Sales Team Motivation and Inbound Marketing

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We are approached by many companies who are looking to grow their revenue line, and in the process of understanding their approach to business development one question is universally asked - “How Do We Motivate Our Sales Team?”

First off- you cannot really motivate anyone. Motivation comes from within an individual. A person’s preference of behavior, both adapted and natural, really determines this. Having said that, we have enjoyed working with many good leaders, who have inspired a team of people to accomplish great things.

Second- a sales team is a group of individuals is not a collective or group mind set. Our workflow always involves the application of scientific online assessments to understand each sales person’s unique behavior and their motivators. When we understand a person’s preferences we can build a plan that aligns with that and truly engage their future drive to succeed… and drive greater results.

What drives motivation?

For some people it is purely money (and we screen for this especially where we are seeking people to fill commission based sales positions for a client).  There are several other motivators that can be measured using our assessment process. EG: You seldom see altruism as a motivator in business development profiles. So an understanding of a person’s unique behavioral and motivational preference can be a powerful dataset.

We also have an effective sales evaluation assessment, which measures a person’s understanding of the entire sales process. This valuable dataset lets us identify where a salesperson’s strengths lay, as well as where they might need additional coaching. It can be applied to an existing team or a potential new hire.

In other words, a plan that is broadly based is always going to be less effective than one that is built from the individual team member’s motivational perspective.

Give Them the Best Support to Really Drive Results

We then take this process one step further, by helping make the overall sales effort more efficient through the deployment of an inbound marketing process. If you want to see the batting averages of a sales organization skyrocket change the paradigm of cold calling into one where they are speaking to highly interested opportunities that, people that have the BANT necessary to insure success.

We use the term BANT a lot. This is an acronym for Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline and all four of these conditions must exist for any salesperson to close a sale. Inexperienced sales people invest a lot of time in the sales process to learn one (or more) of these factors isn’t present and results in an investment of time and talent but no desired result. Experienced sales people know ways to navigate (or argue) their way around these factors but it can be very time consuming and not always fruitful.

Motivationally speaking, when a sales force knows the odds for success are higher with every phone call or email inquiry (because the inquiry has a high BANT probability) they approach the sales call more confidently. It is a lot of like athletics- players get into a cycle of success and that feeds more confidence and that usually leads to more success. Sales people also go through periods of ups and downs based on their close rates or the quality of the orders they are generating. A well orchestrated inbound marketing process can create this environment, one that drives better inquiries, improved lead conversion, and generates more success for the sales team... and the company.

Perhaps You Should Change Your Approach to Marketing?

With the proper application of a well defined plan along with a robust inbound marketing platform (we recommend Hubspot® and use it ourselves) you can consolidate almost all of your marketing endeavors into a single software-driven process. The advantages to this approach are:

• You will extend the reach of your company’s value proposition
• Your target audience will understand your company culture
• The value your company brings to your clients will be broadly and repetitively understood
• You will be able to quantify which tactics are most successful and where to shift your investment of time and talent

Perhaps best of all you will share that across a blog and different social media applications automatically and seamlessly. You will now have the ability to:

• Create and/or enhance the awareness in your brand that rivals the best public relations tactics
• Repetitively establish your credibility
• Provide opportunities for interested parties to become qualified prospects
• Maintain a high level of engagement over time
• Understand where in the sales process your investment in training and continuing education needs to be applied

Get the Facts

We have a comprehensive e-book that illustrates the inbound marketing process in great detail, and would love to share it with you. To obtain your copy, with no strings attached and no sales person phone calls, just complete the short form, above, right.

And if you would like to schedule an initial assessment of your current website and see an inbound marketing quotient just drop us an email and request a complimentary consultation.

How Architects Can Create Sustainability in Business Development

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Your business development or sales organization has been very busy. Think about all that time spent drafting emails, responding to voice mails, writing proposals with little or no real relevance, pitching to non-decision makers and not holding prospects accountable to commitments… in actuality that is a lot of time NOT spent selling, it is time spent chasing!

What percentage of the overall time of your sales efforts are actually spent actually selling with new prospects? And how does your brand and/or credibility suffer from these typical but common sales activities?

