Business Growth Blog

Blogging is a powerful way to improve your online presence. Here are real organic search results from three companies that blog consistently, inconsistently, or not at all.

The days of email blasts to lists of contacts are coming to an end. The EU and California instituted more stringent privacy laws in 2018. More states and regions are soon to follow. If you use HubSpot, and email to contacts in the EU or California, here are some tips on using their GDPR functionality.

Business owners that I talk to commonly tell me they are hiring an “SEO Company” or an “SEM Company” to drive organic traffic to their website. Here’s the thing: SEO is not a stand-alone service. It should be the backbone of every marketing initiative you do. In this video, I share the one thing every business can do to get found on Google. Without it, your SEO success will be limited – or non-existent.

The number one benefit of HubSpot, in my view, is that the CRM is central to the entire tech stack. If set up correctly, it stores multitudes of valuable data about the one thing sales, marketers, and business leaders care about the most: target buyers. These are the people that will, hopefully, become their future customers. Taking time to set up contact, company, and deal record views in HubSpot is essential to use the tool effectively. Watch the video or download the slides to see how to do it.

I recently needed to source a graphic designer for my company, so the first place I turned to was LinkedIn. I wanted to find out who in my network was a freelancer or owned a design company that could potentially help me. It just makes sense that I would turn to LinkedIn before doing a random Google search. After all, I’d rather do business with someone from my network than a complete stranger.

When I first started doing marketing and lead generation, I used to worry about being able to drive leads for my clients. I've since learned that that's the easy part! As long as I'm doing enough activity, like blogging, email marketing, and social media, I'll get people to the website. And if I'm creating the right content, I'll be driving the right people to the site. Cool! Job done, right? Wrong.

My friend Jill Konrath, sales strategist, speaker, and author of 3 bestselling sales books put a message on LinkedIn asking for people to submit sales limericks for a project she’s working on. It got my wheels turning, and I ended up coming up with something. Here it is!

There’s one thing that often holds companies back from effective selling and marketing, but it’s not talked about very much: their contact database.

Your contact database is your most precious asset because it contains (or should contain!) the people you’re currently doing business with or with whom you would like to do business with. But unfortunately, it often gets neglected. It requires time, effort and dedication to keep your database clean and organized, or else it will quickly become a mess. Here are a few common database problems and how they can be negatively impacting your business.

If any of these issues sound familiar, it’s time to take a deep dive into defining the strategies and processes that will transform your database from just random "contacts" into people you want to do business with.

It's safe to assume that the majority of your target prospects will go to your website well before they have any other interaction with your organization. It's their first impression, and they'll be sizing you up immediately upon walking through the virtual door. The traditional website design process is quickly becoming antiquated because it doesn't address the growing needs of the online buyer.

If a website project is on the horizon (which it should be - it should always be on the agenda), watch this video to learn more about an approach that will ensure your site is a high-value marketing asset that continually drives business growth.

Back in the day, it wasn't such a challenge to figure out what to do for marketing. Phonebook, a mailer, maybe a trade show or two - oh, and don't forget - dial for dollars! But everything is different now that "Google has the answers to life," as I tell my kids (especially my 12-year-old son who always asks, "Why?" - "I have no idea, look it up!" I say).

Your prospects and customers are doing the same thing when they have questions - looking it up. This explosion of information on the Internet has opened up opportunities for businesses to get in front of their target buyers and gain market share, but it's also making sales and marketing increasingly complex. The most important thing business owners, CEO's, and other executives in charge of driving growth can do is to constantly stay in the know about the growing number of marketing strategies available. Otherwise, they may get left in the dust as their competition passes them by.

If you're not currently doing inbound marketing, take a moment to watch this short video and see if it's something you should consider as part of your upcoming growth initiatives.