Business Basics

Part2 Profitable B2B Inbound Marketing Interview with Jason Durham

February 2, 2012 By Ryan

This post is a continuation of our interview with Jason Durham, Social Media Director for PacTec. You can read the first half of our interview with Jason here.

Now, back to the interview:

Ryan: Specifically, what inbound marketing techniques have you used at PacTec to attract leads and which of those have been most successful?

Jason: I am not really a proponent of techniques, or technologies, being more important than the “method to the madness”. I really am a firm believer that the first thing a company has to do is realize their assets. A company should look at the data they have, look at their current market, and develop a plan on how to merge those two together! It’s the strategy right?

That’s what you are killer at doing Ryan. When a company has a plan, it really doesn’t matter what technology they use, however, the right tools makes the difference in the angle of the mountain they have to climb.

When a foundation has been laid on the why, who, and when, a company can discern the content they need to create in order to reach their market. It builds that whole trust thing.

At PacTec, we are the established industry leader in what we do. People know who we are and what we manufacture, and that was through many conjoined efforts company wide, including hardcore outbound marketing. The motivation to use inbound marketing was two fold:

Establish ourselves as the knowledge leaders of all things dealing with industry we do business with.
The second was, of course, lead generation.

The optimal technique for us was . . . blogging. Using blogging, landing pages and call-to-actions out the wazoo has been a sick mixture of success for us! We are averaging a ton of unique qualified leads, and the revenue to boot. I will say this though – our web presence has been such an influential part of our success. Most B2B sites are really nothing more than glorified brochures, right? How many companies will actually admit that? We did, and we changed that with a focused push to utilize call-to-actions.

We want the visitor to have every opportunity to get more information, or quote, from anywhere on the site, as well as giving them the ability to connect with us on the big bad daddy’s on the internet(s). You know, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Ryan: Blogs should be a BIG part of a B2B strategy, I agree, and your use of Calls to Action is great. They are all over. Let customers decide how they want to contact you. Make it easy for them in every step of the sales funnel.

What advice would you give B2B companies that haven’t fully committed to inbound marketing to get them off the fence?

Jason: Wow. Great question! I can share with you why we decided to get into the inbound marketing game, if that would be cool?

For us, we have always focused on being “ahead of the curve” of our competitors. I personally had been using social media for years, and started, on my own, to start using social media methods to push our company. I think the turning point for us, as well as many other B2B’s is this – traditional, or outbound, marketing costs were increasing, while the main cost for much of the startup of inbound marketing was sweat equity. It took over a year to convince management and sales of the validity of inbound marketing, but when revenue started to flow from qualified leads, their mindset changed!

I really am convinced that a company has to come to the realization, on their own, that we did. You can’t convince, or influence, someone who doesn’t first want to grow, change, or be successful.

Ryan: I hear ya. With Social Media and Inbound Marketing just coming on the scene, people are slow to change, slow to adopt. So we as marketers have to do what we can to help educate them and convert them to the new methods.

Now it’s your turn for your 5 minute pitch…why should someone connect with you for your consultation?

Jason: My five minute pitch is really not a pitch but it’s this . . . buy me a killer cup of coffee and let’s hang out and chew the fat. I know that may make no sense to some, but that really is social media. It’s connecting. It’s socializing. It’s community, right?

I love to talk shop. I love to talk marketing, and when it’s done right, it can help a company be successful. My passion is to see companies become successful in their efforts, and if I can help usher them to that, or even just help them figure out the maze of this crazy internet, man . . . that’s my thing!

So, I guess that’s not really a pitch, but rather a mission statement. I have been blessed with success, and love to share it. I get a buzz out of seeing someone realize that inbound marketing is doable, and that success is attainable, in spite of what they have always known as . . . what they have always done!

Ryan: One last thing…How can someone get in touch with you either on or offline?

Jason: Thanks man for letting me ramble, and I love to connect with people. Anyone can connect with me through these links:

Twitter: @jasondurham and @pactec

Web: www.pactecinc.com and www.jasonmdurham.com

Email: Jason@pactecinc.com and Jason@jasonmdurham.com

Our thanks goes out to Jason for his time for this interview.