Time is Your Most Valuable Asset

Consider the impact on your top line revenue if you were able to reduce the time either you or your sales people spend chasing procrastinators.

Consider the impact on your growth if you were able to double your actual time spent selling (most sales people are only in front of new prospects (outside the scope of your existing core client base).

Here is a hint: an improvement of 5%-20% of the time equates to 2-8 appointments/hours per week.

What would this translate into with regards to gross sales?

There is a marketing process that can shorten the sales cycle and dramatically improve conversion and close rates. When properly deployed it can eradicate all those annoying time wasters many sales people get stuck with while providing your brand or product with a significant boost in credibility. The common term is content marketing or inbound marketing. More about that in a minute…

How Is Time Utilized in the Sales Process?

Just think about the amount of time that gets invested into:

• prospecting and networking
• engaging
• presenting
• writing proposals

This is usually followed by the big chase with the “prospect”… and then you come to discover that your sales people were on a big fishing expedition!

Sooner or later every business owner will realize the importance of addressing this situation.

Quite often traditional sales people sit back after all of the hours of prospecting, pitching, presenting, proposal writing and chasing and go over in their own minds why the prospect, who seemed so interested yesterday did not buy today. There are shelves of books dealing with this problem in book stores. The reasons that sales people typically provide are at the very least predictable.

Do any of these replies sound familiar?

• Your price is too high!
• We need to “think it over”!
• We have decided to postpone this for now!
• We have decided to stay with our current provider!
• We chose another company!

If you had a stock portfolio that was under-performing the overall market would you keep dumping time and money into those stocks? I seriously doubt it. What you would do is you assess what you have that is working, and then determine what to keep and what to eliminate… you would cut your losses with regard to what is really an under-performing asset. Why would you approach your marketing tactics any differently?

Place Your Focus on the Plan

For our clients opportunity is not a viable strategy to business development. Our clients believe in the creation of plans, plans that are both realistic and achievable; plans that establish measurable goals and provide personal accountability. Our clients wake up every morning knowing what action items have to be accomplished, and understand how these activities align with their overall long term mission.

Can you honesty argue that your marketing and sales goals are clearly defined, understood throughout your company, and are being achieved? If not perhaps it’s time for you to seriously consider a change in your company’s approach to marketing. Beginning with the overall vision and leading through the goals, strategies, and action items necessary to achieve a result that you will be proud of. And getting off of the unsustainable cycle of cold calling, frustration, and remorse and shifting your marketing spend into a more sustainable process.

It Must Be Measurable

Adopting new marketing tactics are always met with excitement until the revenue line doesn’t grow or the results are fuzzy and non-measurable. That has often been the case with traditional marketing tactics like direct mail, newspaper advertising, and road signs. And while good marketers have adapted internet marketing best practices like dedicated landing pages and QR codes to help strengthen these traditional practices provide and provide some analysis they really cannot compare to the quality and volume of data that can be generated from an inbound marketing approach.

Again, using the stock portfolio analogy, how long would you continue with an investment advisor if all you routinely saw were the fees s/he was charging you and not the performance of the portfolio? That is very similar to what many businesses are doing- paying the fees to pump out ad’s without being able to assess the impact that ad is having on their revenue growth.

Change Your Approach to Marketing

With the proper application of a well defined plan along with a robust inbound marketing platform (we recommend Hubspot® and use it ourselves) you can consolidate almost all of your marketing endeavors into a single software-driven process. The advantages to this approach are:

• You will project your company’s value proposition
• Your target audience will understand your company culture
• The value your company brings to your clients will be broadly and repetitively understood
• You will be able to quantify which tactics are most successful and where to shift your investment of time and talent

Perhaps best of all you will share that across a blog and different social media applications automatically and seamlessly. You will now have the ability to:

• Create and/or enhance the awareness in your brand that rivals the best public relations tactics
• Repetitively establish your credibility
• Provide opportunities for interested parties to become qualified prospects
• Maintain a high level of engagement over time
• Understand where in the sales process your investment in training and continuing education needs to be applied

Get the Facts

We have a comprehensive e-book that illustrates the inbound marketing process in great detail, and would love to share it with you. To obtain your copy, with no strings attached and no sales person phone calls, just complete the short form, above, right.

