Web Marketing That Works

Confessions from the Marketing Trenches

Adam Franklin, Toby Jenkins

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780730309307
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Sales
• Index: Business

Practical tips on using the web to boost your business, no matter what business you're in

Everyone in business knows they need to embrace the web, but not everyone knows how to do it or where to start. No matter what industry you're in, the web offers efficiencies and solutions for sales, marketing and customer service, and many other business functions. For businesspeople, small business owners, and marketers, Web Marketing That Works offers proven tactics, road-tested by the authors, and easy-to-use templates for boosting your Google search rankings, using social media to build relationships, developing an effective online marketing strategy, mastering the art of inbound marketing, and much more.

• Features insider advice and proven tactics for small business owners and marketers who want to tap into the power of the web
• Covers web strategy, execution, content marketing, and social media
• Includes 33 free, downloadable templates
• Written by the founders of Bluewire Media, one of Australia's top web marketing firms

Every business, large or small, can benefit from the web. If you're not already using the web to boost your business, you're falling behind the competition. Web Marketing That Works shows you how to get ahead—starting right now.

Part I

How it all works

Chapter 1

Your web universe: content, web and inbound marketing

However beautiful the strategy you should occasionally look at results.

Winston Churchill

We were sitting in a bar in North Sydney — it was the only place open after a long day and it was coffees all round. Beer wasn't on the agenda, marketing was.

‘Here's our situation. We've reviewed our marketing budget and realised that we are spending $6000 per month on advertising. This is bringing in leads, no doubt. But, and here's the thing, we're gradually having to spend more and more to get the same results. It's like an addiction. It takes a little bit more each time to get the same kick, but if we turn off the tap, the leads dry up. We need to make a transition, to find another, more sustainable way to generate leads without leaving us high and dry. Our question is: Can you help?’

Our answer, of course, was ‘Yes’. After all, that's what this book is about — building a web marketing asset that will continue to deliver leads on autopilot without paying for ads each time.

But before we dive into the solution, let's have a quick look at a key difference between advertising and inbound marketing.

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Advertising depreciates fast.

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The value of a print ad diminishes almost instantly. You pay to place your ad in a newspaper or magazine or online and then hope people buy or enquire, or remember you long enough to do so later. After that ad runs, you may win a few customers, which is great, but by the next day the ad is fish-and-chip wrapper.

Because the value of the ad depreciates so quickly, you need another one immediately to replace it and start the cycle again. So you pay again to reach more people.

In stark contrast, web and inbound marketing presents an opportunity for your asset to appreciate, increasing in value over time.

Building a web marketing asset

In April 2013 Adam wrote a blog post titled ‘Marketing Experiments: Email content that gets clicked'. The post was live for six months before it was linked to by the popular Buffer blog (see the link at the end of this chapter). This drove a surge of qualified visitors to our own blog. One particular visitor arrived at our blog and read the article, which ended with an offer to download our free Web Strategy Planning Template. In doing so, he happily exchanged his name and email address and opted in to receive further communications from us. He received our Bluewire News emails for three months before enquiring to see how he could engage our services. He's approved our proposal and will become a client. All initiated from one blog post six months before.

One block at a time

On the web, you are able to build your marketing asset one block at a time. Start with your website, create a flagship piece of content you'll become known for, add a blog, an email newsletter, some guest blogging and social media, and you will gradually assemble the pieces of the puzzle to dominate your niche. As you publish great content and communicate with your audience, they will get to know, like and trust you. With trust, the right customers will gravitate to your organisation and will put their hand up to do business with you, just as in the story above. This is inbound marketing in action.

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Web marketing appreciates over time.

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That ‘Marketing Experiments' blog post Adam wrote six months ago is worth more now than when it went live. When first published it had no views, no backlinks, no comments and no social shares. As time passed, however, people read it and left insightful comments, which added value to the content. People shared it via social networks, and the more tweets and likes it generated, the more this ‘social proof' made it appealing to the next reader. And it was being shared with new networks. When some people found the blog post useful they linked to it from their blogs, which introduced a new wave of readers, and the backlink boosted the post in Google's rankings.

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Web marketing pays dividends too.

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This blog post continues to attract new readers, and a percentage of these readers take Adam up on his offer at the end of the post and download our flagship content. In exchange for this content download, they happily give him their name and email address. Having these new people opt-in to receive more content from us is where the real value lies. They can get to know, like and trust us, which is the only way your marketing will lead to customers and dollars.

As you build up your content, your web marketing asset will increase in value and pay dividends in the form of leads, customers and revenue. This will give you the confidence to turn off your advertising tap.

Your web universe from 20 000 feet

Let's take a look at how your web universe fits together (see figure 1.1, overleaf).

Figure 1.1: Web Strategy Planning Template

Your website sits right in the centre — it's the hub, where your commercial outcomes take place. Once people arrive at your website, they should be able to identify clearly the journey you would like to take them on. Visitors may choose to take various different paths that suit them, but you need to provide the overall roadmap for their journey. Eventually you want people to be purchasing from you and becoming your customers, but to reach this stage these prospective buyers first need to know, like and trust you.

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Pro Tip: Release a piece of flagship content.

The secret to web marketing that works is to release what we call ‘flagship' content. It needs to be useful, valuable and genuinely helpful. This will become the cornerstone of your web marketing, something you'll be known for and identified with.

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Elements of the web universe

Let's now review the main elements of the web marketer's world.

Trust

Trust is an old concept in marketing. It has always been an integral part of people doing business with people and it's just as important to online marketing. Your web strategy needs to be focused on growing trust with your community. It's about nurturing your customers from knowing you to liking you, to trusting you enough to buy from you when they are ready.

The pathway to increasing levels of trust follows four stages: download (where they get to know you), connect (where they get to like you), enquire (where they get to trust you) and purchase (once they trust you). The eventual commercial goal will be to drive revenue, so let's start with the purchase:

1 Purchase. People can buy your product or service — it might be tickets, donations, memberships and renewals, or subscriptions — and become your customers.

2 Enquire. Attracting enquiries is one of the primary outcomes of marketing. These might come via forms, phone calls, emails or applications.

3 Connect. You may want people to follow you on Twitter, become a fan ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword by David Meerman Scott
• About the authors
• Acknowledgements and thanks
• First and foremost: our story and why you need this book
• Bonus 33 free templates
• Part I: How it all works
• Part II: Strategy
• Part III: Building home base
• Part IV: Content creation
• Part V: Getting found
• Part VI: Social media
• Part VII: The future
• Index
• Learn more with practical advice from our experts