Inbound Marketing: The New Personal Development for Entrepreneurs

Inbound Marketing: The New Personal Development for Entrepreneurs

The late business philosopher Jim Rohn, famously said, “you get paid for the value you bring to the marketplace and not the time you spend in it”.  In other words, “make yourself more valuable to the marketplace” and you do that by working harder on improving yourself than you do working on the job”.  Working hard on the job is admirable; however, “working a job can make you a living but, working harder on yourself will make you a fortune”. “This is why personal development plays a vital role in your success as indicated by the fact, it is a lifelong process. It's a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realise and maximise their potential”.  In life you are on a timeline to accomplish certain goals and tasks; otherwise, you are guilty of a wasted life.  Clearly, nothing to be proud nor brag about.

As an entrepreneur/marketer you are constantly working on improving yourself to better your skills and abilities to attract new customers and more importantly, bring value to both them and the marketplace.  This is why Inbound Marketing is the logical extension of the process of becoming a better and improved marketer. Just as it says, “inbound marketing”, which refers to “marketing activities that bring visitors in rather than marketers having to go out to get prospect’s attention”.

So, you want to become a better and constantly improving marketer then, Inbound Marketing is the perfect solution for you.  Like anything in life success starts with identifying and correcting personal deficits and then, developing, implementing and executing the needed skills and/or abilities to overcome the challenges that lead to your placement as a dead dealer in the MLM Cemetery.  Clearly, you don’t get paid, if your marketing skills are as effective as watching paint dry.  Now, the Free Market determines the value you bring regardless of who you are and based more on what you have become.  In fact, being highly educated as indicated by having a PH.D., doesn't a gaurantee a high paying salary. Remember America and other Westernised nations are capitalists and payment is based on value and not necessarily on the number of certifications you achieved.  Yes, the P.H.D., in English and Bachelors in IT are both examples of education but, which one has greater potential for future business success?  Think like an investor and do your research to determine the best return on your time, money and other resources for your benefit and that of your customers.  This is what inbound marketing is about. 


Now, marketing is basically about promoting and selling the value of product and/or service to a desired target market.  So, different people have different personalities and an effective marketer must constantly master and improve his/her skill set to put money into his/her pocket.  When you think about master marketers like: Mark Victor Hansen, Cory Rudl, Frank Kern, Mary Kay Ash, Steve Jobs and many others, they all worked on themselves incessantly to become the perfect ambassador of their product/service.  It was clear the aforementioned entrepreneurs trusted no one else but, themselves to represent their product.  So, are you the best representative of your product/service? If yes, why and if not, why not?  Want as many eyeballs on your product/service then, earn the right to occupy your customer’s time.

Effective marketers are not one trick pony, today's customers are highly intelligent and have already researched the product/service they desire and closing the deal means being customer-centered.  Just, ask any lady of easy virtue (yeah, I mean a prostitute) because they are masters of inbound marketing and personal development when you consider the skill set needed to draw in customers who are willing to pay for what they perceive to be value.  Consider the fact, “inbound marketing earns the attention of customers, makes the company easy to be found and draws customers to the website by producing interesting content”.  Now, you heard of Bill Gate’s famous quote, Content is King; however, quality content is what sells because it provides a solution to a problem.  How much money will companies spend on content that solves a problem versus content that is interesting but, fails to stop the financial hemorrhaging of compnay funds?  Indeed, personal development is the seed for effective marketing; otherwise, like an outbound marketer who used old school methods (purchasing leads, safelists, buying ads, etc.,) will generate zero leads and income because the methodology is commensurate to a bloody telemarketer, who provides content that isn’t in alignment with the interest nor needs of their target market.  So, much for getting payed, being hired for future jobs and never-mind your professional reputation.

Time to transform your marketing and for today’s current successful marketers the trend began in 2006, when Inbound Marketing, became the proven method most effective for conducting business online.  “By aligning your content with your customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then, convert, close and delight”.  

Let’s examine the four actions needed to be successful in becoming a master of Inbound Marketing:

 Attract, it’s about traffic and the right kind of traffic that can be drawn to content that creates mutual benefit.
Convert, turning your potential customer into a lead is the goal and offering them something of value will be key to your success.
Close, the process of the sale being achieved in a mutually exclusive manner benefitting all parties involved.
Delight, it’s about being customer-centered regardless of the stage of your users because it’s about providing them quality content.
To better understand and visualize the complete Inbound Marketing methodology please examine Hubspot.