And if you would like to schedule an initial assessment of your current website and see an inbound marketing quotient just drop us an email and request a complimentary consultation.

Accounting Firms and Inbound Marketing- Sustainability in Marketing

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Your business development or sales organization has been very busy. Think about all that time spent drafting emails, responding to voice mails, writing proposals with little or no real relevance, pitching to non-decision makers and not holding prospects accountable to commitments… in actuality that is a lot of time NOT spent selling, it is time spent chasing!

What percentage of the overall time of your sales efforts are actually spent actually selling with new prospects? And how does your brand and/or credibility suffer from these typical but common sales activities?

Time is Your Most Valuable Asset

Consider the impact on your top line revenue if you were able to reduce the time either you or your sales people spend chasing procrastinators.

Consider the impact on your growth if you were able to double your actual time spent selling (most sales people are only in front of new prospects (outside the scope of your existing core client base).

Here is a hint: an improvement of 5%-20% of the time equates to 2-8 appointments/hours per week.

What would this translate into with regards to gross sales?

There is a marketing process that can shorten the sales cycle and dramatically improve conversion and close rates. When properly deployed it can eradicate all those annoying time wasters many sales people get stuck with while providing your brand or product with a significant boost in credibility. The common term is content marketing or inbound marketing. More about that in a minute…

How Is Time Utilized in the Sales Process?

Just think about the amount of time that gets invested into:

• prospecting and networking
• engaging
• presenting
• writing proposals

This is usually followed by the big chase with the “prospect”… and then you come to discover that your sales people were on a big fishing expedition!

Sooner or later every business owner will realize the importance of addressing this situation.

Quite often traditional sales people sit back after all of the hours of prospecting, pitching, presenting, proposal writing and chasing and go over in their own minds why the prospect, who seemed so interested yesterday did not buy today. There are shelves of books dealing with this problem in book stores. The reasons that sales people typically provide are at the very least predictable.

Do any of these replies sound familiar?

• Your price is too high!
• We need to “think it over”!
• We have decided to postpone this for now!
• We have decided to stay with our current provider!
• We chose another company!

If you had a stock portfolio that was under-performing the overall market would you keep dumping time and money into those stocks? I seriously doubt it. What you would do is you assess what you have that is working, and then determine what to keep and what to eliminate… you would cut your losses with regard to what is really an under-performing asset. Why would you approach your marketing tactics any differently?

Place Your Focus on the Plan

For our clients opportunity is not a viable strategy to business development. Our clients believe in the creation of plans, plans that are both realistic and achievable; plans that establish measurable goals and provide personal accountability. Our clients wake up every morning knowing what action items have to be accomplished, and understand how these activities align with their overall long term mission.

Can you honesty argue that your marketing and sales goals are clearly defined, understood throughout your company, and are being achieved? If not perhaps it’s time for you to seriously consider a change in your company’s approach to marketing. Beginning with the overall vision and leading through the goals, strategies, and action items necessary to achieve a result that you will be proud of. And getting off of the unsustainable cycle of cold calling, frustration, and remorse and shifting your marketing spend into a more sustainable process.

It Must Be Measurable

Adopting new marketing tactics are always met with excitement until the revenue line doesn’t grow or the results are fuzzy and non-measurable. That has often been the case with traditional marketing tactics like direct mail, newspaper advertising, and road signs. And while good marketers have adapted internet marketing best practices like dedicated landing pages and QR codes to help strengthen these traditional practices provide and provide some analysis they really cannot compare to the quality and volume of data that can be generated from an inbound marketing approach.

Again, using the stock portfolio analogy, how long would you continue with an investment advisor if all you routinely saw were the fees s/he was charging you and not the performance of the portfolio? That is very similar to what many businesses are doing- paying the fees to pump out ad’s without being able to assess the impact that ad is having on their revenue growth.

