Small Business Archives | Social Media ReInvention

Hubspot published its 2011 State of Inbound Marketing Report earlier this year.

Survey responses from 644 professionals familiar with their firms' marketing strategy represented diverse industries such as:

* Retail
* Technology
* Professional Services & Consulting
* Banking / Insurance / Financial Services
* Communications & Media
* Others

The survey respondents of various company sizes included:
* Marketers
* Business Owners
* Entrepreneurs
* Executives

76% of the companies surveyed said their business sell primarily to other businesses (e.g., B2B).

The report describes how companies are using inbound marketing (e.g., marketing strategies focused on "pulling" relevant prospects and customers towards a businesses and its products).

Inbound marketing influences purchasing decisions by leveraging the Internet and helping consumers make educated decisions on a company's products and services.

Common inbound marketing tools include:

Blogging
Content Publishing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Social Media

Here's the complete report in HubSpot's SlideShare Page:

The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing

View more documents from HubSpot Internet Marketing

Blogs Aren't Dead

Three (3) of the Five (5) Key Takeaways Highlight a Blog's Unique Value. These key takeaways summarize blogs' importance in customer acquisition, increasing business use, and overall value:

* Blogs and social media channels are generating real customers: 57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blog.

* More and more businesses are blogging: Businesses are now in the minority if they do not blog. From 2009 to 2011, the percentage of businesses with a blog increased from 48% to 65%.

* Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable: 85% of businesses rated their company blog as "useful," "important," or "critical;" 27% rated their company blog as "critical" to their business.

Blogs are the Most Cost-Efficient Lead Generation Channel

* Blogs, social media, and organic search maintained the top slots as least expensive.

* Blogs had the highest instance of being reported as "Below Average Cost."

Companies are Allocating More Resources to Company Blogs

* Marketers are allocating more of their lead generation budgets to social media and company blogs.

* The average budget spent on company blogs and social media increased from 9% in 2009 to 17% in 2011.

Small Companies Level the Playing Field Via Blogging

* Social media and SEO (search engine optimization) garner the biggest share of small company budgets.

* And, small companies plan to spend dramatically more of their budgets on blogging (relative to larger companies).

Company Blogs Rank as the Highest Customer Acquisition Channel

* 57% of firms using company blogs have acquired customers from a blog-generated lead.

* Survey responses show an 11% increase since 2010 in blog-generated leads.

And, Customer Acquisition is Directly Correlated to Blog Post Frequency

* At a minimum, successful customer acquisition requires a weekly blog post frequency.

* 23% more blog users say a weekly blog post frequency delivers a greater return on customer acqusition versus a monthly blog post frequency.

* In addition, 71% of respondents indicated they blog at least weekly.

B2B Firms Say You Need LinkedIn and a Blog to Effectively Acquire Customers

* B2B companies say the LinkedIn is the #1 customer acquisition channel.

* The Company Blog is the #2 customer acqusition channel for B2B companies.

Blogs and LinkedIn are Top Customer Acquisition Channels for Professional Services / Consulting and Technology (Software / Biotech) Firms

* Three (3) industries had over 50% of respondents say blogging acquires customers:

Higher Education: 72% (Ranked #2)
Professional Services / Consulting: 58% (Ranked #2 barely)
Technology (Software / Biotech): 58% (Ranked #1)

Blogs are the Most Important Social Media Channel

* Blogging Experiences Significant Growth. From 2009 to 2011, the percentage of respondents with a company blog grew from 48% to 65%.

* Responents Cite Blogs as the Most Critical Social Media Channel. 27% of respondents cited blogging as "critical to their business." Blogs ranked highest among nine (9) social media channels.

Conclusion

The Death of Blogs is Grossly Exaggerated. HubSpot's conclusions support the exact opposite of mainstream media speculation (e.g., all you need to succeed in social media marketing is Facebook and Twitter activity). The data shows blogs are especially important in:

Acquiring new customers
Providing a lower expense marketing channel
Driving customer acquisition in specfic industries
Leveling the marketing playing field especially for small businesses
Demonstrating significant marketing value for B2B companies

Blogging's Importance to B2B Firms is Huge. Business-to-business companies say the two most important social media channels are LinkedIn and blogs. I don't find this surprising.

Blogs Provide Content Versatility. More importantly, management consulting firms say blogs play a significant role in customer acquisition. Consulting firms who publish content via company blogs can quickly demonstrate to future and existing clients their creativity and industry expertise in blog posts, videos, news updates, client testimonials, podcasts, and images.

