Welcome Back to Sunday Links with Social Media ReInvention
I want to thank the new subscribers who decided to receive future posts from Social Media ReInvention. You know who you are, and I’m grateful for your vote of confidence.
Your conscious decision to invest your Sunday time and attention here humbles and inspires me. Thank YOU!
Today’s Sunday Links summaries revolve around a specific storyline — Personalization.
Summary 1 — Email Marketing: 1. If You’re Automating Your Emails, Please Personalize Them
Summary 2 — Inbound Marketing: 2. Personalized Blog Posts are the New Unique
Summary 3 — Strategy: 3. Amazon HQ2 Selection Is Personal for the Cities Who Lost
A Reboot To Sunday Links With Social Media Reinvention
I’m rebooting my life. I won’t bore you with the details.
Starting over is a painful process. Changes occur in our lives whether we are ready or not. I am re-grouping and re-prioritizing what’s important in my personal and professional life.
Time heals all wounds (well at least some of them). Most of all, it became clear why I started this marketing strategy blog in the first place:
I LOVE to write. It EXERCISES my brain.
I write for ME.
That’s WHY I love it.
I’m also back to regularly working out my body too. It hurts when you’ve haven’t done something consistently for a long time.
Something tells me committing to writing regularly will bring many of the same aches and pains. That’s okay. I can live with that. Baby steps.
So, it’s time to write. But, what do I write about? I’ll figure that out as I go. And, I hope to have fun along the way.
To kickstart things, I’ll curate links from my favorite news sites and marketing strategy blogs and summarize key points from the articles.
The goal: Publish at least two Sunday posts per month.
These posts will focus on:
Email Marketing: Tips and insights on using marketing’s most measurable channel.
Our Buyers Drive Content Marketing and SEO Decisions
The Theme Pulsing Through This Week’s Article Links. These expert pearls show why the problems keeping our buyers awake at night fuel content marketing and SEO (search engine optimization). Their wisdom touches on:
The devices consumers use to find our businesses and articles online. (Hint: Rhymes with smartphone).
The signals Google looks for and takes into account for ranking our websites and content.
The importance of keyword density. (Hint: Not as much as we thought).
Buyer personas rich with details on the buyer’s pre-buy research behaviors are a strategic advantage.
Check out these article summaries which I know will make us better marketers, writers, and search engine optimization professionals.
Successful Inbound Marketing and Public Relations Requires Content Marketing and SEO Work Together
This past week, I attended webinars, started studying books, and read articles with a common theme: When content marketing and SEO work together, long term, impactful business goals are achieved.
This resounding theme also touches upon another key element: a publishing strategy integrating content marketing and SEO (search engine optimization) is sustainable. These experts share their views on important changes in marketing organization (and individual) skills, mindsets, and organizational structures.
That’s a huge deal for all businesses:
Large Corporations
Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMBs)
Freelance Professionals
Here are links to these great articles on where inbound marketing and public relations are heading to deliver more meaningful business outcomes and results.
HubSpot’s Inbound Certification Video Class 3: “What Does Inbound Look Like?” shares how a real-world company successfully practices inbound marketing. This is a valuable class as a real-world, spot-on buyer persona case study.
This buyer persona case study proves how well-crafted buyer personas can:
Drive inbound marketing strategy and tactics
Link together content marketing and SEO choices
Support a company’s sales and revenue goals
Here’s what to expect from this blog post on these inbound marketing best practices (and future blog posts) as I prepare for the inbound marketing certification exam:
Open Sharing. I’ll publish my study notes on this blog as I review each video in the twelve (12) classes.
Detail. My notes will be very detailed. Many of the slides in the video classes state the learning or take-home-message perfectly. If I think that’s the best way to state the learning, I’ll record the learning in my notes verbatim from the respective slide.
Context. I’ll provide my context whenever it may help us better understand the inbound marketing and sales concept(s).
This post focuses on the four (4) inbound marketing best practices shared in HubSpot’s Inbound Certification Video Class 2: What Are The Fundamentals of Inbound Success?:
Use Buyer Personas
Use The Buyer’s Journey
Create Remarkable Content
Leverage Your Content Via Distribution Platforms
Here’s what to expect from this blog post on these inbound marketing best practices (and future blog posts) as I prepare for the inbound marketing certification exam:
Open Sharing. I’ll publish my study notes on this blog as I review each video in the twelve (12) classes.
Detail. My notes will be very detailed. Many of the slides in the video classes state the learning or take-home-message perfectly. If I think that’s the best way to state the learning, I’ll record the learning in my notes verbatim from the respective slide.
Context. I’ll provide my context whenever it may help us better understand the inbound marketing and sales concept(s).
HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Certification Course remains one of my favorite learning marketing resources. I remember the joy (and relief) after taking the test and earning the inbound marketing certification. Back then, it was a scrappy, privately held startup taking on the marketing world. Now, Hubspot’s a thriving public company.
It’s time to refresh my certification. Over the course of the next several weeks, here’s what to expect from the next several blog posts as I prepare for the certification exam:
Open Sharing. I’ll publish my study notes on this blog as I review each video in the twelve (12) classes.
Detail. My notes will be very detailed. Many of the slides in the video classes state the learning or take-home-message perfectly. If I think that’s the best way to state the learning, I’ll record the learning in my notes verbatim from the respective slide.
Context. I’ll provide my context whenever it may help us better understand the inbound marketing and sales concept(s).