Change Your Approach to Marketing

With the proper application of a well defined plan along with a robust inbound marketing platform (we recommend Hubspot® and use it ourselves) you can consolidate almost all of your marketing endeavors into a single software-driven process. The advantages to this approach are:

• You will project your company’s value proposition
• Your target audience will understand your company culture
• The value your company brings to your clients will be broadly and repetitively understood
• You will be able to quantify which tactics are most successful and where to shift your investment of time and talent

Perhaps best of all you will share that across a blog and different social media applications automatically and seamlessly. You will now have the ability to:

• Create and/or enhance the awareness in your brand that rivals the best public relations tactics
• Repetitively establish your credibility
• Provide opportunities for interested parties to become qualified prospects
• Maintain a high level of engagement over time
• Understand where in the sales process your investment in training and continuing education needs to be applied

Get the Facts

We have a comprehensive e-book that illustrates the inbound marketing process in great detail, and would love to share it with you. To obtain your copy, with no strings attached and no sales person phone calls, just complete the short form, above, right.

And if you would like to schedule an initial assessment of your current website and see an inbound marketing quotient just drop us an email and request a complimentary consultation.

Inbound Marketing: the Best Way to Drive Sales to New Levels

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Do you sometimes feel like your company is using social media and blogging but not getting the volume of leads you had hoped for? Are you stressing over the decision to invest more time, talent, and treasure into your marketing effort?

Or are you stuck in the old cold-calling paradigm? Heck, can a company survive this way in today's marketplace?

Jason Fried, writing for INC., articulates: “Existing companies always weigh the costs of new technology or talent against what it already has and usually sticks with what is familiar. Why? Because the marginal costs of using what you have are almost always lower than the full costs of investing in something new.”1

Established decisions makers don't think in terms of marginal costs. New companies don't base decisions like inbound marketing adoption on costs at all - rather they tend to pick what is best for the business. It's the key reason new businesses often displace established ones.  They have better tools.

Several of our clients had established outbound sales processes in place, lacked an email database to completely support a pure inbound marketing campaign, and needed a more rapid ramp up than an inbound marketing initiation would have generated. But, they had the vision to realize that a sales process based solely on cold calling was becoming dysfunctional.

One of them, the President of a manufacturing company, had been impressed with some of the content we had shared with them, from a LinkedIn group, and reached out to us. Yup- they called us!

We created a plan to blend the client's outbound culture with the inbound marketing process. One of the biggest misconceptions we see in interviewing potential clients is the "either/or" mentality many people have regarding these two disciplines. Outbound tactics are a great way to support a sales organization that is light on email contacts and doesn’t want to buy lists (and potentially risk being labeled a spammer. The solution we devised was to utilize Hubspot® as an internet environment to create warm calls where they might have only been cold ones before.

Inbound marketing is at its best when it supports a traditional sales effort, not merely trying to replace it. And this is never more evident than within an existing business trying to survive by using only an outbound marketing process.

We then created personas of the client’s target audience, asking and evaluating where they "play". We Identified ways to reach them with our blog, social media content, along with traditional marketing tactics. For example an architectural firm we work with found success with not only regularly posting new content on their website but also because we re-purposed the material into a great print article, e-book, or white paper and used it as a compelling direct mail piece. We made certain to add a unique URL to track results, designed a landing page specific to that audience (and message) and added a strong call to action.  Where we used to have daily quotas of phone calls, and frustrated sales people (and equally frustrated decision makers) we now have a process to drive more inbound leads plus we have the ability to measure the traffic and convert leads into prospects before the sales people even pick up the phone.

We are also using advertising using trade publications and other periodicals that fit the persona of the target audience industries. We have assigned sales people to trade shows and networking events and have armed them with unique business cards and/or brochures designed for that purpose, again all driving to specifically tailored landing pages.

And more often than not when the sales team acknowledges a response to a call to action and dials the phone the party on the other end is far more receptive to having a conversation. Our rate of new appointments has grown, and our close rates and new customer conversions will certainly follow. But that is on the sales manager… we are the outsourced marketing department, after all!

