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The business world changes quickly, the digital world even quicker. The problem is that very few business are really keeping up with the pace of change online and the rapid adoption of new media, device and applications by their customers.

The truth is that there are now very few industries unaffected by the web. Whole new business models are emerging daily that totally interrupt entire industries. If it hasn’t happened to you yet it will soon.

In 2012 the need to adapt will be more crucial than ever. Those that do will benefit and see their market share grow or uncover new markets. Those that don’t risk falling well behind or losing it all.

Here are the 9 things your business must do now:

1. Get serious about online

It seems amazing to be writing this in 2012, but there are still many business owners and marketers who don’t appreciate how much the internet is changing their industries. Most have “ticked the box” by slapping together a website but have since done little more.

Newsflash: your customers start their search for a product or service online (including mobile). They want the best information available immediately. If they can purchase or inquire online, they will. If they need to physically visit your location to do business with you then, 1. you better hope your competitors are in the same boat, 2. you must give them enough information online to ensure they make it to your fine establishment, or your competitors will.

Your bog-standard website won’t do the trick anymore. Unless you get really serious about online and make it central to your plans you can start considering new career options.

2. Get good at producing content

Potential customers aren’t looking for you, they’re looking for answers and solutions. They don’t Google “Acme Fasteners”, they search for “best fasteners in Smithtown” or “how to find the best fastener”.

Potential customers also trust the word-of-mouth effect of social media and are more likely to visit a site recommended to them by a “friend” online.

The key to all this is producing good content.

Good content offers solutions. It’s helpful and useful. Its not about your business, its about your customer’s potential needs. Good content gets shared online. It becomes popular. It tends to ranks higher in search results. It speaks to the customer.

You need to produce good content on your website on a regular basis. Static websites don’t deliver business.

3. Get social

Still think social networks are for kids and geeks? Think again. Social networking has become ubiquitous and increasingly seamless. The most exciting start-ups are around social networking ideas that are interrupting old business models.

People like to share good information. They like to share ideas and discoveries. They like to share information about themselves. Social networks have made it easier than ever to share information at the click of a button.

Facebook is closing in on 1 billion users. Google+ is only 6 months old and is on track to hit 100 users in February 2012. Twitter has an estimated 300+ million users. Then there is LinkedIn and numerous other networks.

At the very least you should enable sharing buttons (like the ones at the top of this post) on your website so that visitors can easily share that great content you are hopefully producing. You don’t even need to be a member of these networks but you should be catering to those visitors who are.

To really get social you need to set up accounts and dedicated pages for your business with the Big Four: Facebook, Twitter. LinkedIn and Google+. Then you have to work those accounts. There’s no escaping this, it has to be done.

The upside of getting social are significant. The downside of not getting social is also significant, but more painful.

4. Get optimised

Being found online in search engines is not just a luxury, its a necessity in 2012. At a time when 97% of people begin their online search for a product or service using a search engine its incredible that 87% of business websites are poorly optimised for search. You need to immediately start optimising multiple pages of your website for important industry search terms; the more they address needs and solutions the better (see Get Content). This is one action could make the biggest difference to your business and give you a significant advantage over your competitors.

Test your website’s optimisation here.

5. Get data

Never in history has more customer data been more freely available. A clever online strategy can tell you so much about your market, your customer needs, your customers habits and your potential customer’s details. Website analytics, social media analytics, conversion forms and more can all work in unison to help you improve the marketing accuracy of your business. Simple conversion forms on your website can help you build a sizable and relevant database.

6. Get converted

Attracting traffic to your website is nice, but converting that traffic into fans, inquiries and sales is even nicer. PDF downloads, newsletter subscriptions, inquiry forms, free trials….these can all work to help turn visitors into customers. But it only happens if you provide the right call-to-action. What are you doing to convert your traffic?

7. Get mobile

The smart phone is ubiquitous. The tablet is fast replacing the laptop as the casual computing device. We are now less tethered to a desk and more mobile than ever whilst remaining totally “connected” online. Mobile is expected to account for over 20% of all searches in 2012 and it’ll continue to grow from there.