Can You Afford Not to Blog? I wouldn't recommend bypassing the benefits of blogging (especially if you're a B2B company). The data clearly shows your competitors are blogging (and the future numbers are trending upward). If you're a small company (e.g., less than 50 employees), you can level the playing field against more established competitors.

When are you going to start your blog?

Photo Credit via Flickr by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

This article, "Entrepreneurs Question Value of Social Media," from the Wall Street Journal caught my eye (and I'm sure several other readers' eyes) with it's clever headline and additionally provocative phrases:

* "Marketing Via Facebook, Twitter Yields Results for Some, Others Say It's Overrated" and "Hype Right Now Exceeds the Reality"

The WSJ article quotes findings from 2,000 small business owners surveyed by the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business and Network Solutions LLC. Among the survey's findings included:

* Most users of social media – 58% – find the medium "just met expectations for success. For the remainder, twice as many feel the medium fell short of expectations (26%) than exceeded expectations (12%) for success.

* 50% of small business users of social media have found that it has taken up more time than they expected.

So does this mean social media really doesn't work? Is all that blogging, tweeting, friending, videoing, and updating of statuses to engage a specific target audience or buyer persona a complete waste of time?

Of course not. But, I think these findings should "recalibrate" our expectations about how quickly social media and inbound marketing can impact overall business success. Here are some thoughts in putting the achievement of business success via social media into perspective:

1. Social Media Success Stories Like Chris Brogan and HubSpot Didn't Happen Overnight

In my opinion, two of the most successful social media success stories demonstrating the time, dedication, and commitment required are Chris Brogan and HubSpot. Both have invested years and countless hours to build their brands and business success via social media and inbound marketing.

And their level of commitment continues …

Chris Brogan. Brogan has been an online practitioner and social media evangelist for more than a decade, and in the last few years he's finally receiving more mainstream recognition and credit. His book, Trust Agents, about how organizations can use social media to personally engage consumers, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

But, this success and recognition did not occur overnight. In fact, Brogan says it took him eight years (8) to acquire 100 subscribers when he started his blog. Check out his video series called "Overnight Success" so you can see first-hand how social media success is hard-earned.

HubSpot. This organization literally created and proliferated the phrase "inbound marketing." They've published a best-selling book called Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs describing the online strategies and tactics driving their current business success (along with the success of other small to medium-sized businesses).

And yes, they've also been diligently implementing and practicing those social media and inbound marketing strategies from their book for years. As a point of reference, I looked at two data points regarding their popular Internet Marketing Blog. These numbers illustrate the significant time and dedication required (and blogging is just one important channel of their multi-channel social media strategy):

(A) Years Invested in Blogging: ~3.5 years; Their first blog post was written in August 2006. During a HubSpot webinar I attended this week, Brian Halligan (one of HubSpot's co-founders) said they initially started blogging once per week. Now, they publish almost 3 blog posts daily.

(B) Number of Blog Posts Published by HubSpot: ~1000+ as of March 31, 2010. This is my "back-of-the-envelope" analysis based on the number of posts I found on the HubSpot Website.

2. Long Term Commitment, Patience, and Flexibility: Social Media and Inbound Marketing are No Exception

This post by John McTigue of Kuno Creative, "Disappointed By Your Inbound Marketing Results," provides realistic and practical advice when managing expectations about social media and inbound marketing. He emphasizes four (4) points (which I've paraphrased here). Read John's entire post because it's great:

(A) You shouldn't expect instant success. Time and effort are required to reach people and convert them to customers.

(B) You must build relationships, not numbers. Create interesting content, engage people directly, and reach them with great offers and service.

(C) You must be a chameleon. Remain flexible and tweak your strategy daily by monitoring your metrics to keep improving.

(D) Be patient. Invest at least a year before deciding to end the program.

From personal experience, I've only been blogging for 6 months and I can speak to the time and effort required to publish this blog. For me, John's advice is readily applicable and timely.

Conclusion

Patience, Perseverance, Effort. Last time I checked, those traits applied to "traditional marketing success" also. I fail to see why accomplishing social media and inbound marketing success would be any different …

Photo Credit: From Flickr by Tony the Misfit

Social Media ReInvention

I'm A Data-Driven Marketer & Business Strategist Who Helps Small Businesses Drive Website Traffic and Revenues

Tag Archives: Small Business

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