All of this has allowed the management team to consider eliminating sales territories all together and aligning salespeople into specific industries, creating expert solution providers not pitchy sales people. Imagine speaking with the sales person who has multiple success stories within your industry versus a guy who merely “handles your territory”!

Lastly, we could devote an entire article (perhaps we should) on the enhancements to organic search results as a byproduct of all of this new inbound traffic. A financial planning we enjoy working with previously invested around a thousand dollars monthly to improve their search engine results through SEO-generating activities.  With the use of good inbound marketing processes that company’s website ranking naturally improved, ultimately providing them with even more interested lead conversion opportunities.

Inbound marketing requires a good amount of time to generate momentum. Companies lacking a large existing email database to work with can see success with the adaptation of traditional marketing and sales methods to drive traffic and conversions is a great way to build the eventually conversion to an inbound only approach.

And it is far more efficient than cold calling on its own.

1- INC Magazine, October 2012 page 35

Leadership: Does Your Company have a No-Texting Policy?

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Would you like to avoid the liability that employee accidents create while driving on the job, while improving the safety of your employees? We have all seen someone texting while they were driving, a huge problem on our roadways today. Trying to craft a mesage and key it into a 6" device is very distracting.

The solution may be establishing a no-texting-while-driving policy.

AT&T customers can download a Drive Mode app to help prevent this unsafe practice. This free app temporarily disables certain mobile device features, such as those distracting notification sounds when an incoming text message is received. People trying to reach you will simply receive an automatic response telling them that you'll reply to their message when it's safe to do so.

For now, DriveMode is only for Android and BlackBerry. An AT&T spokesperson Andrea Brands reports it has already been downloaded 51,000 times.

Another solution is Mobile TattleTale, available for Driod, iPhone, and Blackberry devices. This app offers many different functions, including speed control.

A survey by the Ad Council was recently released for “Stop the Texts Day,” from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. state attorneys general, and the Ad Council. It found that 60% of drivers surveyed said they’d texted while driving. Of that 60%, the majority said they’d continue to do so even knowing that TWD causes accidents.

Our company requires the use of hands-free devices like a speakerphone in conjunction with voice recognition software. We can place and receive calls or texts with the touch of one large button, on a device usually mounted on a visor. Simply speaking to it completes the action. But even with the use of this technology it can be challenging when driving on one of New Jersey's congested and fast roadways.

Protect your company, and your employees who drive for business, with a firm policy and the assistance of technology. And demonstrate your leadership ability by installing a no-texting-while-driving app on your device.

How to Explain Inbound Marketing to Professional Services Firms

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If you were to have the ability to deliver your very best, top ranked Keynote Presentation to each of your investors, strategic partners, your favorite customers and every competitor’s customer base, would you like to? What if you offered your best marketing information to grow your top and bottom line revenue targets, would you be willing to make the effort?  Of course you would.  That is exactly what an inbound marketing (content marketing) program allows you to do twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. 

Inbound marketing is nothing more than utilizing your best information about your business, your best customers and your strategic partner’s creativity and inspiration to draw potential consumers in your direction.  By feeding that group with consistent engaging and relation based information, they will make the transition to becoming a client.

In the old days, the customer would sit patiently and quietly listen patiently to the sales pitch.  Today's consumer knows that they manage the sales transaction now. Today's consumer is market wise, and knows it as well as your best sales person, and your competitors.  Inbound marketing provides an opportunity for you to create compelling, educational, engaging content that creates a relationship with that individual over time. By nurturing the potential client with worthwhile, inspiring information and compelling benefits, when it is time for the buying transaction to happen, the consumer you have created a relationship will choose you over your competitor.

Inbound (Content) Marketing is not a new concept.  What is new happens to be the way potential clients become actual ones.  They are certainly more informed and possess a better practical understanding than they ever have been, and their expectations are much higher than one might imagine. There is a huge amount of competition, and every one of your competitors is after their share.

Don’t just take my word for it, take a look at what Google and Jim Lecinski have to say:

“Google’s Zero Moment of Truth -  ZMOT is that moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired device and start learning about a product or service (or potential boyfriend) you’re thinking about trying or buying. I’m sure you know what I mean — you probably do web searches like this every day.