Then we have social networking which fits so neatly hand-in-glove with mobile devices.

The bottom line is that you have to pay serious consideration to how you business will compete with the growth of the mobile consumer. Is your website mobile friendly? Should you build apps? Is there a particular aspect of you business that is more suited to mobile that you can build upon?

8. Get inbound

All of these above points add up to an Inbound Marketing strategy. Inbound is about attracting visitors and converting them to customers rather than the old advertising approach of blasting everyone with the hope of hitting some potentially interested buyers. Inbound leads to higher conversion rates and better use of your marketing budget. The more you think “inbound”, the more you will be acting like a modern web marketer.

9. Get dedicated

Smart, modern online marketing isn’t a set and forget exercise. Its not something to give to the junior to take care of “because they use Facebook”. Your online strategy requires a dedicated approach and dedicated resources. We have been increasingly helping our clients recruit and train marketers who are working full-time on online marketing strategies. There’s a lot to look after: numerous social networks, generating great content, tracking conversion and implementing mobile solutions.

The businesses who decide dedicate adequate resources to online are those who will prosper.

Rosie's School of Rock

Earlier this year we launched the new website for Rosie’s School of Rock. This was a fun site to work on because Craig “Rosie” Rosevear has so much energy and passion and its great to be involved in a site that looks as rock n roll as the people it represents.

I was talking to Rosie yesterday and he said he’s had a fantastic response to the website since launch and its driving a lot of new business for them.

He’s been working on adding plenty of interesting content and following our inbound marketing advice. And its working very well.

Anyway, if you have a child (or inner-child) looking for:

Music lessons in Newcastle

Guitar lessons in Newcastle

Piano lessons in Newcastle

Singing lessons in Newcastle

Drum lessons in Newcastle

The Rosie’s School of Rock is THE place to go. The kids have an absolute ball and get to experience performing in front of large crowds as mini rock stars.

Well done Rosie.

9 steps to inbound marketing success

Tired of achieving poor results from your traditional marketing approach? Worried that your sales and marketing efforts are not cost effective? Then it’s time to look at inbound marketing.

Traditionally businesses have relied on broadcast style marketing and advertising to create awareness of their existence and offerings. Broadcast marketing, such as television, radio, press, billboards and Yellow Pages, is like using a shotgun. You aim it roughly in the right direction (ie. general target demographic), pull the trigger and hope that you hit the right audience. Of course, you’re also paying to hit some unwilling bystanders (non-target demographic) but that’s unavoidable. You then trust that the people you have hit will react to your efforts.

Inbound marketing turns this approach upside down. It involves discovering where potential customers are searching, positioning yourself correctly so they’ll find you and letting them discover whether you have what they are looking for. Successful inbound marketing can turn your website into a customer magnet, drawing motivated prospects towards your business.

Here are the 9 steps we use at Sticky for a successful inbound marketing plan:

1. Create content
Content is central to any good social media plan. You don’t attract traffic, comments, support or donations if you don’t have information or content as the lure.

Original content is material you might create in-house. It could be a news story, information piece, blog post, video or images. It doesn’t have to be lengthy material, in most cases shorter is better. But it does need to be regular material.

2. Post content
Your website should be the main location for posting content. Regular content drives regular traffic to that site. It creates return habits and subscriptions.

3. Optimise content
Every piece of content is another potential search result on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Optimizing each post, news item, image or video provides you with another opportunity to be found in relevant searches. By optimizing all your content for your target keywords you can substantially increase traffic.

4. Promote content
Once content is published and optimised on your chosen site, its time to promote it to your social networks. Word your message carefully. Use strong descriptions, emotive language and ask for action. The right wording can drive very strong responses. If you get a poor initial response, review the wording and try again.

5. Enable social sharing
Its crucial to make it as easy as possible for viewers to share your content with their followers and friends. Embed Twitter ReTweet and Facebook Share buttons on each post on the website. Consider other social network share options at the bottom of each post on your website (there are dozens of them) to make it easy for people to spread to their favourite networks.

