In my last post, I touched on the importance of B2B Content Creation and more specifically B2B Blogging, which is the easiest way to create B2B content.  Today, I will touch on a few reasons why Marketers should consider video content creation and Youtube to get found online by the right prospects.

In God We Trust; All Others Must Bring Data

W. Edwards Deming’s quote is used on occasion at the HubSpot office.  I’m a firm believer in making decisions based on data.  That said, here are some data points marketers should consider on creating video content for Youtube:

2 Billion views a day
3rd most visited website (Alexa)
Localized in 23 countries across 24 different languages
15 The average number of minutes people spend on the site each day
24 Hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute
45 Million home page impressions every day Update: YouTube has clarified that this is the number of daily impressions in the US alone
70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the U.S.
100 Years of video scanned by copyright managent technology, Content ID, every day
1700 Years it would take you to watch the hundreds of millions of videos on YouTube

B2B Video Content Ideas

1. How-To Videos:  Educate prospects.  Teaching prospects about the problems that your products and services solve is extremely important.  If a company has the greatest product of all time, but prospects don’t understand the fundamental problem that the product solves, then the company is in deep trouble.  Youtube is the second largest search engine behind Google and when people query youtube, they are ASKING QUESTIONS and are looking for ANSWERS.  Videos that educate and teach a prospect how to solve a problem that they have will add instant value to the prospect and credibility to the b2b video content marketer.  Prospects are much more likely to embed a How-To Youtube video onto their blog which will add to your credability (and SEO – inbound links).
2. Product DEMO: Have online videos that clearly demonstrate the value add of your product.
3. Fun Topics:  Focus on fun topics related to your industry.  People are more likely to share happy, fun, likable video content.
4. Customer Testimonials: If you have  successful customers, let them share their success story to the world with a short video (2-3 minutes in length).  Video Tesitmonials is a form of Social Proof and adds credibility to your company.  If XYZ competitor company is successful, then you can be successful, too!
5. Viral Video Contest: Let your prospects and customers create content for you!  Have a legitimate contest and prize that will entice prospects to create video’s on your company’s behalf.  For example, the iPad is in high demand right now and tech enthusiests will be compelled to take a stab at a viral video in the hopes of winning an iPad.

Key B2B Marketing Takeaways

1. Video Content is in Demand.
2. The majority of internet usage is via video content
3. Start Producing Video Content today to Get Found by more qualified prospects and convert them into leads

About the author: Kaila Strong, an Internet Marketing coordinator at Vertical Measures, is an avid blogger, tweeter, and marketer online. Her interests are in social media, link building, SEO, and the online marketing field.

Every year there are hundreds of conferences across the United States in our field of internet marketing. From sea to shining sea there are Pubcon’s, Sempo’s, SMX’s, SES’s, SXSW’s and more. How can one possibly attend them all? Virtually!

This week Pubcon Dallas 2010 kicks off, and several of the people I follow on Twitter are attending. This has allowed me to sporadically keep track of what is going on, but I still don’t know all. I hate to miss out on information so below is how I keep up-to-date when I’m not actually attending conferences happening in our industry.

Twitter

A simple Twitter search for the hashtag being used at a conference will yield thousands of tweets about the daily activities at an event. You’ll find people tweeting quotes, insightful information, and the occasional ‘meet me at the bar after’ tweets. Weeding through the tweets can give you great information without actually having to attend the conference. In addition, look for twitter lists. When I attended Pubcon Las Vegas I organized a list of Pubcon tweeters so I could easily follow the conversation happening at the conference I was attending in person, and several others do the same as well.

Live Blogging or Streaming

It seems that most conferences usually have several live bloggers in a variety of sessions at large conferences, and sometimes you might find that they have live streaming as well. Find the live blog posts or streaming sites and check for daily recaps as well. Lisa Barone is usually at several conferences each year and always has a great way of summarizing the sessions she attends. A list of the internet marketing conferences she’ll be attending can be found on the OutSpoken Media blog. Also worth noting are sites like Seroundtable.com, TopRankBlog.com, and SearchEngineLand.com. Each do a great job of live blogging, and sometimes they do streaming or wrap up posts when their staff is attending or speaking at a conference.

