Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies A Demonstration Project 9/2/2012 Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area Jan Bush
Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
Contents Five Marketing Strategies Integrated ................................................................ 3 1 Inbound Marketing ................................................................................... 3 2 Content Marketing.................................................................................... 4 3 Permission Marketing ............................................................................... 5 4 Relationship Marketing.............................................................................. 6 5 Target Marketing ..................................................................................... 7 Who we are .................................................................................................. 8 About Land Between The Lakes .................................................................... 8 National Demonstration Authority............................................................... 9 About Quinnipiac University ....................................................................... 10 Capstone Project .................................................................................... 10 About the Author ...................................................................................... 11 Inbound Marketing Strategy Success Criteria ............................................. 12
Don’t cry because it is over. Smile
because it happened. Dr. Seuss Courtesy of @Inspired_Ones
Cover photo by John taken at the Homeplace at Land Between The Lakes in April 2012 Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
The only thing constant is change.
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Welcome to Find us with inbound marketing. In this series of eBooks, I will share my knowledge and experience in marketing and communications in an internet world. I also plan to document my approach transitioning from legacy marketing [paid advertising, print material, trade shows, etc.] into an effective inbound marketing program – where customers easily find us and like us. Before we begin in earnest, I want to define the strategies that guide me in my marketing efforts in this introduction. Inbound marketing started because of the internet and contains the other four strategies that influence me the most when working marketing. This effort began as my Capstone Project for my Masters of Science in Interactive Media degree and continues as a Demonstration Project for my employer. Know that throughout this book, the views expressed are mine and mine alone. They do not reflect the views of my employer nor Quinnipiac University. Other than the graphics and photos, feel free to use any part of this book for your personal use or to share with others. The personal photos are copyrighted as are most of the graphics which I pulled from Microsoft Clip Art. Please be sure to reference and link back to this eBook site or to my original reference points – whichever is most appropriate.2 eBook link: www.findusmarketing.com Jan Bush Life Adventurer Follow me on Twitter @JanBush2 P.S. I have listed the references and bibliographies in a separate eBook. In electronic form, the Table of Contents links to the section listed. I plan to update this eBook once a year or more as needed. I will also be blogging about marketing and the internet.
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One of the most quoted statements in my life. It is attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heraclitus 2 Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
Five Marketing Strategies Integrated 1 Inbound Marketing Inbound marketing places you where your customers expect you to be without looking. It integrates with the four other strategies and is the emphasis of this eBook. Inbound developed as a result of social media. These numbers 3 show the penetration of social media into our lives; many would feel lost without it.
100 million active users
130 million members
Google+
400 million estimated by end of 2012
Facebook 1 billion estimated by August of 2012
There’s a strong case for Inbound Marketing strategy as shown in this HubSpot4 table. The inbound marketing strategy focuses on providing unique, relevant, and current content to site visitors; designing websites to conform to the standards of Google, Bing, and Yahoo search engines; and integrating your site with interesting social media conversations with customers and knowledge sharing links. Many great articles exist on Comparison by HubSpot
Inbound Marketing; you can read HubSpot’s inbound explanation
and “Google” the rest. Outbound marketing does factor in with most organizations as again, you want to be where customers expect to find you – and “like” you.
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http://mashable.com/2012/01/12/facebook-1-billion-users/ One billion people on FB!
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My references are my preferences that I am sharing; no endorsement intended.
Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
2 Content Marketing “It is more important than ever to write from your own experience, on topics on which you have first-hand knowledge, in order to create something not only original in sentence structure or word choice, but in essence.” Google “Spam Czar” Matt Cutts5 Content is King In 1996, Bill Gates stated that “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.6” Gates likens the internet revolution to the television revolution of the 1950s where winners delivered “information and entertainment.” Content is critical for inbound marketing success. The best content offers original thoughts in an entertaining way. You will find throughout this eBook authors that I find interesting. 7 Almost all use photos, videos, and graphics to add depth to their articles. According to HubSpot, the tipping point for dynamic content to affect organic search results8 requires twentyone new feature articles in a thirty-day period. Integrating social media postings on websites can help visitors’ perceptions that your site provides current information. Dates also help. People tend to assume that articles without dates contain yesterday’s news. I always go after the most recent bits of information when I am researching for work or pleasure.
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July 11, 2012 interview posted on Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2190942/Googles-Matt-Cutts-Talks-InfographicsDifferentiation-More-SEO-Topics 6
Found the original article through CraigBailey.net who found the original on Web Archive
http://web.archive.org/web/20010126005200/http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1996essa y/essay960103.asp 7
No endorsements intended.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) requires structure that search engines can easily crawl and read.
Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
3 Permission Marketing Government practices require us to have your permission to email you. With Inbound Marketing strategy, permission is required to be successful. You want your content to be engaging enough that your customers and potential customers want you to keep them informed of what’s going on with your organization by email or text. Many companies offer incentives to entice you to “opt in” to their email marketing campaigns. I have been a follower of HubSpot and their downloadable eBooks, slide shows, and white papers since 2010. Often times the freemium, free + premium, is contained in posted articles like iMEDIA CONNECTION9. Most companies offer a chance to opt out with an unsubscribe email. Recently I discovered DIYthemes, a premium service for WordPress users and developers. I downloaded their free eBook: How Nonverbal Website Communication Gets You Sales and Subscribers. Their permission email complied with the CAN-SPAM Act10. It stated right up front their intent: “We're ready to send you tons of valuable, free content from DIYthemes, but first you need to confirm your subscription by clicking on the link below. Thanks!” It closes with, “If you do not want to confirm, simply ignore this message.” I confirmed and now receive their information and offers.
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I often use iMEDIA’s internal search engine to find the topic I want. This link goes to Wikus
Engelbrecht’s article on Email Marketing’s new role in digital’s evolution. Check it out to find out more about email marketing. 10
CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business (PDF)
http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business/ Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
4 Relationship Marketing Social networking sites are all about building relationships and developing trust with customers; critical to effective inbound marketing efforts. Once you’ve developed outstanding content, established an on- and off-line presence, plus acquired a customer following – take time to generate mutual respect relationships between you and your followers. To build relationships you have to be a real person – people relate with people. Develop a human voice. When people direct message (DM) you or comment on your products and services, strike up a conversation – even to say “thank you.” Make the conversations twoway so the customer will talk back to you. Remember to keep it personal on a business level. Sometimes these interactions can fuel ideas for articles that are relevant to other customers and visitors to your site. This is a key piece in moving from the traditional one-way communications to inbound marketing. You will find your own pace to work personal messages through listening and talking to your followers. If you have someone who is full time on social marketing, there are plenty of guidelines for best practices. I list quite a few in the Resource section. If you have to fit it into your normal work day, tools are available that will help you schedule future broadcast messages for upcoming events or notices. Again, the Resource section lists tools, guides, and helpful links. Customer service is another key ingredient. Follow the characteristics and mission of your organization. Remember your frontline people who go face-to-face with your customers, make sure they know what you’re up to in relationship marketing. Be real; integrity is everything. Have fun; enjoy meeting new people and learning what your customers want in an open dialogue.
Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
5 Target Marketing Recently the Forest Service Headquarters requested information on National Forests located “one gas tank away” from metropolitan areas. I think that is a good way to target customers if you’re a destination place. At Land Between the Lakes we have been reaching out to communities that are about “one gas tank away.” We have now stretched that to include major metropolitan areas that have easy access to our National Recreation Area like Chicago, Atlanta, and Kansas City. There are websites, including Facebook that will help us connect.
Most organizations cater to different demographic groups for different reasons. In addition to typical users of your products or services, it is good to consider the demographics of your community. Since Land Between The Lakes sits next to multiple universities and a large Army installation, we focus programs aimed at young couples and young families and target our marketing efforts to reach them. A strong online community for us consists of travel writers. Cultivate media relationships in person and online improves your press releases to be picked up. Industry organizations, tourism bureaus, civic organizations and chambers of commerce provide other target groups. Personal support of these groups in your communities is a good business practice.
Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
Who we are About Land Between The Lakes Land Between The Lakes offers outdoor activities on public land between Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River and Kentucky Lake on the Tennessee River. The 170,000 acre peninsula stretches from northern Tennessee into western Kentucky, providing visitors with trees, wildlife, lake access, environmental education, and outdoor recreational opportunities. Many visitors come for the day to play outdoors; they trail ride bikes, horses and off-road vehicles; visit nature and historical sites; fish along the banks; boat and swim with family and friends. Over 1,300 lake-side camp sites offer a variety of experiences including peace and solitude in natural surroundings. The U.S. Forest Service manages the National Recreation Area and National Demonstration Laboratory as part of the United States Department of Agriculture otherwise known as USDA. The Forest Service partners with Friends of Land Between The Lakes Association to provide accredited interpretive programs, outdoor environmental education, and special events. Learn more about this hybrid forest at www.lbl.org and follow on Twitter @LandBtwnLakes and @LBLScreechOwl.
Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
National Demonstration Authority The Land Between The Lakes Protection Act of 1998 transferred the recreation area to the Department of Agriculture for the U.S. Forest Service to manage. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) had managed the property since its beginning in 1963. According to the Protection Act,11 the mission includes protecting and managing “the resources of the Recreation Area for optimum yield of outdoor recreation and environmental education through multiple use management by the Forest Service” and “to authorize, research, test, and demonstrate innovative programs and cost-effective management of the Recreation Area.” The Communications Department staff, along with the Leadership Team and Program Managers, will transition Land Between The Lakes from legacy to an inbound marketing strategy as a Demonstration Project. We will “research, test, and demonstrate” an innovative inbound marketing program that places information about Land Between The Lakes where customers expect to find us. Included will be an emphasis on Content, Permission, Relationship, and Target Marketing strategies. Documentation of our research, strategy, and results will be available for others to help improve their marketing in the 21st Century.
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http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-105publ277/html/PLAW-105publ277.htm
Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
About Quinnipiac University “Interactive media at Quinnipiac is a 36 credit Master of Science program focusing on the art and practice of creating content for digital distribution.”12 Quinnipiac13 University sits in the heart of Connecticut in Hamden. The University ranked among the nation’s best universities by US News & World Report in 2012. It offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees to more than seven thousand students. It is a private, co-educational university. I participated in their online degree program – Master of Science in Interactive Media. A wiki site continues the dialogue between students, instructors, and alumni in interactive media. You can find it Quinnipiac Interactive Media.
Capstone Project The last requirement for earning my master’s degree is to complete a capstone “experience.” A capstone requires an original masters’ project “that examines a technical, aesthetic or conceptual problem using techniques and approaches within the scope of producing online content.14’ This eBook serves as my capstone project. My focus has me investigating how to take a legacy program into an inbound marketing program and documenting the effort to share with others.
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Statement from the Quinnipiac Interactive Media site
13
Pronounced KWIN-uh-pe-ack
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Copied from my class syllabus
Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
About the Author "I 'yams whats I ams, and dats all that I 'yams
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"
Those famous words from Popeye ring loudly in my mind when I think about describing me. I grew up in the Midwest, the middle child of a salesman who owned a printing company and a math whiz who owned a “pay day” loan business in the 1940s and 50s. I also graduated in the last all-girl senior class of a Catholic high school. In college I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Ceramics. My mother told people I graduated in “politics” as I actively participated in art and student government organizations including serving as the school’s student ombudsman and competing nationally with the Model United Nations team. I have always been a closet geek. I purchased my first computer, an Osborne, in 1982 when I started my marketing firm. Soon after I bought my first Apple Macintosh Computer; it cost me well over six thousand dollars with a dot matrix printer and newly released software -- PageMaker. Fast forward. With close to thirty years working in the advertising and marketing industry, I saw social media rise above traditional advertising. Advances in technology rapidly changed the world – and changed marketing forever. 16 I knew I needed help to master this new medium because my passion and expertise would quickly crumble without a solid understanding of interactive media and inbound marketing in my toolbox. So well into my 50s, I decided to take the plunge. P.S. I still believe in the magic.
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Thank you to “What a Mess” on FunTrivia.com for the Popeye quote.
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Historical timeline reinforces the rapid changes of the WWW, internet, and social media.
http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
Inbound Marketing Strategy Success Criteria What success looks like for Land Between The Lakes by 2014:
Customers engaged online as measured through the number of o
Comments on feature articles
o
Twitter retweets, Facebook likes, YouTube visits, Pinterest repins, etc.
o
Return visitors and their length of time on site
o
Links from other sites
o
Email patrons
Content offered satisfies customers’ needs with o
Unique articles or blogs posted; 22 or more every month
o
Inbound and outbound links activated to/from industry and civic sites
o
Interactive media buttons placed for visitors to connect with social media
o
Future friendly design used with fluid type and responsive layouts
o
Site accessed anywhere, anytime, and on any device
o
User-friendly navigation and URL structure rated as intuitive by customers
Targeted markets postings of online news stories increases as documented through Google Alerts, in-house monitoring, and zip code point-of-sale tracking
Costs of promotional advertising and marketing program remains flat
Fiftieth Anniversary celebration (June 2013-1014) integrated into marketing strategy
Day-use visitation increased by nineteen percent in 2014 tracked through admissions
Jan Bush
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Find us with inbound marketing | 1. Introduction & Five Marketing Strategies
@JanBush2 www.findusmarketing.com Kentucky USA
Jan Bush
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