6. Ask for action
If you don’t ask, you rarely receive. Depending on the nature of the content you are promoting you could ask for comments, feedback, to sign-up as supporters, to share your information or even (drum roll please) to purchase.

7. Monitor traffic and comments
Once content has been published and promoted  you must ensure that you follow the ensuing activity, especially in the initial period when traffic will be highest. This is the time to engage with your audience and build the relationships.

8. Study results
Study the analytics of all your sites and social networks to see what works and what doesn’t. This will help inform future efforts. Your online efforts must have goals and these results are the way you measure them.

9. Repeat process
The most important thing is to be consistent and have a long-term view. Good inbound marketing has a cumulative effect and requires regular attention. Repeat these steps frequently.

There you have it, the Sticky Inbound Marketing Plan. We have found it the most effective way to create meaningful traffic, inquiries and business, and are confident you can too.

We have speculated for a while now that Google and Bing were starting to give more weight to Twitter and Facebook links as they move towards providing the most relevant and real-time search results. In fact, at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco last November the Bing team acknowledged that social signals were becoming increasingly influential.

Now this is being confirmed officially by Google and Bing. Leading search engine blog Search Engine Land conducted an interview with Bing and Google recently to discuss how social signals are being measured. This is fantastic news for inbound marketing.

Here is an excerpt:

1) If an article is retweeted or referenced much in Twitter, do you count that as a signal outside of finding any non-nofollowed links that may naturally result from it?

Bing: We do look at the social authority of a user. We look at how many people you follow, how many follow you, and this can add a little weight to a listing in regular search results. It carries much more weight in Bing Social Search, where tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top when best match relevancy is used.

Google: Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and news rankings. We also use it to enhance our news universal by marking how many people shared an article.

2) Do you try to calculate the authority of someone who tweets that might be assigned to their Twitter page. Do you try to “know,” if you will, who they are?

Bing: Yes. We do calculate the authority of someone who tweets. For known public figures or publishers, we do associate them with who they are. (For example, query for Danny Sullivan)

Google: Yes we do compute and use author quality. We don’t know who anyone is in real life

3) Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending on the person who tweets it?

Bing: Yes.

Google: Yes we do use this as a signal, especially in the “Top links” section [of Google Realtime Search]. Author authority is independent of PageRank, but it is currently only used in limited situations in ordinary web search.

4) Do you track links shared within Facebook, either through personal walls or fan pages?

Bing: Yes. We look at links shared that are marked as “Everyone,” and links shared from Facebook fan pages.

Google: We treat links shared on Facebook fan pages the same as we treat tweeted links. We have no personal wall data from Facebook.

5) Do you try to calculate the authority of someone on Facebook, either say via their personal wall or their fan page.

Bing: We don’t do this on Facebook. On Facebook, we only get what’s public, only updates and things you’ve posted to everyone as viewable. We don’t get things only shared with friends, so we don’t know how authoritative you are on Facebook. There isn’t the whole convenient retweet mechanism we see on Twitter.

We do see valuable content shared by Facebook users, even though we only get what’s public.  For example when Gary Coleman died we saw a  video from Different Strokes, saying his favorite line “what ya talk’in ’bout Willis” gain popularity.  It happened to be what a lot of people are sharing on the day he passed away.

Google: Again, the treatment is the same as for Twitter. And we have no personal wall data from Facebook.

6) Do you calculate whether a link should carry more weight depending on the person who shared it on Facebook?

Bing: We can tell if something is of quality on Facbook by leveraging Twitter. If the same link is shared in both places, it’s more likely to be legitimate.

Google: Same as question 5.

7) And just to be really clear, the new Facebook data is not yet being used in ordinary web search, right? (asked only of Bing, because it was only relevant to them)

No.

end of interview.

The point here for business is that you now have yet another reason to start getting active with social media. The web is becoming increasingly “social” and buzz and engagement are becoming valuable metrics. Not only can you drive traffic to your site from Twitter and Facebook, you can increase Google traffic to your site by using Twitter and Facebook.

