website strength and campaign performance •  Website traffic and associated marketing events •  Referring sites and traffic sources •  Keyword rankings •  Conversion rates •  Social media activity


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GamePlan Tip: Use monthly scorecards to manage your inbound marketing campaigns. Segment the scorecard into three sections: 1) The Activities, 2) The Results, 3) Updated GamePlan.


The Beginning: Look Beyond!

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The social Web and inbound marketing have leveled the playing field.

Underdogs and innovators now have the power to grow faster and smarter than their competitors.

They have the ability to control their destiny.


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•  Differentiate your brand and build a powerful, lead-generating website.

•  Consider the needs and goals of all audiences and connect with them in more meaningful and personal ways.

•  Stop hiding behind arbitrary measurements, and start building integrated marketing campaigns around metrics that directly affect the bottom line.

•  Stop paying for placement and start publishing relevant, link-worthy content.

Your Challenge . . . It’s Time


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Your Challenge . . . It’s Time

•  Participate and bring real value to online communities.

•  Set dynamic, performance-based budgets that constantly shift and adapt based on analytics, consumer behavior and market forces.

•  Tap into the endless resources of the social Web.

•  “Get found” when audiences are searching for knowledge, products and services.

•  Generate leads and build loyalty.

•  Look beyond traditional wisdom and conventional solutions.

•  Innovate and lead.


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It’s time to build and activate your Inbound Marketing GamePlan.


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Paul Roetzer, PR 20/20 www.PR2020.com [email protected]

(216) 333-1242 Twitter: @paulroetzer

http://www.linkedin.com/in/paulroetzer

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Thank You!

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how to build your inbound marketing gameplan

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