BUT

Would it surprise you to know that a full 70% of Americans now say they look at product reviews before making a purchase?

Or that 79% of consumers now say they use a smart¬phone to help with shopping?

Or that 83% of moms say they do online research after seeing TV commercials for products that interest them?

Try to see Inbound, or Content Marketing as:

• Content is storytelling, and there are many stories both within your firm and from your best clients.  Share the stories that make people’s lives better.
• Content is the pre-requisite to Brand Awareness.  It will build it if it is good.
• Content is easily communicated in multiple mediums, such as blogs, social media, video, reposts, Likes and Re-Tweets.
• Content is an investment in your brand, your future and that of your customer’s lives.
• Content separates you from your competition.  The one with the best content wins.

The marketing “game” is constantly evolving, and changes in marketing strategy must be capable of shifting along with the marketplace.  Technology being what it is, you can expect change at nearly every turn.  What is not changing, is the level of competition, and the knowledge of the consumer.  The responsibility of every professional services firm is to be nimble, quick to react, market focused and consumer friendly.  After all, it is about developing leads that can be converted to clients, and the way it is done today is through engaging, inspiring value propositions.  Your efforts to provide value and sincerity consistently will improve your market position.

Inbound marketing is about moving away from price related sales people, and toward “trusted advisor” or “alliance consultant” status.  If you were providing worthwhile information that makes his or her lives better, why would anyone move away from you?

There is no reason to fear inbound marketing, as it is the natural evolution of the marketing and advertising concept.  Traditional forms can supplement it, enhance it, but the conversion to online search is reaching critical mass.   Don’t be left wondering what happened.

Paypal is Coming To A Retailer Near you!

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When you are the recognized leader in a given medium or technology coming up with new adaptations of your product or service can be difficult. Sometimes services that we use (take for granted?) every day struggle to maintain their market share because of competitors  and wanna-be's encoaching into their space.

Consider the brilliance of PayPal, the innovative banking arm largely associated with Ebay but now a prominent payment method on nearly every commercial shopping cart. They are most likely the dominant processor on the web and have been seeking new markets to serve in order to achieve growth.

They may have just found it. PayPal has embarked on new agreements with many brick and mortar retailers, including JC Penney, Toys "R" Us, Barnes & Noble, and more to be announced shortly.  This new arrangement will allow consumers to pay for purchases with their smart phones in an effort to provide its service inside the physical retail space.

2,000 Home Depot stores will be the first to roll this service out; Home Depot has been testing the service since January¹. While PayPal didn't announce an agreement with Target or Walmart,  other retailers looking to add this service in their stores includes Abercrombie & Fitch, Advance Auto Parts, Aéropostale, American Eagle Outfitters, Foot Locker, Guitar Center, , Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Nine West, Office Depot, Rooms To Go².

Even fast turnover businesses like Jamba Juice are getting into the act.

The mobile payment process allows customers to pay for a purchase using only a mobile phone number associated with their PayPal accounts, as well as a PIN. Just like the online payment process the funds are taken directly out of their PayPal accounts.

If you have ever used the Starbucks app on a smartphone to make a purchase you'll understand the process.  With the Starbucks app your barista scans a bar code that is unique to your account. With PayPal your don't have to maintain a balance though- it's functions like a debit card.

Another similar service is Google wallet, which stores your credit card information on your device and lets you check out at retail stores that accept the service, or use it on the web as a cloud SAS. But the competition that will, be rushing to bring their version of the PayPal and Google services are the credit card processors, especially if PayPal and Google offer their services at a lower fee.

For PayPal (and as an alternative revenue stream for them) the ability to compile customer data and sell or share it with its retail clients must be very tempting. Whereas most existing payment processors share very little information with their clients beyond the last four digits of an account number, PayPal has its customer's e-mail addresses on file, and can provide information like names, shopping habits, geographic locale,  merchandise preferences and even recent product searches on the web.

In addition to compiling history, this information, combined with smartphone technology will allow retailers to target you with coupons and other special offers directly to your smartphones, when you enter a store!

