Inbound Marketing for Dummies

Title Page......Page 3
Copyright Page......Page 4
Table of Contents......Page 7
 About This Book......Page 17
 Icons Used in This Book......Page 18
 Beyond This Book......Page 19
 Where to Go from Here......Page 20
Part I Getting Started with Inbound Marketing......Page 21
  Knowing the Basics of Inbound Marketing......Page 23
   Inbound as a philosophy......Page 25
   Inbound marketing as a system of attraction and conversion......Page 26
  Learning Why Inbound Marketing Is Important to Your Organization......Page 27
  Exploring the Benefits of Inbound Marketing......Page 28
   Traditional marketing......Page 29
   Inbound marketing......Page 30
   Attracting interest with inbound marketing......Page 31
   Causing customer conversions with inbound marketing......Page 32
   Diagnosing with a baseline assessment/audit......Page 34
   Prescribing business solutions through strategy......Page 35
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 36
  Creating Satisfaction within Your Organization......Page 37
   Making your case for inbound marketing......Page 39
   Benefits of introducing inbound into your organization......Page 40
   Gathering support for the change......Page 41
   Understanding the negative consequences of not changing at all......Page 42
   Presenting your case for inbound......Page 43
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 44
 Chapter 3 Diagnosing Your Current Inbound Marketing Performance......Page 45
  Understanding Why You Should Perform an Inbound Assessment......Page 46
  Knowing What to Assess......Page 47
   Asking the right questions......Page 48
   Distinguishing between a website grader assessment and an IMA......Page 49
   Using a website grader......Page 51
   The components of a basic inbound assessment......Page 52
   The components of a comprehensive inbound assessment......Page 54
  Determining Who Should Perform Your Inbound Assessment......Page 57
   Self‐diagnosing......Page 58
   Using online tools for self‐diagnosis......Page 59
   The benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing IMAs......Page 60
   Outsourcing your assessment......Page 61
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 62
 Chapter 4 Prescribing Strategic Inbound Marketing Solutions......Page 63
   Starting with a Strategic Inbound Plan......Page 64
   Understanding the benefits of a strategic inbound plan......Page 66
   Setting goals and objectives based on your baseline assessment......Page 67
   Developing your attraction and conversion plan......Page 69
   Formulating your opportunity analysis......Page 70
   Creating content strategy......Page 71
   Using your assessment to prioritize initiatives......Page 72
   Identifying tactical tools to activate success......Page 73
   Remapping success along the way......Page 76
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 78
 Chapter 5 Applying Inbound Solutions: Executing Your Plan......Page 79
  Developing Your Inbound Timeline......Page 80
  Creating a Shared Strategic Blueprint (SSB)......Page 81
  Delegating Ownership of the Work......Page 83
   Outsourcing execution......Page 84
  Establishing Your Inbound Metrics and Milestones......Page 85
   Sharing your analytics......Page 86
   Reporting your results......Page 87
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 88
Part II The Art and Science of Consumer Connections......Page 89
  In the Beginning: Lewis’s Purchase Funnel......Page 91
   Understanding the Leaky Funnel......Page 94
  Evolving into the Future: The Lifestyle Loop......Page 95
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 100
 Chapter 7 Discovering Customer Needs with Keywords......Page 101
   Discovering customer needs: The early years......Page 102
   Discovering customer needs today......Page 103
  Understanding Keyword Research for the Inbound Marketer......Page 104
   Interpreting keywords as stated needs......Page 105
   Understanding implied keyword meanings......Page 106
   Determining which keywords to target......Page 107
   Researching and choosing target keywords......Page 108
   Using other tools to research keywords......Page 112
   All these keywords. What now?......Page 114
   Branded search vs. non‐branded search......Page 115
   Assigning keywords to product pyramids......Page 116
   Segmenting keywords in the Lifestyle Loop/Buyer’s Journey......Page 117
   Matching persona action paths with keywords......Page 118
   Categorizing keywords for search engine optimization(SEO)......Page 119
   Categorizing keywords by device......Page 121