If you’d like more info on how he can help you with B2B Inbound Marketing, check him out at the links above.

Filed Under: Blogging, Business Basics, Social Media Tagged With: B2B Marketing, Baton Rouge Social Media, blog, find customers, Inbound Marketing, Jason Durham, ROI, strategy

Secrets to Local Marketing Success with Google Places Part2

January 10, 2012 By Ryan

This is the second post in the Local Marketing Success with Google Places post series. Our blog focuses on helping Retailers and Restaurants in the Baton Rouge area understand how to use social and mobile marketing to increase business, but the information in this post applies to any business with a physical location.

If you missed the first half of this post, you can find it here.

Your Google Places Page

Now that we have your website optimized with internal/external links and meta data, and we have your other listing sites matching each other exactly, it is time to create your Google Places listing.

Go to Google.com/places/ and follow the prompts to complete your business listing.

Here are a couple of notes to follow to optimize your listing and get the most from your Google Place.

Fill Out Everything Completely – Don’t forget to include your Hours of Operation or Dog’s name if it asks for it. Google weighs complete listings higher on the set of search results than incomplete listings.

Use Keywords – Google will ask you for descriptions of your industry and business in general. Be sure that these descriptions include keywords about your company. Be specific. Don’t just be a graphic designer. Be a graphic designer that specializes in working with small businesses in the Baton Rouge area. Keywords are your Search Engine’s friend. Use them where you can.

Photos – Google LOVES multimedia. Photos are a great way to elevate your listing above the noise of other listings. Plus, people love them too. Add photos where you can and be sure to include those keywords in your photo descriptions. To give Google an extra added tickle, slide on over to Flickr.com and post your photos there too. Make sure to use keywords, and geo-tag them with your city/address.

Connect your YouTube videos – Got any on YouTube? Great! Connect them. If you chose to post them on a video sharing site that isn’t the second most search site in the world, that’s too bad. Google will only allow videos from YouTube. Go post them there.

Check Your Snail Mail, Seriously

Seriously. After you complete your business listing online, Google will send you a postcard in the actual United States Postal Service to the address you listed. This post card will have a confirmation number on it and a web address. Visit the web address and enter the confirmation. This tells Google that you weren’t kidding when you created your listing.

Offer Cool Stuff to Visitors

Now that you are all confirmed and stuff, Google allows you to offer coupons and stuff to your Google Places visitors. If you don’t have anything cool to offer, create a coupon to have free coffee with you to meet and greet new people.

Reviews – The Motherload

Nothing demonstrates to others that you know your stuff better than other people vouching for you. Encourage current and past customers to visit the review sites we mentioned earlier (especially Google) to write a review about your company. Send them an email with your request and with a direct link to your listing on a couple of sites. Give us a hand and write a quick review about our blog on our Place Listing. Click here

Google weighs quality reviews higher than crappy ones, so encourage reviewers to answer a series of questions in their review or to write as detailed as possible. Reviews like “The food was great.” aren’t going to cut it enough for Google to care.

Finally, Don’t Lie.

Don’t pay someone to write fake reviews. Don’t create a fake login and create them yourself. Enough said.

Offer Incentives

If you are still a little squirmy about asking people for reviews, offer a coupon or some other incentive. You could even offer to review their business in exchange. But if people like your company, they won’t mind leaving reviews.

Bacon Social Media helps companies like yours manage their online presence through sites like facebook, twitter, YouTube, and foursquare. We do this stuff every day. If you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line.

Help Us Out

Take a Couple of Seconds and Write a Review of our Blog on our Places Page! Click Here

Filed Under: Business Basics, How to Market a Restaurant, Social Media, Website Tips Tagged With: Baton Rouge Social Media, business basics, find customers, How to Market a Restaurant, strategy, tips

Two Quick Social Media Marketing Tips for the New Year

January 5, 2012 By Ryan

Welcome to 2012! Let’s start the year off with a couple of Social Media stats and predictions for 2012 as they relate to your Baton Rouge business and show how you can use the information to gain more customers in this new year.