So what are you waiting for? Do an audit of your social media presence and develop a sound plan to make Twitter and Facebook an integral part of your future marketing.

Every industry has it’s pioneers, the original thinkers who question old-school practices and successfully strike out in a new direction. In the music industry one of those pioneers is the band Radiohead, not just for their music but for their business practices.

Radiohead are fantastic inbound marketers. Sure, they rose to fame during the 90′s under a traditional record label model, but in the last decade they have thrown out the rule book and redefined music distribution.

In 2007 the band announced they were releasing their next album, In Rainbows, online via their website. The stunning news in this was that we could name our own price to download the new songs. Many took the songs for nothing but reportedly the average purchase was around AUD$10.

The concept created massive world-wide interest and coverage and ensured that the music was in global circulation overnight. The band also packaged up a CD and vinyl offering which could be ordered online for a set price or later found in traditional record stores.

A few months later the band released a new single and invited fans to mash-up the song themselves.

Last weekend Radiohead did it again, launching their new album King of Limbs online via their website. This time there was a set price, only AUD$9.60 (coincidence?) for the MP3 download, with a higher priced package including vinyl record and artwork that could be pre-ordered for May delivery.

The pre-order concept is brilliant. The band will likely generate millions of dollars in sales prior to pressing and releasing the packages in a few months, minimising stock wastage and maximising profits.

But how does this apply to your business? Many will argue that Radiohead are a very famous band with enormous following, so its easy for them to do, but I believe this applies to most businesses large or small.

Firstly, Radiohead have been longtime users of modern web technology. They have had innovative websites for a long time now. Crucially, they keep fans up-to-date with a steady stream of information. Their main site is a blog of comments, observations and information to engage visitors and promote discussion. They use video, images, off-the-wall banter, message walls and social media. The site is an open dialogue with their fans (customers).

Secondly,they use permission marketing effectively. If you have purchased or signed up via the Radiohead site in the past you are on their database. As a result you receive important information such as new album release or tour dates first. But the band doesn’t over-use the privilege of having your details, email updates are rare but very effective.

Thirdly, Radiohead understand the need to convert traffic to transaction efficiently. In just a few clicks you are able to buy /pre- order the album. This can be done from the post they used to announce the new offering, from a button in the navigation or the email you receive announcing the release. It’s quick, easy and efficient. Radiohead know that frustration equals lost sales.

Finally, this is a band who love to surprise and delight. After announcing the album would be available for download from Saturday, they decided to release it a day earlier to the delight of millions of fans. Smart.

Bands just starting out could build an audience and distribution network by following Radiohead’s lead. Its really the future of the music industry.

But business owners can also do the same. Post plenty of useful information, build a subscriber list of interested people and offer goods and services online through efficient e-commerce models. Taking control of your inbound marketing is the future of your business.

~

Here at Sticky, we love Radiohead almost as much as we love effective inbound marketing. If you’d like to learn more about how your business could benefit from a professional inbound marketing strategy, contact us…we might have King of Limbs playing in the background.

Social media (in isolation) is not the answer

Social media is not the answer

Nor is SEO

Or SEM

Or a new website.

In fact when it comes to marketing online no one thing is the answer. Just like offline.

A TV campaign won’t turn your company’s fortunes around, nor will a full page ad in the paper, or 30 x 30sec on the local radio station. You might get a short term spike, but none of these in isolation is the long term solution to better marketing and sales.

The truth is that marketing needs to be genuine and holistic.

Social media can be PART of the answer, so can SEO and SEM. A new website (or a better one) can be PART of your overall marketing plan for better communication with your potential customers.

It’s not realistic to rely on one tactic to deliver the sales and inquiries you need, but it is realistic to implement a holistic strategy incorporating a series of tactics that are aligned for your desired outcome.

That’s exactly how professional inbound marketing works and why we love it so much.

A well-designed, regularly updated website complemented by targeted SEO, and maybe some SEM, can work wonders. Add social media to the mix and suddenly your audience can grow exponentially providing you with the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with a wider community (potential prospects). Complete the loop with thorough Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) and you can turn traffic into genuine inquiries and sales.