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 122
  Creating Meaningful Connections......Page 123
  Remembering the original 4 P’s of Marketing......Page 124
   Product......Page 125
   Place......Page 126
   Promotion......Page 127
  Introducing the New 4 P’s of Inbound Marketing......Page 128
   Profile/persona......Page 129
   Place in purchase cycle......Page 130
   Purchase path......Page 131
  Closing Communication Gaps......Page 132
   Search engine optimization(SEO)......Page 133
   Paid search......Page 134
   Email remarketing......Page 135
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 136
Part III Building a Customer Conversion Machine......Page 137
 Chapter 9 Building Your Conversion Machine......Page 139
  What’s a Conversion Machine?......Page 140
   Connecting your internal parts......Page 141
   Building your conversion chain links......Page 142
  Fueling Consumer Connections with Content......Page 143
  Achieving Unusually High Performance (Success)!......Page 144
  Testing Your Attraction and Conversion Points......Page 145
   Tweaking your conversion points......Page 146
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 147
  Making Your Website Attractive......Page 149
   Creating a great user experience (UX)......Page 150
   Designing a pleasant onsite brand presence......Page 151
  Choosing Your CMS......Page 152
  Involving Your Developer with Your Marketing Efforts......Page 153
  Gaining Access to Your Website......Page 154
  Building Your Website on Conversion Architecture......Page 155
   Blueprinting with your Call‐to‐Action Map......Page 156
   Understanding information pages......Page 157
   Understanding conversion pages......Page 158
   Validating the visitor’s position......Page 159
  Creating Your Website Content......Page 160
   Building your blog......Page 161
   Hooking up Google Analytics......Page 162
   Customer service add‐ons......Page 163
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 164
  Building a Call‐to‐Action Map......Page 165
   Building navigation pages......Page 167
   Building information pages......Page 169
   Building conversion pages......Page 171
  Using Your CTA Map as Part of Your Site Map......Page 174
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 176
Part IV Fueling Visitor Needs with Content Marketing......Page 177
  Why Content Is King, Queen, Jack, and Your Ace in the Hole......Page 179
   Knowing your content......Page 180
  Making Purposeful Content Connections......Page 181
  Introducing the 4 E’s of Content Marketing......Page 184
   Creating content that engages shoppers......Page 186
   Creating content that encourages an action......Page 187
   Creating content that embraces repeat customers......Page 188
   E‐books......Page 189
   Whitepapers......Page 190
   Videos......Page 191
   Webinars......Page 192
   Infographics......Page 193
  Fueling Offsite Engagement with Premium Content......Page 194
  Improving Your Content......Page 195
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 196
  Connecting the Dots to Provide Conversion Flow......Page 197
  Creating Connective Campaigns......Page 198
   Knowing what an inbound campaign looks like......Page 199
   Establishing campaign objectives......Page 200
   Designing your inbound‐marketing campaigns......Page 201
   Understanding the campaign build process......Page 202
  Building Your First Campaign......Page 204
   Creating new content for your campaigns......Page 205
   Overlaying content for inbound campaigns......Page 206
   Matching content form with function......Page 210
   Creating a frictionless consumer campaign path......Page 212
   Measuring and replicating campaign success......Page 213
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 215
  Going Beyond the Traditional Blog......Page 217
  Creating Your Blog......Page 218
   Building your blog......Page 219
   Knowing what to post......Page 223
   Creating offsite visibility......Page 226
   Vlogging with video content......Page 227
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 228
Part V Attracting Visitors to Your Website......Page 229
  Improving Your Organic Traffic......Page 231
   Looking at SERPs......Page 232
   Knowing organic page rank factors......Page 234
   Using your keywords......Page 236
   Optimizing technical SEO......Page 237
   Going mobile......Page 239
   Ranking locally......Page 240
   Optimizing content......Page 242
   Building links......Page 244
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 246