The guys at Awareness, Inc. conducted a survey last year that reached more than 320 marketers from a range of industries and levels of marketing experience about Social Media and its challenges in 2012.

In this article we will highlight the points we feel are most important, and we will offer our own commentary so you can understand the relevance of how this information might also pertain to your company. As always, you can expect quick tips and action items from us to make your social media marketing more effective. Enjoy! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blogging, Business Basics, facebook, linkedin, Social Media, twitter, Website Tips Tagged With: Baton Rouge Marketing Firm, Baton Rouge Social Media, goals, ROI, strategy, tips

Secrets to Local Marketing Success with Google Places Part1

December 15, 2011 By Ryan

If you have a store front, a retail shop, or a restaurant, you should have a Google Places listing. If you’ve searched on Google’s Map for businesses in your area, you’ve seen Google Place listings as the set of results.

This article details the tips and tricks to get the most out of your Google Places listing, so your place can be found online. Hopefully, you are reading this BEFORE you add your business to Google Places, but if you’ve already added your place, keep reading for some nuggets of value to boost your place’s performance.

Other Business Listing Sites

This internet cafe takes advantage of the white space of their storefront.

Believe it or not, Google doesn’t totally trust you. They place trust in other websites, so your first priority before creating your Google Place listing is to visit OTHER listing sites and create your business listing there. Sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, Insider Pages, Sunshine Pages (for Louisiana folks), Yahoo Places, and the Yellow Pages all allow FREE listings of your business. You can also find paid business listing services that will do it for you for a small fee.

When listing on these sites, be sure to completely fill out each form. Enter your Hours of Operation (even if you don’t have any). Enter your company email address (even if you don’t usually give it out). THIS IS IMPORTANT: You must complete each listing in the exact same way. In other words, copy and paste is your friend. Don’t spell out “Street” in one listing and spell it “St.” in another because your hand got tired. Why is this so important? Google looks for exact matches between listing to verify the data is accurate. Don’t throw Google for a loop. Help them help you and make sure everything matches exactly.

Google also considers sites like the Chamber of Commerce, Association Membership listings, facebook places, and foursquare. These sites are considered to be highly trustworthy, so visit each site directly to confirm your listing matches exactly to your listings on the sites mentioned earlier. If anything is incorrect, contact the site owner and follow the procedure they require to have your listing changed. It’s your info. Confirm that it is correct.

Your Website SEO

Meta Data is the data that each webpage holds about the page to make it easy for Search Engines to identify what’s on the page quickly. If your site was built by a web designer who understands the importance of Meta Data and how it relates to Search Engines, they would have requested that you provide information such as Keywords, Short Descriptions of your company (or of the information on each page), and webpage titles. Some designers prefer to create this information themselves.

To check your website pages’ meta data, visit your website, click the menu item “View” (in internet explorer), and choose “Source”. This will display the text that lives behind your webpage. Toward the top, you should see “META” tags. Look for Meta Keywords, Meta Title, and Meta Description. The information listed behind each of these tags should relate to the webpage you are viewing. To connect this back to Google Places, you will want to make sure that your city is listed somewhere in here. Google will bounce your website off of your Google Places listing to determine its relevance. You want it to be relevant.

Links from other websites (called backlinks) also help your Google Places listing to climb the list toward the top. You should have some sort of SEO work happening for your site already. Just make sure that the keywords you are using also have your City, State, Company Name, etc. to be relevant to your Google Places listing.

Internal links around your site are links from one page to another within your site. Having a link from your Contact Us page to your FAQ page is an example of a internal link. Be sure, just as with external links, that your internal links also have keywords pertaining to your address and business name in them as well. Google does not place as much weight on internal links as external links, but they don’t hurt you either.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 where we will discuss your actual Google Places listing. Now go create your “other than Google Places” listings.

Bacon Social Media focuses on helping business realize the value of marketing via online sites and channels. Let us help you get started today. Give us a call or send us an email.

Filed Under: Business Basics, How to Market a Restaurant, Website Tips Tagged With: Baton Rouge Social Media, business basics, How to Market a Restaurant, mobile marketing, strategy

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