That’s a holistic online marketing plan. That’s inbound marketing. THAT might be the answer you’re looking for.

In 2011 there are more reasons than ever to create an effective inbound marketing plan for your business.

The rapid pace of change in media consumption habits and technology means that Outbound marketing, where you spend money trying to interrupt your potential customers with your message, is becoming less effective, and Inbound marketing, where your potential customers find you online, is increasingly relevant.

Inbound Marketing is like using a magnet for customers

Inbound marketing combines search engine friendly content with social media and traffic conversion strategies to deliver qualified inquiries and sales.

Here are 6 new reasons for you to adopt inbound marketing in 2011.

1. Blogging has become an accepted way for businesses to communicate with their customers

Blogging is one of a variety of options businesses use to communicate with customers, including social networking, microblogging, photo- and video-sharing, and customer reviews.

At the same time, the growing use of blogging by media organizations and marketers has raised the comfort level with blogs as a news source, as a means of interacting with companies, and as a forum for customer reviews and opinions. These trends have empowered people to use the blogosphere to reach the widest possible audience

• The rates of blog reading will rise appreciably over the next several years.

• The numbers of blog creators will also increase, albeit more modestly.

• Social media will also promote blogging by acting as a traffic aggregator to blog sites

2. Mobile is booming and you need to be found there.

The advent of smartphones has placed a mini computer in the palm of our hands. Its anticipated that the smartphone will out-ship the PC within two years. The result is that customers will be searching and networking on the move, not tethered to their desks. It also means that how customers find what they need will continue to change and increasingly that will be through social media, mobile search and geo-location services.

3. Broadcast media will continue to fragment making large audiences harder to reach

Advertising is becoming more complicated by the day. Only last year in Australia there were just 5 free to air television network….3 of which were commercial. As 2010 ends there are 15 free-to-air stations with a few more on the way in 2011. There are also a range of new digital radio stations to choose from.

4. 90% of Australians research purchases online then buy offline (according to Australia’s online leading Pre-Shop portal, Lasoo.com.au)

This presents a major problem for any business that isn’t engaging with customers online.

5. Online search is still growing and becoming more relevant.

Bing estimate that one trillion searches went unanswered last year. They, like Google, are working hard to provide more relevant, contextual results and are incorporating  the power of social data with search results. This means it will be increasingly easier for customers to find what they want online and therefore conduct even more searches.

6. Australia spends more time on social media sites than any other country.

22% of all time spent online by Australians is on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and MySpace. It is a strong indicator that “social” has become a significant part of the web, providing insight into how information is being found and distributed.

If you’d like to attract relevant, motivated customers, lower your marketing overheads and have highly measurable result, then 2011 might be the perfect time to begin implementing an inbound marketing plan for your organisation.

Sticky assist leading organisations such as Australian Cancer Research Foundation, World Society Protection of Animals, Colliers International, Promax and Lake Macquarie City Council with inbound marketing solutions, and we can assist you too.

Yes, I’d like to know more about Inbound Marketing for my organisation
[contact-form]

The popular social networking, micro-blogging site Twitter is getting a revamp with the founders announcing the biggest overhaul of the site since it launched, and it includes a real bonus for inbound marketing.

The new Twitter has a lot of subtle improvements but probably the single biggest major improvement is the integration of videos and images in the tweet stream. By partnering with many major players such as TwitPic, Etsy, Flickr, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube, Twitter is enabling instant display of multimedia.

This is great news for inbound marketers and content generators and it will force many marketers to start producing content or be left behind.

Twitter is already an excellent extension of blogging, allowing marketers to reach large numbers of relevant people with their information. By including multimedia in the Twitter stream quality content is now one step closer to potential visitors.

Now, more than ever, its going to be crucial for marketers to create engaging multimedia to share on Twitter and the abovementioned sites.

The launch of Google Instant promises to be extremely beneficial for inbound marketing.

Google Instant is great for inbound marketing

Google recently announced the launch of Google Instant, a new interface that uses predictive technology to allow users to search as they type. Results appear in real-time as users type in their queries, adjusting with every new word or letter.

