Oh, the Google website crawl! Some of us live for it, some of us live in fear of it – no matter which side of the fence you're on, Google search is one of the most important sources of your website's traffic. And one of the key ways to please the ever-present Google bot is to use great on-page SEO.

(**Note: These aren’t tips for overnight success with SEO. In fact, thorough SEO is a long-term project that relies on lots of quality content development and link building. But you can still expect to enhance individual page performance by following these guidelines.)

You may be wondering what it takes to create a killer website. How do you turn your online storefront into a marketing machine that gets results? What's the secret to attracting visitors to your website where they can discover who you are and how you can solve their problems? 

Get Big Rewards for Using Less

One of the biggest temptations when building PowerPoint presentations is to jam all your thoughts on screen without choosing your words carefully. This might be a mistake though, because slides with too many words can easily look cluttered.

Presentation mistakes to avoid 

Not all presentations accomplish their intended result. With all the work that goes into crafting presentations, when something things go awry, it invariably leaves us scratching our heads. What is it that makes presentations fall flat?

To help our readers get a better sense of this, we've put together a list of the top reasons why business presentations fail.

Capture Your Audience with Professional Powerpoint Designs

There's no doubt that a well-designed presentation can increase audience engagement and lead to higher information retention. But the question is, how do you draw attention to your topic without distracting (or boring) your audience to death? 

What are Landing Pages?

Landing pages exist to convert website visitors into leads. They're one of the most vital elements of inbound marketing, and without them you simply cannot have an effective inbound strategy.

To turn visitors into leads, you must obtain their contact information, and a landing page is where you "offer" something in exchange for this. Whether it's a white paper, an eBook, or some other type of free content, the offer is what drives the transaction and turns strangers into contacts.

Proof of Marketing ROI Top Concern Cited in 2015 Survey

The ability to provide proof of positive marketing ROI was the top concern cited by respondents to the 2015 State of Inbound survey. This was the greatest concern cited for companies of all sizes, from those with fewer than 25 employees to those with 200 or more. Perhaps this is not surprising since companies whose teams demonstrated positive returns were 2 times more likely to get additional budget in their next request and 9 times less likely to lose it.

HubSpot’s newly published 7^th State of Inbound 2015 survey brought to light some of the major inbound marketing challenges facing companies around the world. From a global perspective, there’s plenty to think about with regard to the differences between perceived challenges in different regions.

Our partner, HubSpot, surveyed over 3500 marketing and sales professionals to determine the impact inbound marketing had on their businesses. We published some of the highlights in our latest eBook, 10 Powerful Inbound Marketing Charts. One chart that stood out for us shows how knowledgeable prospects are about a company before speaking with sales.

A Bet Against Technology is a Bad Bet

Why make a bad bet when you can pick a winner? While it may be easier to remain in your comfort zone, do you really want to take a chance on being left behind? Stepping out and employing new techniques to your traditional products may seem frightening at first but it can also be rewarding. Stretching beyond your current boundaries may even be more than rewarding - you may find it fun!

Read More Create Content with Chops - Using Inbound for Traditional Collateral

Form a More Perfect Union

Once you've committed to adding inbound techniques to your outbound collateral, we recommend that you address issues unique to the dual approach right from the beginning. In the planning phase of developing a new campaign, check with your digital group to make sure your concept closely aligns with their content marketing strategy. This is certain to increase the ROI on what you produce.

Read More Tips for Using Buyer Personas with Outbound Collateral

The Wonder of Whitepapers

Whitepapers are typically the work of experts that provide technical information or cover a subject directed to a well defined audience. Their focus tends to be narrow and designed to capture the attention of highly motivated prospects. Given the complexity and substance conveyed in most whitepapers, it's logical to assume that the reader is very interested in the material. What this suggests within the inbound marketing model, is that the prospect is already past the initial stages of the buyer's journey and is nearing a point of decision. What does this also suggest? It suggests that this ideal reader is someone whose attention you want to capture - and you want to capture as many of him/her as you possibly can. 

Let's Get Visual

It's possible to conclude from our prior blogs that inbound marketing is most concentrated on the written word. At first blush this may seem true given the emphasis on blogging, choosing the best long-tail keywords and getting "found" through carefully drawn SEO. Yet the messages delivered by inbound are not constrained by the medium. On the contrary, video can be artfully enhanced by incorporating inbound techniques, and can benefit from the same measurable increase in ROI as other vehicles.

Creating Content that Connects

Anyone tasked with creating effective marketing collateral is set upon achieving several objectives. Chief among them is reaching your target audience and influencing them to buy a product, vote for your candidate or contribute to a charitable cause. Most marketing campaigns are directed outward; they seek to interrupt and grab a prospect's attention. Inbound seeks the opposite. Inbound's goal is to create compelling content that draws the prospect inward to a location on the web.

