Episode 109: How “Google it!” Changed Marketing Guest: Jamie Gosweiler
This is Prove It. A podcast for impatient business owners, overwhelmed marketers, and PR practitioners with no time for podcasts. In just 10 minutes they answer 3 questions and offer proof of what’s working in marketing communications today. Here’s Debbie Albert, President of Albert Communications.
Debbie Albert: Welcome! On this episode of Prove It, we’re going to dip our toes into inbound marketing with Jamie Gosweiler. Jamie’s with JG Consulting Internet Services and a friend and a colleague. He’s been in the world of digital marketing for over 15 years. But today, we’re going to focus just on inbound, which is a sub-set of digital marketing. So, Jamie, welcome!
Jamie Gosweiler: Hey Debbie, thanks for having me!
Debbie: It is my pleasure! As you know we have 10 minutes for 3 questions, a couple of sidebars thrown in, and then I’m going to ask you to prove it. So, are you ready?
Jamie: Let’s do it!
Debbie: Alright, here we go! Can you help us understand what inbound marketing is and why it’s a sub-set of digital marketing?
Albert Communications • 215.283.6006 • www.albertcommunications.com
Jamie: Sure. So inbound marketing, by definition, is all about attracting the right types of clients to any business. So, it’s about producing content that’s helpful, producing content that’s relevant, that people are searching for. And that’s the definition of inbound marketing. It’s bringing people to your business instead of interrupting their day with advertisements and things that people get bombarded with these days. Inbound marketing is all about finding the right content that produces touch points that they see you as helpful and their journey to buying and becoming a customer.
Debbie: And that’s just one piece of digital. Digital is wider than that, correct?
Jamie: Right. So, you think of digital marketing, you think of all of your inbound techniques, your outbound techniques. You want to have a balance of attacks. You shouldn’t just have an all inbound effort. It should be a little bit of everything. So digital marketing is things that you do online to market your business.
Debbie: Okay, so my second question is, if you could talk just a little bit about the rise in inbound marketing. When did it begin, why is it here to stay? You and I have had an awful lot of conversations about this for well over a year and so, if [laughs] you could share with our listeners, this incredible rise in it. And as you know it took me a long, long time to sort of get it, so I don’t expect our listeners to get it in 10 minutes. But, if you could just give a little sense of why?
Jamie: Sure. So, you know maybe 10 or 12 years ago is when we started to see Facebook and some of the social media sites really take hold of the internet and obviously, people started realizing they had other resources to go to online and you know, Google really became the place that people would go and to search for and discover information. And you know you no longer had to reach out to a company with a question. If you had a question about what you were looking for you just Googled it.
Albert Communications • 215.283.6006 • www.albertcommunications.com
Debbie: Google it! Google it!
Jamie: Right! So people go out and they Google information and they find it and they kind of self-educate. And that became the change in terms of going from the power being held by the people that have those products and services to, some would call in the industry, the internet empowered consumer in which they’re now in charge by going out and finding answers that they need, you know, they have questions about. And that’s how inbound marketing took place. Companies started realizing, “Well, we can put this helpful content out there” and help answer those questions and be a resource for people instead of focusing on just interrupting everybody with ‘Look at our ad,’ ‘Look at our business and our brand,’ and instead, focusing on developing blogs and content and things that are more helpful than interruptive. And so, that whole process began and had its roots around the 2006, 2007 timeframe, and it has really taken off since then.
Debbie: And the reason I guess, that it’s here to stay is because people are now used to getting “free content.” There’s a ton of work that goes into by the subject matter expert, but people want to go to your site, download free content, even though it’s not totally free, cause you’re giving them your name and email address. But now, we’ve kind of stepped up the game to get to this point. So now you can’t step back and not offer it.
Jamie: Right. That’s a good way of thinking of it. You started the conversation. That’s what this is all about. Starting conversations. So, I think that this business that want to stay in business and be competitive, they need to continue having conversations. And you know, putting that information out there in the form of blogs and like you just said. You know the new currency, (that’s actually a good point Debbie), the new currency, name and email address, it’s kind of a big deal and getting that, that’s like somebody raising their hand and asking for help, and by putting that information behind a form, where we capture their name and email address, we can start that conversation. We’re giving something away of value in exchange for that name and email that we can then start a conversation.