Google claim the benefits to be:

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

Several commentators claim that Instant will be the death of SEO, while Google executives and many others disagree.

One thing is certain though…..Google Instant is fantastic for inbound marketers.

The more intimate search interface will encourage users to use longer keyword phrases as they fine-tune their searches. This is perfect for inbound marketers who publish regular and relevant content addressing the needs of their prospective customers.

Google Instant will also decrease the need for users to click through to the 2nd and 3rd page of search results as the refined results will keep changing on Page One.

And this is why proper search engine optimisation will still be crucial and why SEO is an important part of the inbound marketing equation. Every post and and every page of your site has the potential to be found on the first page of search. The more content you publish, the more search opportunities you will have.

However content alone isn’t enough. It has to be optimised properly for search too. We still maintain that you need to look at the Code, Content and Connections for thorough SEO, otherwise Google won’t be sending you the traffic you deserve.

Google Instant is probably bad news for the traditional SEO’s who rely mainly on link-building for one or two pages and broad search terms.

Relevance is in. User engagement is in. Quality content is in. These should all result in a more satisfying experience for users and therefore even more reliance on search.

These are perfect conditions for inbound marketing.

Find our how inbound marketing turns websites into customer magnets

Blogging is an important part of Inbound Marketing

Forget the standard web template approach that most businesses employ, if your organisation wants to generate meaningful, engaged visitors then you should incorporate a blog into your website. Its a significant element of our Inbound Marketing philosophy.

Most corporate websites look fairly similar. There’s been a group-think mentality that your site should all be contained in the one screen, with content not falling “below the fold”. You see the same logo position, same navigation and the same bland corporate information.

What you don’t often see is regularly updated information that is both helpful and relevant to your target audience.

That’s where a blog can become extremely valuable to your organisation. Here are 6 reasons why one should be incorporated into your web presence.

1. A blog keeps your visitors interested. The more regularly you update your website with quality information, the more likely visitors are to return. Otherwise they can just visit once and then move on, quickly forgetting about you.

2. Visitors can actually show loyalty to a website by subscribing to your RSS feed or updates by email. The more interesting and helpful your information is, the more likely it is you will grow a base of subscribers. These regularly engaged visitors can be an extremely valuable asset and are obviously more likely to become customers over time.

3. A blog post is more likely to be shared or passed onto others than a normal web page. If you are generating useful content and have included social media sharing devices such as a Facebook “Share” button, a Twitter “ReTweet” button or a Digg prompt, there is a good chance visitors will share your information with others. This immediately broadens your audience and can boost your traffic. your audience can become your distribution network. Even if your organisation is not heavily engaged in Social Media it can benefit from those who are.

4. Search engines love blogs. Every blog post is another piece of content for Google, Bing and Yahoo etc to index, and its another potential slot in the search results that can deliver more traffic to your website. In fact, Google’s latest algorithm changes seem to be favouring fresh, relevant content so if your website is sitting there unchanged month after month you are likely to be overtaken by your competitors who are posting regularly. Even if you don’t have a sophisticated SEO strategy, simply posting regular content will go a long way to building your online success.

5. Most websites are limited by the design and pages in the websites they launch. Once the initial content has been uploaded the site is left to age. New content means design hassles, additional expense and problems. But if you built your site with a blog mentality the limitations are removed. You can add as much new information as you desire. In fact, the blog demands your attention and will keep your organisation more focused on driving your site onto bigger and better things.

6. Blogging is thinking. The discipline of blogging about your industry and organisationand creating new content can lead to great insight. It forces you to constantly consider why your organisation exists and how it can benefit others. Sometimes that “light bulb” moment can come whilst writing a thoughtful blog post.

We urge most organisations to add a blog to their online presence and have seen wonderful results from those who have embraced it. So move away from the old-fashioned corporate web templates and incorporate a more dynamic approach to your website.

For another take on how to blog successfully, watch this great presentation by Jason Fried called Marketing by Sharing