Content creation or more accurately, quality content is the gospel for effective online marketing because effective communication with today's customers requires engagement with quality not quantity.  If, you want success in this relatively new method marketing then, recognise that "poor thinking habits keep you poor" and you need to "stand guard at the door of your mind".

Lastly, the professionals who engage in creating quality content often share about their favoriate content marketing tools that make their task so much easier and I also, have taken the liberty of sharing that information with my fellow marketers as indicated by the following:

Ubersuggest, a keyword suggestion software program

Audacity, a free open source multilingual audio editor and recorder software program.

Zemanta, a content creation platform with multiple apps and tools for your blogging enjoyment

SocialMention, is social analysis platform that enables you to learn what others say about a company and it's brand

Social Search Engine Topsy, this tool indexes every keyword and phrase within the soscial web in real time

Canva, a free image editing priogram that makes manipulation and edting of your images easy

PicMonkey, another image editing program but easier and with more font features

Screen Capture By Google, there are a ton of screen capture tools out there, but I like the simplicity of Google’s Screen Capture plug-in for Chrome… possibly because I’m a Chrome junkie, so it’s always right there when I need it. You can capture selections, visible content, or the entire page and choose JPEG or PNG output.

Another tool I’ve used in the past that worked well is Jing, which allows you to markup your screenshots and also records to video. Snagit is a premium option from the same developers, with far greater capabilities and a pricetag of $49.95 (if you’re looking for a more versatile screen capture tool).

Vaurn James
Contributor

Your Business is Marketing and Not Sales: What… Impossible?

Your Business is Marketing and Not Sales: What… Impossible?

Sales is the highest paid and World’s Oldest Profession, contrary to popular opinion.  Any challenge is foolhardy because selling is the conclusion of any and all transactions between individuals involving product/services.  However, the conduit is really Marketing.  Now, what kind of IDIOCY is this being presented as Truth?  After all, isn’t all the about the Benjamins Lebowski, Cash is King and it's all about the lettuce; otherwise, why are you in business?  You don't want to be operating a Non-Profit Agency which 95% of marketers are actually operating which isn’t too encouraging.  So, what kind of marketing are you conducting and how effective is it?  It’s a critical question because different methods will yield different results at different times based on your audience’s interests.  Marketers and the industry have become more competitive and sophisticated due to increased demands by consumers.  In fact, to be effective they must function both like an economist and detective addressing what I call the W5s of a campaign (Who, What, When, Where & Why); otherwise, they will not see the pay-window.       

Now, before the core question can be answered let’s briefly examine the issue of Sales and its role in business.  Let’s look at a basic definition before we continue, “sales are sales, it’s converting any inquiry or lead into a contract or shipment”, while “marketing is not advertising.  Marketing is finding out what people want, why they want it and how much they’ll spend.  Don’t confuse marketing with advertising”.  Now, we got all the formalities out of the way, time to get to the real meat of this article.  Safe to say, sales are the final stage of the transaction but, why is the sale considered to be so important?  What was the process that motivated the buyer to complete the transaction?  There exist multiple stages involved between the start and finish and this is the sales process.  Basically, the sales process can be reduced to the following: Prospect, Connect, Research, Present and Close; however, a more in depth definition is best described by Mark Roberge at Hubspot.           

Well, it's hard to believe but, there exists an old term that holds TRUE and more importantly, an accurate measure of your ability to close a sale.  Have you heard the expression, “It’s all in the Presentation” or “you get once chance to make a first impression”?  Think about it, how do you make sales?  The process is SIMPLE (kind of); however, the execution often requires more skill to attain success.  Now, part of selling involves advertising, “promotion of a product, service or company. It features a strong call to action and promotes the benefits of that being advertised”.

The other component of the sales process involves connecting through various methods of communication featuring your product/service.  Let’s examine some of the methods of connection: e-zine marketing, email marketing, cold-calling, videos, live webcasts, blogs, banners, online ads, search engine marketing, social networking, podcasting, twitter and mobile content, all are established methods of online marketing designed to connect with a desired target market. Again, how do you make SALES with these different methods of connecting with the masses?  Putting your product/service in front of as many eyeballs as possible with the aforementioned methods.  Seems simple but, never forget about quality content.  Sales are made based on perceived value; therefore, the most effective way of converting a prospect into a long-term customer is by educating them, addressing their interests and demonstrating how a particular product/service can render a solution to a particular problem/challenge.  Think about it, no hard-sell nor the usual rubbish by fast-talking snake-oil salesmen.