Albert Communications • 215.283.6006 • www.albertcommunications.com
Debbie: Correct. It’s slower, it’s more direct, but a slow drip marketing campaign done online when people Google something, looking for information. They find something for free on someone’s website, they download it, the company gets their name and email address and can continue marketing directly to them knowing that they’re already interested in the product.
Jamie: Exactly. Well said, that’s exactly right!
Debbie: It took me a year to get to that, though. [laughs] So if a business is getting started on an inbound activity, what’s the first step they should take, and why?
Jamie: Right, so because inbound marketing by nature is being helpful and relevant to your customer, the first thing a company should do is, without a doubt, start to craft their what’s called their buyer personas. It’s defining who they’re customers are, why they buy from you in the first place, what they’re challenges are, and then being able to develop your content plan and content calendar for delivering that content to the customers. So, step one is definitely defining who your ideal customers are, because without that, we really can’t create helpful content that solves their problems.
Debbie: And that’s true. I’ll interrupt. That’s true when we do anything with any of our clients. Who is the audience?
Jamie: That’s it.
Albert Communications • 215.283.6006 • www.albertcommunications.com
Debbie: Yep. So, keep going. You know the first step, so they have to understand who the customers are and I think you usually talk about their pain point, as well.
Jamie: That’s right. So, who they are, what keeps them up at night, what they’re pain points are… One thing you go through and exercise is what questions do they ask, you know, what are the questions they ask when they become aware of a problem that includes a solution that your business might offer? Or what comes up in terms of, you know when they’re ready to make that buying decision. What are they looking at in terms of choices, and you know, your competition? So, understanding where they are in different stages of their journey to purchase is really important. So, you kind of define who they are, what their challenges and pain points are, and then finally, when they’re about to make a decision, what typically influences that decision? Answering those stages of your inbound marketing effort is the key to making it all happen.
PROVE IT!
Debbie: Great! So, I asked 3000 questions, and now we’re up to the Prove It part. So, Jamie, can you tell us a story about a client who invested in inbound marketing, started with a persona development and how they saw a return on their investment?
Jamie: Sure, so I’ve been working with this one client who sells, they’re a manufacture rep firm in the mid-Atlantic region and they represent security products. A big security manufacturer in the space. And so, they were trying to get their products to the customers, they had a Constant Contact list of maybe 3000 customers and they were sending email blasts regularly, but not getting a lot of pull through in terms of conversions. They would send email blasts out and they would get their typical 18 – 20% open rate and some clicks, but nobody really converted. So, what we decided to do, we defined a persona, a segment of their audience as the IT guy. And so…
Albert Communications • 215.283.6006 • www.albertcommunications.com
Debbie: IT guy.
Jamie: Yeah, the Information Technology guy, right?
Debbie: Everyone needs the IT guy!
Jamie: The IT guy, right. And believe it or not, I’ve been categorized as the IT guy before. [laughs] That’s a whole ‘nother story, but…
Debbie: Jamie, that is a compliment!
Jamie: Well, thank you! So anyway, we crafted this great persona on the IT guy and then we created an eBook. And all we did with that email blast was send out the eBook to the 3200 subscribers on their list. And within the next couple of weeks they got about 500 downloads.
Debbie: Oh my God! That’s enormous!
Jamie: Yeah it was great! So, and out of that, they were able to generate a few, one really big contract, but several smaller contracts for their offices. And so, you know, that process opened their eyes to the concept of what inbound marketing is, and how it works, and that it does work. And so, if you segment your, and define your audience, and the subject matter was very important at the time to the IT guy of having an understanding of how this certain security system will impact that IT person’s network. And so that was the technical side of
Albert Communications • 215.283.6006 • www.albertcommunications.com
the eBook. And that’s why it was downloaded so much, was because it dealt with kind of a hot topic issue for IT people.
Debbie: Fascinating! Alright, there is so much more to talk about with this. I want to thank you for being here today. You gave us great insights! We heard 10 minutes about inbound marketing, but I want to tell our listeners that Jamie’s coming back. We have a lot more to talk about and so I want everyone to keep listening for more ideas, more trends, and what we say, more clarity in marketing communications today. Thanks, Jamie, and thank you everyone for joining us!
Jamie: Thanks, Debbie!
End podcast
Albert Communications • 215.283.6006 • www.albertcommunications.com