How to Run a Successful Online Marketing Campaign

It's becoming abundantly clear that, to be successful, online marketing campaigns today need to focus on three core activities:

1. Publish your content - i.e. create a website, write a blog, post videos on YouTube, post articles on free article sites, publish news releases, put your presentations on Slideshare, post your photos on Flickr (even the ones in which you look old or gawky)... Publish ANYTHING you can ANYWHERE you can.
2. Optimise for search - i.e. make the URLs, titles, keywords, headers, Alt text, copy and meta-data for your online content READABLE and ENTICING. Link all your shared content back to your website or blog, and encourage RELEVANT and RESPECTED sites to do the same using READABLE keywords in their links.
3. Use social media - i.e. take part in conversations, adding VALUE and generating TRUST and RESPECT, post comments on blogs, post to Twitter, create a Facebook group (and join others), create a Linkedin page (and join others), join any relevant Meetup, Google or Yahoo groups, share your links on de.licio.us, promote your content on Stumbledupon, Reddit and Digg.

If you do all three of these and your product is still not selling, it's highly likely your product is flawed. How can I be so sure? Well, in this brave new marketing world the success of your marketing campaign no longer depends on the size of your budget. Those days are gone. There are only two factors at work now: (a) How active, creative, knowledgeable, fun, sociable and hard-working you and your team are, and (b) how good your product is. There is no in-between.

There has never been a greater opportunity for small businesses run by knowedgable, creative, hard-working people to succced.

Thankfully, someone has given this golden triumvirate of marketing tactics a name. The guys at Hubspot are calling it "Inbound marketing". The idea is that rather than using pushy, interruption techniques, companies should instead set out their stall in the most attractive way, make sure they have stalls in as many markets as possible and talk with other market-goes, sharing their knowledge, imparting value, building trust and respect.

Hubspot have gone further than just naming Inbound Marketing. They've integrated it into a single service. Hubspot lets you set up a website (or configure your existing site) and automatically publish content, optimise it and share it across a range of social media networks without leaving their site. It's a brillant concept and one I can see becoming a standard in years to come, primarily because it debunks the myths surrounding SEO and social media, which are often seen as confusing or scary by small business owners who don't live their lives online.

Hubspot charge $250-$500 per month for their services - which seems a lot, until you realise you may not need to spend anything more on marketing. In that light, it soon starts to look pretty good value.

Of course, Inbound Marketing isn't an immediate cure. It takes time to build a respected online presence. But once you're known and your services are being used - and again, this is where it differs from a traditional marketing campaign - the costs diminish rapidly as the viral nature of the Web takes over.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone using Hubspot or similar services - or if anyone disagrees with my diagnoses for a successful marketing campaign. What have I missed?

Ford Launches Social Media Campaign

I was interested to read that Ford have launched a social media campaign to promote their new Fiesta. In what they call "The Fiesta Movement" they have given 100 bloggers and Twitterers a Fiesta each on the understanding that they will then write about their experience.

What will be interesting to see is whether Ford actually engage in a discussion with these people, or whether (as is normally the case with big corporates) they will simply fund it as a "marketing" activity and look for direct impact on sales. Launching a social media campaign without then engaging directly with your customers is like throwing a big party then not showing up yourself. The benefits of a free drink are short-lived. On the other hand, people tend to remember their friends. Let's hope Ford understand where the real benefits of their campaign will lie.

The 3 R's of Social Media

Been tracking back through some old blog posts on social media ROI. A couple of interesting points converge with my own experience and produced these theories:

1) The 3 R's of Social Media

The key benefit to bloggers, Twitterers, Facebook Group admins, forum managers etc. from creating and participating in online conversations is a marked increase in the recognition (i.e. subscribers, followers, members), respect (i.e. re-Tweets, in-bound links, quotes) and referrals (i.e. direct recommendations, out-of-the-blue customer emails) they receive. If you're prone to using irritating, catchy expressions (as I find I am), you might describe these as the 3 R's of social media.

2) Niche Crowd-sourcing

It's commonly known that actually saying something helps you to understand it. The same is true of social media. Participating in or reading a conversation about a subject provides a more balanced, objective and rounded picture of the subject than could have been gleaned from reading a single article. By hosting "expert conversations" any business person can share their OWN expertise and, crucially, leverage the expertise of OTHERS to benefit their business (via the 3 Rs). In this sense, blogging is basically a form of niche crowd-sourcing.

3) Starting the Right Conversation

Social media is divided. There are many different tools, mediums, sectors, topics, geographical locations and demographic groups. As a result, there is a growing need for niche social media marketing strategies that take account of the tools, topics etc. within each sector. For example, Event Management -> what are the blogs on event management? Who are the top Twitterers? The top Facebook groups? What topics are well-discussed? (and which ones aren't?) What conversations are waiting to be had? What are the best tools for hosting these conversations? For anyone conversant in SEO this is familiar territory. Over the coming years I can see "starting the right conversation" becoming as competitive for businesses as picking the right keywords is today.

p.s. I added my new logo to this post to provide some visual stimulation. Let me know what you think? I didn't design it so I won't be offended ;)