HubSpot’s Secret Weapon for Massive Lead Generation
Traditional marketing techniques are quickly becoming ineffective and outdated.
People can place themselves on a do-not-call list. DVR has decreased the effectiveness of TV commercials. Email spam blockers are getting progressively better at keeping unsolicited email out.
While these tools are great for consumers who can now conduct their own online research on products and services, it has made the marketer’s job much more difficult.
Moving Away From Annoying Marketing to ‘Marketing People Love’
To reach consumers, marketers need to step outside the traditional marketing box and develop new methods and ideas.
HubSpot did just that. In response to changes in buying patterns, HubSpot championed a new marketing model: inbound marketing.
The goal of this model is to get you to stop interrupting your customers and start educating them.
“When making marketing decisions, marketers should ask themselves how they would like to be marketed to. Would they, as individuals, like to be purchased in a list and spammed, or would they prefer to be educated to the point they reach out to a company to ask questions?” said Mark Roberge, SVP of Sales and Services at HubSpot, in a recent webinar on personalizing the buyer experience with Ken Krogue, President and Founder of XANT, and Ralf VonSosen, Head of Marketing at LinkedIn Sales Solutions.
Educating Consumers with Content
How do you educate? The answer: quality content. Consistent production of solid, remarkable content establishes a relationship between the company and the consumer. This does not mean throwing around an excessive amount of content about your product. It means becoming a trusted source of valuable information on topics your customers care about.
MDeverywhere, an expert medical billing service company based in Waltham, Mass., adopted this marketing model. It produces content specific to the medical industry that is often not related to its service, including information about the Affordable Care Act.
The company’s marketing director, Elin McNally, says there are constant changes in the healthcare industry, and the goal is to help others understand those changes.
“People have called us regarding content we’ve put out about the Affordable Care Act to find out what they have to do to be compliant,” McNally says. “It has nothing to do with our service, but they now know who we are.”
No Such Thing as ‘Too Much Content’
Blog. Tweet. Post on social media networks.
A HubSpot study indicates a company can’t produce too much good content. The more content produced, the better, Roberge says.
The Secret Weapon
However, mass content creation shouldn’t fall on the already-busy president or CEO. The solution HubSpot came up with may surprise you. It surprised me initially.
Hire a professional journalist.
XANT followed HubSpot’s example and brought me and a few other professional journalists onboard to provide quality content and education for inside sales leaders.
Journalists do not need to be experts in the company’s industry. They do need to be able to interview and tell stories.
Once or twice a week, the reporter will interview a thought leader from the company and produce an ebook, a few blog articles, and a couple dozen social media posts from that interview.
How Does This Help Your Company?
Buyers will see tweets and LinkedIn posts and click on them. They will read your blog post, which will suggest a free ebook on the same topic. Interested readers will then be taken to a landing page where they can access the ebook for free in exchange for their name, email and phone number.
“This process creates a really nice funnel of traffic and leads,” Roberge says. “People feel like they have a great personalized experience, starting with some very specific point of interest. They start to get engaged with a company’s particular brand.”
Roberge points out another advantage: frequent, remarkable content that attracts links and social media posts gets Google’s attention.
“You will win at the search game as well,” he says.
Free eBook: Secrets Revealed – Master Tactics for Exponential Growth and the Secrets of Contact Ratios
Gain access to XANT and HubSpot best practices from industry experts Ken Krogue and Mark Roberge.