We propose an entirely new direction by combining the best of both. Applying inbound methods to outbound collateral may be the most effective direction you can take to stand out from the crowd in this age of digital marketing. 

Read More Tips for Using Buyer Personas with Outbound Collateral

Inbound/Outbound - Don't Be Shy About Sharing

A quick glance at almost any marketing magazine, ezine or newsletter tells you that "inbound marketing" is trending. There's a great deal of buzz about inbound, and in our opinion, there are good reasons why. Inbound is a phenomenon born out of the digital revolution. It's organizing principles and methods reflect indisputable changes in consumer behavior and preferences as a result of the internet. So where does that leave you if you're producing traditional marketing collateral? Well it certainly doesn't need to leave you out! Why let "inbounders" keep the new trend to themselves? Why not cherry pick items from the inbound menu that can make your own product even better than it already is?

Increase Outbound Impact Using Inbound Buyer Personas

One of the major differences between outbound and inbound methods is how a potential customer is approached. Outbound is directed toward the prospect. Deliverables are designed to interrupt and grab attention. Inbound's goal is to create content that is so compelling it draws the customer to you. Outbound is focused on products and features while inbound is all about content and problem solving.

The Sky's the Limit

Chances are, if you are reading this blog you're a recognized pro in an enterprise marketing department. No question about it - you are good at what you do!  Even so, we'd like to ask you a simple but potentially game changing question. Has it occurred to you lately that there's a way to transform your traditional collateral and make it even more effective? Has anyone approached you about incorporating inbound methods into your daily routine? Well we'd like to share something we've discovered that has worked for us and can work for you too. We have found that adding inbound marketing techniques to outbound collateral can greatly increase your results - ROI that can be quantitatively defined and measured. When inbound and outbound are combined the sky's the limit.

Applying Inbound to Outbound Presentations

Professional powerpoint presentations can be made more interesting with great powerpoint designers and engaging imagery. Read More Avoiding Death by Powerpoint

Adding Inbound Methods to Traditional Marketing Communications

Have you been thinking about incorporating inbound marketing to your traditional marketing communications strategies, but you’re not sure where to start? Maybe you’ve been getting a lot of pressure from within your organization to adopt a more inbound approach to collateral development, or maybe you’re just interested in how to take advantage of the latest marketing trends to improve the ROI of your messaging.

Whatever the case, knowing the basics of an inbound keyword strategy will help you take the first step towards attracting the right customers to your offerings. After all, the fundamental distinction of inbound marketing versus outbound marketing is a focus on getting found by the right leads, not just anyone who is willing to listen to you.

This week I was in Boston for Hubspot's annual Inbound convention.

The conference had over 10,000 attendees and tons of groundbreaking speakers, including Guy Kawasaki who spoke about his time with Apple – and how to create companies that not only work, but win. I was overwhelmed, wowed, motivated and more. I’ve been to plenty of conventions in my life and this was the most organized, inspiring event yet.

Adding a few keywords to your site may seem like a quick fix to get more traffic. But if you’re looking for overnight results, you’re going to be unhappy with the way things turn out.

In order to see noteworthy improvement in your number of visits, you have to commit to a long-term strategy that involves a lot more planning and effort. To help understand the process, we’ve divided up the overall strategy into three major categories of SEO tactics that lead to real results. 

We all know by now that images engage readers – draw them in to learn more about what might interest them. Images are an integral part of any campaign. Not only do they entice readers, they define the overall tone and mood of the campaign. Think of the difference between darkening skies with leaves swirling upwards and wide open fields with sunshine and puppies. Images lead the viewers, tell them what to expect.

So how does it work?

Death by PowerPoint. Any of us have experienced this – all of us, and we’ve all probably been guilty of it at some point.

But in a world of bullet points, top 3 tips, and Buzzfeed-style stories, PowerPoint slides that are drowning in words will numb your audience and kill your message.

Interamark has a team of writers and storytellers than can help you refine everything you want to say into points on a slide. We can design your slides so they are engaging, and we can help craft the speaker’s notes to ensure your story is concise, precise, and meaningful.

You may have heard about Inbound Marketing, but want to know if it’s right for you. The short answer is yes, of course! But, what does that really mean? What is the value, or ROI, to your company of implementing an inbound marketing strategy?

To help our clients “monetize” their investment, and fully understand the benefits to them, we’ve developed a 4 step process to help gain insight into the value that inbound marketing can bring to your organization.