Now, back to the important question of what kind of marketing are you executing (Freebie Marketing, Word of Mouth Marketing, Close Range Marketing, etc.,) and why? The essence of the question boils down to what is called customer segmentation or segmenting customers into smaller groups to better understand their wants, needs, interests and other factors so as to provide relevant content.   Makes sense and this is why Inbound Marketing increasingly has become the standard form of marketing.

Firstly, what is Inbound Marketing and how does it work?  “Inbound marketing refers to activities (blogs, podcasts, eBooks, SEO, physical products, newsletters, whitepapers, social medial marketing and other forms of content marketing) that bring visitors in, rather than marketers having to go out to get prospects' attention”.  “Inbound marketing earns the attention of customers”.  

One primary goals behind marketing is to develop a business relationship where TRUST is established and maintained for the long-term.... similar to Marriage (lol!!!!).  Like Marriage it's not 50/50 but, 100/100 but, you are responsible for your own actions within that relationship.
When you think about that bloody insane Institution called Marriage, it's a business involving two Individuals who both marketed and sold themselves to each other and the confirmation of the Sale was “Marriage” or as I affectionately say, “Tying the Old Noose...I mean Knot”.  Like any successful relationship TRUST is vital; otherwise, no consummation of the transaction.  All transactions (monetary, personal, etc.,) involve commerce and marketing is the conduit that facilitates the process. Well, allow me now to demonstrate the benefits of Inbound marketing.

6 Inbound Marketing Techniques Every Business Should Use

Give Away A Free Guide That’s Directly related To Your Business, what better resource can you create than a Guide that provides relevant information about the value and benefits provided by the product/services you make available to the masses.

Pick One or Two Keywords, And Optimise The Heck Out of Them, want leads and traffic then, the solution is to focus on a few keywords that are valuable, and create specific pages on your website that are for those keywords specifically.

Build Your Personal Brand, your business is a reflection of yourself, Entrepreneurs like Jayson DeMers, Joel Gascoigne, and Hiten Shah are examples of people building businesses by means of building their personal brand. If you start a business, it’s virtually impossible to separate yourself from that business. It only makes sense to use your personal brand to build that business. Many brands such as Tim Ferriss’s and Ramit Sethi’s depend almost exclusively on the power of their personal brand.

Ask and Answer Questions On Social Media, engage subscribers in social media sites and provide solutions, tips, suggestions to those who would benefit from your knowledge and expertise.  When you increase your presence and value online then, the benefits are soon to be received.

Create Am Email Pop, use the popups in your business to build the email list for obvious reasons.

Guest Blog, “Guest blogging is, indeed, one of the powerful ways of building strong, high-quality relationships that may help you in multiple ways, including developing business opportunities and professional connections, setting brand value and, of course, acquisition of link juice.” — Moosa Hemani, Moz


Vaurn James
Contributor

Inbound Marketing: The New Personal Development for Entrepreneurs

Inbound Marketing: The New Personal Development for Entrepreneurs




 The late business philosopher Jim Rohn, famously said, “you get paid for the value you bring to the marketplace and not the time you spend in it”.  In other words, “make yourself more valuable to the marketplace” and you do that by working harder on improving yourself than you do working on the job”.  Working hard on the job is admirable; however, “working a job can make you a living but, working harder on yourself will make you a fortune”. “This is why personal development plays a vital role in your success as indicated by the fact, it is a lifelong process. It's a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life and set goals in order to realise and maximise their potential”.  In life you are on a timeline to accomplish certain goals and tasks; otherwise, you are guilty of a wasted life.  Clearly, nothing to be proud nor brag about.

As an entrepreneur/marketer you are constantly working on improving yourself to better your skills and abilities to attract new customers and more importantly, bring value to both them and the marketplace.  This is why Inbound Marketing is the logical extension of the process of becoming a better and improved marketer. Just as it says, “inbound marketing”, which refers to “marketing activities that bring visitors in rather than marketers having to go out to get prospect’s attention”.
So, you want to become a better and constantly improving marketer then, Inbound Marketing is the perfect solution for you.  Like anything in life success starts with identifying and correcting personal deficits and then, developing, implementing and executing the needed skills and/or abilities to overcome the challenges that lead to your placement as a dead dealer in the MLM Cemetery.  Clearly, you don’t get paid, if your marketing skills are as effective as watching paint dry.  Now, the Free Market determines the value you bring regardless of who you are and based more on what you have become.  In fact, being highly educated as indicated by having a PH.D., doesn't a gaurantee a high paying salary. Remember America and other Westernised nations are capitalists and payment is based on value and not necessarily on the number of certifications you achieved.  Yes, the P.H.D., in English and Bachelors in IT are both examples of education but, which one has greater potential for future business success?  Think like an investor and do your research to determine the best return on your time, money and other resources for your benefit and that of your customers.  This is what inbound marketing is about. 

