How Many Posts Does Your Business Blog Need to Grow Leads? At Least 20.

This is the second of three articles that share findings from The State of Inbound Lead Generation, a new HubSpot report based on statistical analysis of 1,400 customers' inbound marketing activities. The study identifies lead generation best practices based on results from these companies. The report and this article were written by Sophie L. Schmitt.

In the last post, we discussed the strong connection between Google indexed pages and leads. Here, we're taking a look at the significant positive relationship between blogs and leads. More specifically, we're looking at blog usage as well as blog size based on the number of articles available on the blog.

Blogs Need to Reach a Critical Mass of Articles to Generate Leads

We grouped 760+ HubSpot customers who blog into four different categories based on the size of their blogs. When comparing the median customer's monthly lead number in each category, we observed that leads started to grow once blogs offered a critical mass of articles, on the order of 20 to 50 articles.

Customers with blog article numbers above this critical threshold are likely to have enough content to make a significant impact on search engines through additional indexed pages and new keywords with which to associate. In addition, other sites are more likely to link to a blog that offers a steady stream of content. Customers with blogs of 24+ articles are more likely to be committed to updating their blog frequently and, thus, are likely to generate more traffic from referring sites.

The graph also indicates that lead growth has the potential to a ccelerate for customers who grow blogs beyond the critical threshold. Customers with 52+ blog articles generated median leads that were 77% higher than the median result in the "24-51 article" group. This growth is twice the increase between the prior two groups (30%).

Marketers With Blogs Generate 67% More Leads

Along with blog size, we looked at plain and simple blog usage. We have written about the impact of blog usage on leads before. Here, we compared median leads of customers who blog to those of customers who don't. We looked at leads over a three month period (November '09 through January '10).

As expected, the median customer who blogs generated 6 7% more leads than the median customer who does not blog, or 15 vs. 9 leads. The results were the same for both B2B and B2C customers in our sample. 

This graph also shows that marketers with small blogs (fewer than 10 articles available) generate similar lead results to marketers who choose not to create a blog.

Marketing Takeaways

Marketers who are not blogging are leaving leads on the table. Marketers who do blog must invest time and effort in developing a blogging pro cess that ensures there is always a critical mass of articles available to attract visitors who convert to leads. Blogs impact leads because they:

• Grow indexed pages in Google more rapidly than by adding web site pages. As we showed earlier, the more Google indexed pages a site has, the more leads it is likely to obtain.
• Increase the number of keywords marketers rank for in Google. Through blogs, marketers have the opportunity to create unique content that can be different from their web site content. They have the potential to significantly increase the number of keywords they rank highly for in Google. 
• Generate inbound links, which are a central factor in Google's org anic search ranking algorithm. Other related sites are likely to link to a blog that provides interesting and fresh content.
• Increase repeat visitors. Blogs give visitors a reason to come back and interact with sites.

Read article 1 in this 3-part series.

 

Want to read more? Download the full State of Inbound Lead Generation report.

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5 Call-To-Action Lessons From Craigslist Scalpers

We've all done it. We forget to buy tickets for an important game or concert when they first go on sale. Because of this mistake, we then spend hours on Craigslist looking for tickets, ending up clicking on all types of sketchy ads.

Why? Because some Craigslist scalpers are great call-to-action (CTA) writers. While looking at spreadsheets and attending workshops are important educational opportunities, I would argue that a few minutes of looking at ticket scalpers' ads on Craigslist can also provide ammunition to bolster your lead generation activities.

Don't believe me? I took just 5 minutes on Craigslist, and here is what I learned. 

1. Context Matters -- When we use Craigslist to look for tickets or anything else for that matter, most of the time we have a clear idea of what we are looking for. For example, if you are looking for Boston Red Sox tickets and you see a random ad for "Boston Tickets," you're likely not going to click on it. The same is true if you are a B2B company that is working to generate leads to sell medical supplies. CTAs work best when they are in the right context. To make your CTAs work better, it is important that you segment your content. For example, if you are putting CTAs with blog posts, make sure that the CTA relates to the content of the post as closely as possible. 

2. You Hav e to Get Noticed, Even When People Are Looking -- When people are on a web page, many visual elements can distract them. On Craigslist, people visit the site with the intention to buy, but they don't go through and click all the ads. One of the things I love about looking at Craigslist ads is that every seller is working with the same text ad, yet some can make ads grab your attention by using tactics like all CAPS. Design matters.  It isn't good enough that somebody has decided to come to your site; it is your job to create a CTA that has the visual appeal to convert them into a lead.

