10 Strategies for Automation and Inbound from Marketo and Moz

Still struggling with the how-tos of marketing automation and inbound marketing? You’re not alone and Jon Miller, VP of Marketing and Co-found of Marketo, and Rand Fishkin, CEO of Moz broke down 10 simple strategies to keep on your radar moving forward.

1. The way buyers buy has changed forever due to Digital Abundance

The way you market and sell must change as well. Digital buyers today have more access to information today than they have ever had before. They can get instant access to details, comparisons, and pricing. Social is a way to share and compare.

2. The right content > more content

For many sites, just a few very high value pieces a year is enough to achieve remarkable results. One of Moz.com’s single resources, The Algo Change, has earned more traffic than the 50+ surround posts combined.

3. Data yields smarter social sharing

Analyze when your followers are online and engaging with you most (Suggested Moz tool: followerwonk) Sharing your resources more than once may feel inauthentic, but you need to hit your readers when they are actually reading.

4. If you’re going to do video, do it right

Just like any written content, your videos should be targeted to the keywords and topics your customers are searching for most. Learn their pain points and deliver the solutions with high quality video that has an interesting cover photo. Transcripts of your videos are also a gold mine for SEO and accessibility.

5. Google+ is like cheating at SEO

Did you know that Google features posts from your Google+ circles on the first page of your search results? Growing your Google+ network may be even easier than traditional SEO methods for getting on the first page of results.

6. Use different tactics for different stages

Your customer doesn’t always want a free white paper. Or a webinar. Or a free trial. They want those things when they are in different stages of buying readiness along your funnel. Early stage buyers will be more interested in social media posts and YouTube videos where those closer to buying will be more interested in tools and free trials.

7. Be like a stock picker – don’t put all your marketing into one program

It’s not all about buying the hottest Pay-Per-Click ads any more. Sponsored emails, webinars, trade shows (even virtual trade shows!), content syndication, sponsorship, display ads, and blog articles all pull in their own targets. Analyze what works best for you, but keep your resources spread out.

8. Sales people don’t want names, they want “win ready” leads

If your sales team just wanted millions of leads every month, they could just look them up in the white pages. Lead nurturing and scoring your leads to qualify them into different stages of readiness will make you the hero of your sales team.

9. The key to relevance is behavioral targeting

If someone downloads your white paper on social media, don’t send them a load of emails on google analytics. Send your emails in smaller, more targeted content chunks to increase engagement.

10. Use analytics to turn marketing from a cost center into a revenue driver

Use your metrics to set and justify budgets for each level of the funnel. If you know your conversion percentages, you should know how much each lead cost to acquire, and therefore, how much you should spend to create X number of leads to start with.