Take for example:

    Before bit.ly: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/stats/?eref=sinav
    After bit.ly: http://bit.ly/alqCBD

Now ask yourself which link looks a little more user friendly. Of course not all URLs are long and messy, but for ones that are, bit.ly is the perfect solution because it makes URLs much easier to share on web pages, emails and social media like Twitter. Which brings me to my second reason.

2. bit.ly encourages sharing

With the help of bit.ly you can share your thoughts and new and improved URL instantly through social media (i.e. Twitter). This is important because a Tweet only allows 140 characters, so shorter URLs allow for more characters to be used on the actual message, not the URL.

3. bit.ly tracks and assembles data on your links

bit.ly does a fantastic job of providing comprehensive data for its members. Signed-in users get a personalized summary of their link’s click data. This allows members to see how many clicks their link is getting over time, as wells as top referrers and click locations. This helps companies see who their prospects are and where they are from.
 

Nothing has become more laughable or terrifying in all of marketing than to see those monstrosities of marketing invading office and apartment lobbies. Last year around this time, I drove around in an '84 Camaro with a mulleted-American (yes, this would be the second straight post where I've conjured up the ghost of Jake) collecting unwanted Yellowbooks and delivering them to the doorstep of the local distributor. They were kind enough to take them back. Others, like Ed Kohler of Minneapolis, have been much more militant in their approach. Hats off to him and others.

This morning I learned from my colleague Julie that Seattle is considering legislation to limit the distribution of Yellowbooks. Of course this is a great idea. I'd love to see our mayors consider similar moves.

Yellowbooks may seem the most offensive because they're the most visible. In some office buildings, it would take a forklift to remove the stash of unwanted booty. Yet I wonder how many companies have their own version of "Yellowbook" waste in their plans. No secret here that I've long been a critic of banner advertising, where billions of dollars flow into ad networks with no real accountability or promise of results. The dreaded "impression" is a sort of don't-worry-be-happy metric that lulls advertisers into thinking they might actually be doing something worthwhile. So I find it curious that we loathe the sight of a stack of Yellowbooks when we ourselves might be staring down the barrel of our own deep ocean financial oil leaks. Sure, it's going on down there but just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not happening. (Man, I love mixing metaphors! Yellowbooks! Oil leaks! Google bait!)

Here are some other egregious marketing oversights:

- Blindly taking Google's recommended spend with them on keywords that simply will never return high quality traffic.

- Batch-n-blast email campaigns where a single, non-targeted or segmented message is wantonly sent to an entire database. Waste of time, money, and efforts...over and over again.

- Twitter. Yup, I said it. I worry that agencies and companies alike are spending loads of precious brainpower communicating in a Chinese-water drip torture fashion only to their friends, employees and colleagues. I worry that no one has any idea who's following them or who cares.

So, the next time you pass a mountain of Yellowbooks in your lobby and before you become offended, think carefully and loudly about where your own looming stack of unaccountable dollars are flowing. If you don't know, you probably have a problem right there. Know. Then know a little more.

I mean this quite honestly. If you're reading this and worry even a little bit about your own wasteful ways, get your marketing team together, shut the door, and ask yourselves, "Is there a stack of Yellowbooks in our marketing and advertising plans?" Then do something about it. And if you come across some interesting finds, share them here with others. As business pundits talk of a possible depression in the American economy, I would suggest that there's no better time than now to start investigating.

www.ciceron.com
612.230.3901 :: LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreweklund
Professional Twitter: @HeavyThinking
Personal Twitter: @aeklund

When a prospect visits your website what do they think you're selling? Inbound Marketing?

You provide inbound marketing, but what are you selling? Are you selling an inbound marketing strategy? Are you selling a certain software to help do inbound marketing? Are you selling piece of mind for your customer?

When a prospect visits your site, they've come in search of an answer to a problem. You need to know your prospect's pain and you need to provide the remedy. What question do they need answered before they call you, are you answering it?

Chances are, most prospects aren't looking for inbound marketing. They're more likely looking for help to increase traffic to their website, or help writing blogs or doing social media because they don't have time....Answer these questions.

We recently talked about the fact that there is indeed a bottom to the sales funnel, not just a top. But taking that a step further, we feel that the whole analogy of a single sales funnel is incorrect. The single funnel pictures all leads following the same path, so we've created what we call The SMarketing Funnels!

What the Heck is SMarketing?

SMarketing is a sales method we've developed that integrates inbound marketing with direct selling to decrease cost and speed up the sales process.

SMarketing can:

• Enable sales people to sell consultatively
• Decrease sales overhead
• Improve the health of the sales pipeline
• Increase sales
• Reduce cost for each lead by 60%
• Achieve closed/won rates of 90%
• Track ROI in a closed-loop system

 What the Heck are the SMarketing Funnels?

The o'mighty Internet has people consuming differently and has allowed companies to generate a ton more leads in a more cost effective way with inbound marketing. But what exactly is a lead, and where do these leads go once they're generated? 

A lead is a likely candidate who intends to buy a product or service soon. In terms of SMarketing, a percentage of leads come from inbound marketing and a lesser percentage come from outbound marketing. But whether inbound or outbound, all leads develop at different rates, and if placed above a single funnel they would not all trickle down the 'Buy Later' funnel in a predictable, orderly fashion (as the single funnel analogy shows). Instead, some leads would fall to the right of the funnel, some leads would fall into the funnel, and some leads would fall to the left of the funnel.

The SMarketing Funnels are a network of funnels that represent the 'true' sales process. Some leads fall into the 'Buy Never' funnel and should immediately slide away. Other leads fall into the 'Buy Now' funnel and proceed to slide into the sales funnel below. The last set of leads fall into the 'Buy Later' funnel where they need to climb down a few nurturing ladders before they reach the slide to the sales funnel below.

It's a bit like a SMarketing Playground, and we've created an image to sum it all up! 

  Check it out!

Breaking news, there is more than just a top to the sales funnel... there's a bottom too!

The Missing Link
The Internet truly has lead to a new way in which people consume, and thus has lead to a new era in how we market to the online consumer. However, I feel a huge component has been lost in translation. We've forgotten about the end of the funnel... the SALE! We can generate all the leads we want with inbound marketing; adding and adding and adding to the top of the funnel, but what good are any of these leads if we don't get them through to the bottom of the funnel. In the end, it still comes down to having to close the deal and make the sale.

When it comes down to running a business, the bottom line to keeping a business on it's feet is the sale right? The sale is what brings in the "cha ching," and without it your business is dead.

The Take-Away
Marketing and sales work hand in hand and must align. You can't talk about inbound marketing without talking about sales. It can be said that Inbound marketing has made acquiring more leads easier, quicker, more automated, and cheaper, but however you want to say it, it's still just the means. You can't forget about the end goal; You still have to close deals, and thus you can't forget about the bottom of the funnel.

What is your demand generation requirement to meet your sales goals? Ask yourself how many people you must meet to reach these goals, and then use marketing in combination (traditional, inbound, direct selling) to work backwards from here; Because remember, Inbound marketing is only the topside of the equation.

Start closing more sales today!

Re-posted from the GPS Public Relations Blog

Written by Jane Garee