"We're helping merchants connect with consumers at every stage in the shopping cycle," wrote David Marcus, President of Paypal, on his blog . "Before they come into the store, while they're in the store, or even after they've left. We're able to drive consumers through a retailer's doors with relevant offers, coupons and discounts, then maintain a relationship with that consumer that keeps bringing them back to the retailer, in store or online.³"

Would you switch from plastic to mobile payments if it meant targeted special offers based on what you like or have purchased previously?

 Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch

 Tom Ryan, writing for Retail Wire

 https://www.thepaypalblog.com/

Why Blogging Is a Good Investment for CPA & Financial Planning Firms

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Many of those in the accounting world assume that blogging is a platform mainly for those who are involved with Internet marketing as their main business. The truth is, many major companies have blogs, even those that are not directly involved in the technological field. Blogging can be a huge contributor to inbound marketing and new client development, even for those in the financial arena.

ROI

There are definite concerns regarding the return on investment, as with any marketing ploy. This is particularly true in the case of blogging, as the main resource needed is time, and we all know time is money. It can feel frustrating maintaining a blog without seeing any immediate financial payoffs. However, especially within the accounting community, it should be easy to understand that the initial time put in will pay off in the long run, even if the benefits are not immediately apparent.

Annuity

Every blog post can generate long-term revenue. Unlike a print ad that’s run for a few months and then discontinued, blogs are indexed by search engines long into the future, assisting new client development months and even years after the original post. Think of every blog post as the start of a cash flow that will continue for the lifetime of the site. Though the return will not show up in dollars right away, it will show up in increased traffic. The more traffic you receive, the higher number of likely conversions from those who read your blog to those who become customers.

Internet Marketing

The key to promoting your accounting business online is by understanding the strategy behind inbound marketing. Outbound marketing is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Consumers are learning how to tune out advertisements that don’t appeal to them. Instead, the most successful Internet marketing campaigns rely on inbound marketing, which involves making sure that those who are online and searching for a niche financial service are finding your company in their search results.

This means that most of the traffic through your site is from people who are already interested and shopping for financial services. If your blog post really captures what your readers have been looking for, those individuals will not only become customers, but will broadcast that choice to friends and family via social media and word of mouth, essentially taking care of your outbound marketing for you.

Networking vs. Experience

New companies just starting out may feel they’re at a loss in comparison to those who have been knocking around the accounting field for longer. Those who are most successful have been cultivating their contacts for years in order to build a deep and far-reaching business network. With Internet marketing, however, any fresh voice can become quickly recognized as an expert in their niche, and blogging is the perfect way to accomplish this. By writing a series of posts addressing a specific topic that may not have been addressed elsewhere in the financial world, very soon that blogger becomes the go-to source for that market.

Reputation

Financial blogging allows even newcomers to establish a solid reputation in a comparatively short amount of time. By focusing efforts on a niche market, you can carefully nurture new client development through your website analytics, determining which keywords are bringing in readers and continuing this strategy for optimum success in both business and blogging.

Understanding Inbound Marketing - How the Proper Marketing………...

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…………can help accountants, CPA’s, financial services firms and financial consultants “get found!”  Those accounting firms that have already embraced inbound marketing are experiencing significant growth in lead generation, lead capture, internet marketing “buzz” and have differentiated themselves from their competitors in new client development. 

Let’s face it, the traditional model of marketing and advertising is broken.  Prospective customers are sick of being “sold” and have switched to commercial free radio, use caller id, get their news online, DVR television programming to speed through commercials and have shunned traditional sales techniques.  Now they search for products or services online.  Those firms that embrace internet marketing are winning, leaving their out-dated competition in the dust.  Through the use of inbound marketing (sometimes referred to as content marketing) new client development has become a win-win strategy for customer and company alike.  Rather than being sold, consumers are seeking out companies that demonstrate they can make their lives better.