Now, marketing is basically about promoting and selling the value of product and/or service to a desired target market.  So, different people have different personalities and an effective marketer must constantly master and improve his/her skill set to put money into his/her pocket.  When you think about master marketers like: Mark Victor Hansen, Cory Rudl, Frank Kern, Mary Kay Ash, Steve Jobs and many others, they all worked on themselves incessantly to become the perfect ambassador of their product/service.  It was clear the aforementioned entrepreneurs trusted no one else but, themselves to represent their product.  So, are you the best representative of your product/service? If yes, why and if not, why not?  Want as many eyeballs on your product/service then, earn the right to occupy your customer’s time.

Effective marketers are not one trick pony, today's customers are highly intelligent and have already researched the product/service they desire and closing the deal means being customer-centered.  Just, ask any lady of easy virtue (yeah, I mean a prostitute) because they are masters of inbound marketing and personal development when you consider the skill set needed to draw in customers who are willing to pay for what they perceive to be value.  Consider the fact, “inbound marketing earns the attention of customers, makes the company easy to be found and draws customers to the website by producing interesting content”.  Now, you heard of Bill Gate’s famous quote, Content is King; however, quality content is what sells because it provides a solution to a problem.  How much money will companies spend on content that solves a problem versus content that is interesting but, fails to stop the financial hemorrhaging of compnay funds?  Indeed, personal development is the seed for effective marketing; otherwise, like an outbound marketer who used old school methods (purchasing leads, safelists, buying ads, etc.,) will generate zero leads and income because the methodology is commensurate to a bloody telemarketer, who provides content that isn’t in alignment with the interest nor needs of their target market.  So, much for getting payed, being hired for future jobs and never-mind your professional reputation.

Time to transform your marketing and for today’s current successful marketers the trend began in 2006, when Inbound Marketing, became the proven method most effective for conducting business online.  “By aligning your content with your customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then, convert, close and delight”.  


Let’s examine the four actions needed to be successful in becoming a master of Inbound Marketing:

Attract, it’s about traffic and the right kind of traffic that can be drawn to content that creates mutual benefit.

Convert, turning your potential customer into a lead is the goal and offering them something of value will be key to your success.

Close, the process of the sale being achieved in a mutually exclusive manner benefitting all parties involved.

Delight, it’s about being customer-centered regardless of the stage of your users because it’s about providing them quality content.
To better understand and visualize the complete Inbound Marketing methodology please examine Hubspot.

Content creation or more accurately, quality content is the gospel for effective online marketing because effective communication with today's customers requires engagement with quality not quantity.  If, you want success in this relatively new method marketing then, recognise that "poor thinking habits keep you poor" and you need to "stand guard at the door of your mind".
Lastly, the professionals who engage in creating quality content often share about their favoriate content marketing tools that make their task so much easier and I also, have taken the liberty of sharing that information with my fellow marketers as indicated by the following:

Ubersuggest, a keyword suggestion software program

Audacity, a free open source multilingual audio editor and recorder software program.

Zemanta, a content creation platform with multiple apps and tools for your blogging enjoyment

SocialMention, is social analysis platform that enables you to learn what others say about a company and it's brand

Social Search Engine Topsy, this tool indexes every keyword and phrase within the soscial web in real time

Canva, a free image editing priogram that makes manipulation and edting of your images easy

PicMonkey, another image editing program but easier and with more font features

Screen Capture By Google, there are a ton of screen capture tools out there, but I like the simplicity of Google’s Screen Capture plug-in for Chrome… possibly because I’m a Chrome junkie, so it’s always right there when I need it. You can capture selections, visible content, or the entire page and choose JPEG or PNG output.
Another tool I’ve used in the past that worked well is Jing, which allows you to markup your screenshots and also records to video. Snagit is a premium option from the same developers, with far greater capabilities and a pricetag of $49.95 (if you’re looking for a more versatile screen capture tool).

Vaurn James
Contributor