3. Pricing Too Soon Can Be a Deal Breaker -- How many of you have avoided a Craigslist advertisement simply based of the price listed in the headline? Be honest; we all have done it. The lesson to learn here is to avoid mentioning pricing in your CTA whenever possible. Focus on creating non-monetary value for the prospect to help ensure they will convert without being influenced prematurely by price.

4. Building Trust Only Takes a Split Second -- When looking for tickets, one of the most comforting phrases you can see is "face value." It makes you think that the person is a fan and not a scalper after your hard-earned cash. What is the "face value" of your CTAs? What is a word or phrase that you can put in your CTAs today that can help build trust with prospective customers? Find the answer. It is normally some type of phrase that creates a middle ground between you and the customer.

5. Urgency Sells -- Timing is a key factor that drives people to action. Does your CTA have a timing element? Think back to our friends, the Craigslist scalpers. How do they use timing? They use phrases like "won't last long." When creating CTAs, remember to include some type of element of urgency. Some examples: "offer ends tomorrow" or "only for the first 100 visitors." Sure, these phrases need to work with the overall theme of the CTA, but urgency can mean the difference in hitting your leads goal this month or not.

You can learn from anyone at anytime. People who sell tickets through one-line text ads everyday get very good at writing them. Take a few minutes and see what you can learn from Craigslist scalpers that could apply to your business.

What other non-traditional sources do you look to for marketing inspiration?

Photo Credit: David Gallagar

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HubSpot TV - Facebook Features and Email Fun with Guest Co-host @Ellieeille

Watch HubSpot TV live at 4:00 p.m. ET on Fridays at www.hubspot.tv and be sure to use the hashtag #HubSpotTV

Episode #86 - April 2, 2010
(Episode Length: 19 minutes, 27 seconds)

Intro

• How to interact on Twitter: Include #HubSpotTV in your tweet! On the show today is Mike Volpe (@mvolpe), Ellie Mirman (@ellieeille), and Karen is out this week.
• As always, all the old episodes are in iTunes: http://itunes.hubspot.tv If you like the show, please leave a review!
• Starting next week! - move videos! - 20 fun and entertaining HubSpot videos once a week every Tuesday at 12:00 noon EDT on http://blog.hubspot.com

Headlines

Facebook Launches 3 New Features for Marketers

• Conversion Tracking
  • Three Problems With Facebook's New Conversion Tracking Feature
  • Track clicks on Facebook ads through to conversion on your page on your website.
• Community Pages
  • Facebook Launches Community Pages for the 'Unofficial'
  • For unofficial topics, create a Community page, not a Business page or Group. If the community page spikes in popularity, Facebook will take the control of the page from you and "hand it over to the Facebook community" to be managed wiki-style.
• "Like" Pages
  • Facebook Wants You To “Like” Everything On The Web
  • Facebook Users Will Soon “Like” a Page to Become a Fan, not “Become a Fan”
  • Facebook is changing the way fans interact with pages; instead of "becoming a fan" they can now "like" a page. A key motivation? Facebook says people click the "Like" button twice as much as the "Become a Fan" button.
    
• Marketing Takeaway: Facebook is welcoming marketers, you should accept their invitation to do business there.

Email Marketing - Opt-in or Opt-out

• Should email marketing be opt-in or opt-out by default? What is right for B2B companies? B2C?
• B2Bs: Your Email Policy Could Be Hurting You
• Why Opt Out is Not a B2B Marketing Strategy
• B2B Email Marketing: Is an Opt-Out Policy Best?
• Surprise! Internal B2B Email Lists Are Far More Effective Than Third-Party Lists
• Marketing Takeaway: Your reputation is important, being aggressive might work in the short term, but your brand and reputation are even more important in today's transparent social media world.

Twitter Predicts Box Office Sales Better Than Experts

• Twitter Predicts Box-Office Sales Better Than a Prediction Market [Updated] (Jean Bredache)
• For a B&B That Doesn’t Exist, the Online Reviews Keep Coming
• HP Labs used an analysis of Tweets during the first two opening weekends of movies to predict their sales.
  
• Mareting Takeaway: Use social media to listen to your audience and get mass real-time feedback.

Forum Fodder

• From Laura Hoffman on Inbound.org - When you launch a new blog, should you fill it with a couple months of backdated content?