The use of internet marketing, or inbound marketing as it is better known, can help you in a number of ways, specifically:

¨      Gain an increased brand awareness

¨      Get found by those in need of your services or products

¨      Create competitive differentiation between you and  your competitors

¨      Capture leads and convert prospects to customers

¨      Gain measurable results and identify real return on investment

¨      Raise the rankings of your website in the search engines

How can this all happen by switching to inbound marketing?  Well, it cannot be summed up in a sentence or two. It takes a dialogue with your web master (outside agent or internal department) about additional advantages and action steps necessary to achieve higher results. 

CPA firms, accountants, financial firms and most consultant websites lack an interactive site.  Other than social media follow buttons, a quick scan of sites reflects a lack of blogs, calls to action for free information, surveys, offers or any other form of interaction by prospects with the business.  Today’s marketing concept is relationship oriented, and unless there is a dialogue with potentials, they just might remain nothing more than suspects.  Interactivity is key to converting visitors to a site to a lead. 

Even further effort remains to convert a lead to a customer, but that is why we all have web sites after all, isn’t it?  New client development is the crux of any business, and inbound marketing for accounting firms, financial services and consulting firms in the financial services field are in much need of a comprehensive internet marketing strategy.

If you are still unsure of what inbound marketing is and what it can do for your firm, consider these bullet items. An inbound marketing firm can assist you with:

¨      Setting up a blog and perform blog posting

¨      Aligning social media sites and your web site and blog interactively

¨      Build back links to bolster your website's awareness with major search engines

¨      Create Call to Action Campaigns

¨      Design Email Campaigns for lead nurturing

¨      Provide keyword building for web site and on-page optimization

¨      Produce pay per click campaigns

¨      Increase the number of leads generated

Inbound marketing grows new client development, and more leads means more clients. More clients mean greater ROI, and bringing top line revenues in affordably is key to success in the digital world we live in.  Inbound leads are more than 60% less expensive to generate than traditional advertising.

There are dozens of other tactical and analytical advantages to becoming involved with an inbound marketing agency.  The only decision that is pending is not if, but when, you will decide to get involved.

Internet or Inbound Marketing & The 5 Critical Stages

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Marketers today prefer the term marketing sales funnel, as the top of the pipeline is wider than the bottom, where many prospects (suspects?) enter, but through qualification, choice and follow through determine how many actually proceed from suspect to customer.  Some marketers also believe there is an undisputed path by which prospects make their way through the funnel, but it is my belief that there is more than one road leading from the top of the funnel to the customer bucket beneath.

A search on the internet will expose the term START.  High energy information sales hawks subscribe to this formula, which is an acronym for Strategy, Target market, Aesthetics, Results and Traffic.  At Zen Marketing we think they have it backwards, and in fact wrong.

The 5 critical stages of creating an internet marketing sales process in my belief mirrors the customer buying cycle. 

1)      Traffic - Generating enough leads takes awareness that your product or service exists, so traffic generation will be the key to success. A consumer buying cycle begins with being aware of a need and a realization that your product or service web site has the ability to service that need.

2)      Relationship – The entire process of driving traffic to your site for the purposes of growing a marketing sales process is to develop a relationship to prospective customers. This may be called lead nurturing, and there are processes for it. The buying process calls this consideration.  It is a customer evaluation of how your offers differ from others, and how they relate to their needs.

3)      Call to Action – Providing incentive, information, credibility and reasons to act on our offers. Preference or Intent is how the customer and their inclinations are considered, whether emotional or logical, brings them closer to a buying decision. This is the foundation of good inbound marketing.

4)      Transaction – The act of purchasing or passing on one’s offer.  The goal is for the lead to become a customer, and the sales cycle is more individualized than some marketers appreciate, but this is individualized marketing. Reflective of the buying cycle, the sales cycle mirrors it.  It is the act of purchasing from your site.

5)      Repurchase or Referral – The customer for life mentality in place and acted upon in an ongoing nurturing and marketing/sales effort.  Customer loyalty is key. For buyers, the process that causes them to stick with you for the long term, repeat purchasing and referring others.

Working through the critical marketing and sales processes is different than the former methodology of pushing persuasive ads and inducements to sale, and is better received than the old model.  A good internet marketer understands the process and embraces it just like the consumers of the 21st century.  Businesses looking to the future would be wise to embrace it as well.