Everyone knows, “the buying cycle has changed.” Of course it has, because, The Internet. Marketers are smarter, but buyers are even smarter, and far savvier than they ever were. So how do you connect?

First – know your customer, where are they, what do they like to do, how they spend their money, etc. Create “Buyer Personas” for each segment of your target audience, then target that persona. There are plenty of articles and tools out there to help you create personas, but one tool that’s readlily available (and free) is LinkedIn – check out this article to get insights on how to use LinkedIn to create personas.

1. Create a simplified version of your Infographic

Oftentimes an Infographic can be too large or cumbersome to view on sites such as Facebook or Linkedin. Viewers may not have the time, or desire to scroll through a giant graphic. Using a design resource to create a smaller, simplified version of your infographic can be a great way to increase the number of outlets available to utilize your graphic, as well as increasing consumption of it. A less time consuming endeavor is a bonus to your busy audience.

Every project is different, even if you’re designing in one program like Adobe Illustrator. How I build and design a project can depend heavily on many things. Asking some essential questions will eliminate many roadblocks and red flags when getting the job done on time successfully.

Oh WebEx. We love you, but must acknowledge the moments we can't stand you. Virtual meetings are part of our daily lives (especially here at Interamark) - and they are often full of aptly mocked hiccups. But webinars have their own special set of issues. Speaking to a crowd you can't even see? Yikes. But there are some simple things you can do to help tame the webinar beast.

Online video has seen a huge spike in popularity that will only increase.

This begs the question: What do we mean by video? A video can take many shapes and forms. It can be a Flash video (created in Adobe Flash), an HTML5 video (created in a few different programs such as Adobe Muse or Dreamweaver), or just a regular ol’ video (also created in a few different programs such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier).

If there is one thing I’ve learned in the world of B2B marketing it’s that content must not only convince customers, it should compel sales to take action as well. Pressed for time and inundated with never-ending emails touting the next greatest marketing campaign, sales often stick to what they know. Why spend hours learning the nuanced value proposition of yet another new solution or understanding the specific challenges and drivers of an unfamiliar market segment when the opportunity stands unproven and you’re already successful elsewhere? It’s a fair enough argument, and we in marketing can hardly blame them. We can, however, show them that we’re worth their time.

Many of my clients are constantly vying for their salespeople’s time, knowing that they rely on these front-line ambassadors to deliver or reinforce the message at the core of every campaign. After years of collecting feedback from sales to marketing, I present this short list of tips.

Your agency project/account manager strives to be a trusted partner.

Your project manager’s goal is to provide the most effective marketing collateral at the best value to you. So don’t keep them in the dark. Reach out, even on the small things, so that they are in step with the aspirations of your campaign, and the needs of your customers. It’s your agency counterpart’s job to know your product inside and out.

We use presentations as a means of communication. Projected slides should be as visual as possible and support our point quickly, efficiently and powerfully. We are visual creatures and one big failure is clutter among others.

 If you’re in charge of marketing YOUR brand to your channel partners, you know the challenges you face, first and foremost: breaking through the noise. Channel resellers are bombarded with messaging, incentives, shiny new flat-screen TVS, tickets to the super-bowl…on the one hand, it’s a marketers dream (so much possibility) – but the nightmare comes when nothing breaks through.

In my nine years of working at Interamark, I can’t tell you how many times I have heard clients say, “We need to develop a, b, c…x, y, and z….oh, but we only have insert barely audible number” <awkward pause followed by nervous chuckle>. “Even if that’s not all possible, what can we realistically do for that budget?” Of course, the answer to that question depends on the client, their goals, and the program or campaign, but over the years, our agency has accumulated best practices that really do help stretch your dollar further.

When I started writing marketing copy for high-tech in 2004, I was absolutely terrified. I considered myself fairly tech-savvy in that I could, with intermittent IT support from my lil bro, get my desktop PC to perform as needed; set up a printer; burn CDs; and yes, even send faxes. But I had deep reservations as to whether I could actually pen cohesive documents about, oh say, the value of Cisco IP networking to the midsize bank. And yet, that’s exactly what this new job required. Looking back, I’m not sure I ever really slept those first couple months. Instead, after work, I would pore over network diagrams (seriously, what are those hockey pucks?!) and fight futility by attempting to memorize the acronym-laden opus that is Newton’s Telecom Dictionary. 

As a former English major, I thought I actually needed to understand my subject through and through before writing about it. And then I came to see the error of my academic ways. In marketing, you need not feel the weight of such detail. Rather, you only need to know how to communicate the value of that subject—with brevity and beauty. Easy enough, right? Well, it is in a way, as long as you keep one key thing in mind: your audience.