 Chapter 16 Attracting Visitors with Paid Search......Page 247
   Using paid media for attraction......Page 248
   Learning paid search metrics......Page 249
  Knowing Your Paid Search Channels......Page 252
   Setting up campaigns in Google and Bing/Yahoo!......Page 253
   Organizing your paid search campaigns......Page 254
   Creating great PPC ads......Page 255
   Using paid search on social platforms......Page 257
   Paid display......Page 260
   Retargeting......Page 261
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 262
  Learning the Benefits of Social Media......Page 263
   Creating off‐site visibility......Page 265
  Matching Your Message with the Medium......Page 266
  Building a Following on Social Media......Page 267
  Segmenting Followers Based on Customer Conversion Path......Page 268
  Sharing Your Content on Social Media......Page 269
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 272
  Knowing Where to Start......Page 273
   Creating effective subject lines......Page 274
   Getting to the point......Page 276
   Empathizing with your personas’ needs......Page 277
  Emailing Individuals Instead of the Masses......Page 278
   Workflow emails......Page 279
  Creating an Email Workflow......Page 280
   Understanding recency and frequency......Page 281
   Building an email workflow series......Page 282
   Creating email workflow rules......Page 283
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 284
Part VI Understanding the Power of Conversion......Page 285
 Chapter 19 Knowing Your Conversion Types......Page 287
  Knowing Your Conversion Types......Page 288
   Calculating cost‐per‐click (CPC)......Page 290
   Figuring cost‐per‐lead (CPL)......Page 291
   Scoring leads to create SQLs......Page 292
   Calculating budget and ROI......Page 293
  Collecting Customer Data......Page 294
  Implementing Lead Scoring......Page 295
  Organizing Your Data for Future Conversions......Page 296
   Respecting your relationships......Page 297
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 298
 Chapter 20 Increasing Website Conversions......Page 299
  Applying the Customer Conversion Chain......Page 300
  Analyzing the Links in Your Customer Conversion Chain......Page 301
   Customer LTV......Page 302
   Demonstrated Interest......Page 304
   MQLs......Page 305
   Leads......Page 306
   Impressions......Page 307
  Everything Inbound Is Connected......Page 308
   Determining the value of your customer segments......Page 309
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 310
  Defining a Landing Page......Page 311
  Improving Your Conversion Success Rate with Landing Pages......Page 312
   Knowing the components of an effective landing page......Page 313
   Building a better landing page......Page 314
   Testing your landing pages......Page 318
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 320
Part VII Measuring Success with Analytics......Page 321
  Knowing Your Most Important Metric......Page 323
   Starting with Google Analytics......Page 324
   Learning the Google Analytics dashboard......Page 325
   Source report......Page 327
   Location report......Page 328
   Site speed......Page 329
   Mobile device report......Page 330
   Landing Page report......Page 331
  Custom Reports......Page 332
   Google Conversion Funnel......Page 333
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 334
  Gaining Insight from User Testing......Page 335
  Knowing Your Minimum Sample Size......Page 337
  Performing A/B Testing......Page 338
   Testing with click‐tracking......Page 340
   Testing with screencasting......Page 341
  Things You Can Do Now......Page 342
Part VIII The Part of Tens......Page 343
  Determining Whether Your Organization Is Open to Change......Page 345
  Discussing Internal and External Goals with Other Departments or Colleagues......Page 346
  Determining Budget of Time, Energy, and Money to Achieve Goals......Page 347
  Performing an Inbound Marketing Assessment......Page 349
  Assigning In‐House and Outsourced Inbound Marketing Responsibilities......Page 350
  Retooling or Rebuilding Your Website......Page 351
  Beginning Content Creation......Page 352
  Lifetime Value Of Your Customer (LTV)......Page 353
  First Action Value (Purchase)......Page 354
  Cost‐Per‐Acquisition......Page 355
  Presentation‐to‐Purchase Close Ratio......Page 356
  MQLs‐to‐SQLs Ratio......Page 357
  Contact‐Conversions‐to‐MQL Ratio......Page 358
  Unique‐Visitors‐to‐Lead Ratio......Page 359
  Buyer Purchase Path Sales Cycle Timeline......Page 360
Glossary......Page 361
Index......Page 367
EULA......Page 387