Marketing Tip of the Week: Don't underestimate the value of brand management, at the end of the day you are doing business with people and you need to build that relationship for the best long-term results.

Closing

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Social CRM: Lessons for Retaining Customers with Inbound Marketing

The tools of inbound marketing are most often talked about for attracting new prospects and converting them into customers. However, these methods can be used for the equally important activities of customer satisfaction and retention.  Brent Leary, an authority in the emerging Social CRM industry recently compiled insight and expertise from 15 customer experience leaders across all industries in a new ebook The Social Contract.

Lessons for Leveraging Inbound Marketing for Customer Retention 

• Customer Care is the New PR & Marketing - In fact Chris Brogan and Julien Smith of Trust Agents fame stated that customer care is the new PR, while Sanjay Dholakia of Lithium said that it is the new marketing. I think they are both on to something. Whether you want to call it word-of-mouth marketing or an extension of social media marketing, it is crystal clear that customers WILL share their opinions about you. The opinions, good or bad, that customers share about your product or brand do more to shape the market's perception of your company than almost any marketing you could do. And the web provides them endless forums to share: blogs, Twitter, Facebook and countless interest based sites and forums.
  
  
• Customer Service & Marketing Should Work Together More - "Never before have customer service professionals been in a position to be directly seen and heard by their customers and the C-level executives. These comments are a permanent record of what customers think about your company. Can't take them down, delete them or destroy them. And you can't pretend any longer that they don't exist. They do," expanded Dr. Natalie Petouhoff of Forrester Research. Never before has there been more transparency about product and service quality - making it more likely that only ‘good' offerings will thrive. Perhaps this also means that the relationship between marketing and customer care should be one that is cultivated with greater care. These two teams are far too often silo'd but can greatly benefit from intense collaboration.
  
  
• Solve Product & Service Fundamentals Before you Launch Social Media Initiatives - "The thing that organizations need to realize is that, although engaging with customers via social media channels can provide very real benefits, it is not going to remove - or for that matter even mask - problems with an organization's level of customer commitment, the quality of actual products/services, or the efficacy of a company's post-sales customer-service and support processes." John Burton SAP's Director of Product Management in the CRM organization highlights the downfalls of jumping in with two feet before looking to see if the pool is full. His lesson is on point, whether you are in marketing or customer service - without a clear value proposition, tweeting for mark eting will only make folks more confused, just as opening up a Facebook page for customers who are dissatisfied is a misappropriation of resources. First work with customers to fix the basics and then use social media to engage in ongoing dialog that can keep making it better and develop loyalty.
  
  
• Empower Customers to Become Part of the Service or Marketing Equation - Ellen Filipiak, SVP of Customer Care at DIRECTV, shares how forums and customer engagement have not only made dents in the direct cost of customer care, but how they engage with users to uncover new needs and get folks willing to test new features on their behalf. In fact, on DIRECTTV's self-service help forums a group of only 8 volunteer customers provides 28% of the FAQ responses. It is these same users who get early access and are spreading the gospel about DIRECTTV. The ability to interact and the empowerment with information and tools is an excellent customer care and marketing vehicle.
  
  
• No Matter the Purpose, Authenticity and Personal Relationships Trump Technology - Another cable customer service expert, Frank Eliason of Comcast reiterated that it is about the relationship. "...the basics of Customer Service are invaluable in this space. One that I learned early on is personalization. We would never answer a call with ‘XYZ company, what do you want?' We identify ourselves. That is why my team members each have their own Twitter ID and can personalize it as they see fit." Luckily for marketers, there are a number of ways to interact in social media forums on behalf of your company while also identifying yourself as an individual. This best practice will be around as long as humans have personalities and feelings - which I for one, hope is a very long time.

Inbound Marketing Takeaways

1. Inbound marketing spans the entire organization. Share tools and best practices across departmental boundaries.
2. Ask yourself what you as a marketer can learn from your customer organization about developing authentic and meaningful relationships that span physical and digital realms.
3. Practice authenticity in your marketing as if you were a customer care professional with a long term relationship with that prospect - even if you are tasked primarily with ‘bringing the leads' you should set up a long term relationship for your whole company to win and retain the best customers.

Image Courtesy of lomokev

 

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Learn how companies are using inbound marketing techniques to generate higher volume and lower cost leads and customers. Date and time: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 1:00pm EDT  R eserve Your Spot Now

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