JUMP START Blog and Online Community

Ever hear the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words"?

Well, in today's ever-changing and evolving world of online media and inbound marketing, a video is worth a million—if not more. Videos have become an integral part of our daily experience on our computers, smart phones, Smart TVs and other devices. This essential form of communication is becoming the main currency of online communication.

Text-based sites are outdated, Currently Google's search engine gives higher priority to video, meaning if you use video, you have over 50x more chances of appearing on the first search page than if you used text. Businesses have to be prepared for this video boom, since trend-watchers like Cisco’s trends analysis predict that by 2018 video will make up 79% of all Internet traffic, going up from today's 66%. So with video being so popular what's the best way to integrate video content onto your site?

So you’ve written a killer blog post, you’ve done the research, it’s insightful and even funny but…no one is reading it. Why?

You probably haven’t paid a lot of attention to the title of your blog, but it's arguably the most important component of your blog post. A catchy and attention-grabbing title draws your readers in and tells them what to expect.

According to Copyblogger, “Eight of ten people will read a title, but just two of ten readers will continue reading the article.”

So how to reach those other eight? You’ve got to write irresistible titles to grab more potential readers.

We’ll show you how to do just that with 10 incredibly easy tactics that can help you improve your blogging skills, so you can write juicy and captivating titles that draw an audience. Before we get to the good stuff, you need to learn why it’s crucial to craft a title.

Still not getting the results you need from inbound marketing? Check out our latest infographic, which contains practical steps for things you can do NOW to see a better ROI!

A wise person who knows their business once said: "Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department." Those are words to live by if you want to keep up with your competitors online.

Since the world of digital marketing is constantly changing, upgrading, and evolving, it's important to collaborate and conspire with industry professionals who have their finger on the pulse and know how to guide you through the labyrinth of online marketing. Everyone wants to put together a well-oiled digital marketing machine, but sometimes that's not possible to do in-house due to lack or training, smaller budgets or personnel constraints.

That's when outsourcing to an external marketing partner can become a key factor in converting. These days, more than a third of modern companies will hire digital marketing professionals or agencies to boost their marketing plan, so why not at least keep it as a weapon in your arsenal?

It's that time of year again! The end of the year is quickly approaching, and you need to start thinking about your 2017 marketing strategy (yikes!).

If this is the first time you're creating a marketing strategy, you might not be sure where to start.

We've put together a list of ten questions that every marketer or business owner should ask themselves in order to create an effective strategy. Be sure to print this list out or bookmark this page so you can refer back to it as you define your strategy. 

Here are the ten questions you need to ask and answer before you can say that your strategy is complete:

1. What are my primary marketing goals? BE SPECIFIC. It's not enough to say "Get more traffic." You need to clarify how much traffic and by when. Quantify your goals and make sure you only pick 2-3 primary goals at the most. Remember you can always add additional goals later—after you achieve your primary goals.
   
   No matter what you do, don't use general or broad goals, such as "I want to increase traffic." It's much better to say "I want to grow my traffic to 10,000 pageviews per month by May 15, 2017" or "I want to increase my marketing-qualified leads to 300 per month by the end of February 2017." Specificity counts and will give you something to shoot for. Aim for realistic yet challenging goals that will push you and your team to excel. If your goals are too easy, you're just wasting energy, time and money.
   
   

Imagine you’re opening a new soda shop, and you want to promote your signature ice cream floats. In order to get word out, you must engage your audience, and social media is the most obvious way to do it. So, you take to Twitter and ask your followers whether they prefer coke floats or root beer floats. Now, imagine that every time users choose coke or root beer, they spread the tweet to their followers, who also engage with your brand. Within a matter of minutes, you can have hundreds of tweets cheering for one flavor over the other, thus creating excitement and brand interest among hundreds of new potential customers.   

The name for this exciting phenomenon is "Twitter Conversational Ads" and "Instant Unlock Cards", and they are very real (no imagination required). They create direct business-to-consumer contact that promotes ad interaction and social sharing. Their primary selling point is obviously their ability to go viral quickly, which is something that marketers have been chasing for years.

These Twitter ads allow for direct interaction and engagement in two ways.

Are you struggling to keep up with your web site project and keep it on track? 

Our new Web Site Project Template Pack can help. This bundle includes five of our most popular templates that we use every day when managing our clients' projects—and now you can use them too!

This template pack includes all of the following:

• Login Information Spreadsheet (XLS) - Keep track of all of your hosting, cpanel, FTP, CMS and database logins in one place.
• Web Site Redesign Progress Spreadsheet (XLS) - Need to keep your redesign or web site refresh project on schedule and make sure you don't miss any critical tasks? This spreadsheet will allow you to track all of the things that need to be done, including who's doing them, when they're due and the status of each task.
• Buyer Persona Template (PPT) - Buyer personas can make or break the success of a web site redesign, but they don't have to be complicated. Use this template and you can clearly define your site's audience in no time!

Leading a marketing team is a big job. You have to define and communicate a marketing strategy, know how and when to give constructive feedback, and deliver it in a positive manner without disrupting team morale and productivity.

Here are some tips that will help you provide feedback clearly, concisely and respectfully:

• Be clear and concise – Address your team with a clear message, and get straight to the point. Explain why you’re bringing a particular issue to their attention so that they can better understand where you’re coming from and be more motivated to actively change for the better. 
• Set emotions aside – No matter what, always separate your emotions so that you can address your team in a calm, collective manner. If you go into a conversation angry or frustrated you’re only going to leave them in a defensive state causing miscommunication, unresponsive action and shut-down. 

Facebook is in the process of rolling out new design changes for business pages.  So, the question on every marketer’s mind - what’s going to change? Let’s take a look at some of these layout changes that you and your business can prepare for and make sure that you’re ready for Facebook’s new age:

Around this time last year, the Hubspot team shared a blog post that addressed 3 of the most common fears that business owners face when they think about implementing and executing an inbound marketing strategy. One of those fears, of course, had to do with "giving away the farm". Does this fear still plague marketing managers and business owners today?