Category Archives: Inbound Marketing

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.

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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.

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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.