Speaker Lists

Check out the speaker lists, always listed on the conference’s website. If they’re on Twitter or Facebook introduce yourself. Start following them or fan their pages. Every once and awhile you might get lucky and see a link to their slides or more info on their presentation. You can even ask them to send you their presentation or a link to their slideshare posting (if they posted the slides online).

With so many conferences going on every year in our industry, there’s no way you can possibly have time to attend them all. Make sure to try your hardest to attend some though, as they do provide a great deal of information that you just can’t possibly glean online. But with the resources and tactics lined out above you should be well on your way to finding the best summary information without actually attending a conference.

What conferences have you ‘virtually’ attended in the past? Any tactics/ideas/resources you care to share?

Inbound Marketing: Getting Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs is a must read for Business Owners, Marketers, and Entrepreneurs.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I work at HubSpot.  Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, co-authors of Inbound Marketing: Getting Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs are the co-founders of HubSpot.

Why Should You Read the Inbound Marketing Book?

Simply put, Inbound Marketing works.  Brian and Dharmesh built HubSpot on the premise that there is a fundamental shift in the way people shop and learn.  Traditional Marketing methods like display advertising, cold calling, and email mailing are becoming less effective over time with technology advances such as Tivo, caller-id, and spam filters.  That said, the Internet has become the starting point for how most people research products and services.  Brian and Dharmesh built a software solution that helps Business Owners and Marketers Get Found online, Convert more visitors into leads, and Analyze all inbound and outbound marketing efforts for maximum ROI.  Why am I talking about HubSpot and not the “Inbound Marketing Book?”  It is essential to know that HubSpot’s success has been built on the methods described in the “Inbound Marketing Book.”

Inbound Marketing Education

The Inbound Marketing Book aims to educate the masses on how to leverage the shift in the way people shop and learn.  Brian and Dharmesh realize that online readers scan web pages, they don’t “read every word.”  It seems to me that, at a high level, Brian and Dharmesh wanted readers to not only get an inbound marketing education but also have an inbound marketing experience.  Yes, I understand that the Inbound Marketing Book is offline and in stores like Barnes and Nobles (not an eBook, WhitePaper, or a Blog post).  The book is broken up into 16 separate chapters with clear and concise sentences, pictures and graphics to drive home points.  At the end of each chapter in the Inbound Marketing Book, there is a clear Call To Action with “To-Dos” for the reader to get started with their inbound marketing efforts.

Inbound Marketing Methodology

There are 3 parts to the Inbound Marketing Methodology:

1. Get Found { SEO, Blogging, Social Media}
2. Convert {Landing Pages, Lead Tracking and Intelligence, Lead Management}
3. Analyze and Repeat { Marketing Analytics, Competitive Analysis, Lead Scoring}

Not surprisingly, the chapters in the book follow the Inbound Marketing methodology.  Explaining how to get found in the early chapters, convert in the middle chapters and Analyze and Repeat at the end.  The “Inbound Marketing Book” is another form of “remarkable” Content created by Brian and Dharmesh.

Get your copy of Inbound Marketing: Getting Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs today!

Don’t Stop with SEO.  Yes, I said it.  Optimizing your website for Search should not be your sole focus.  Reading SEObook.com author Aaron Wall’s blog post “Google to Clone Lending Tree,” drove this point home.  If Google is entering high margin businesses such as loan aggregation services, it is only a matter of time before they launch into other high margin, online businesses.

I am convinced that the future of marketing lies within a diverse Inbound Marketing Strategy.  In my opinion, a diverse Inbound Marketing Strategy includes an allocation of resources to developing Free Value-Added Products/Services, PPC Advertising, SEO and Social Media Marketing.  When done correctly, allocating resources to Free Value-Added Products/Services, PPC and SEO will generate high quality leads for any business.

Simply relying on one inbound marketing strategy is extremely risky.  Giving away a free product or service is an excellent way for like-minded people to engage with you.  For Example, Copyblogger‘s Brian Clark recently released “Teaching Sells,” a 22-page report on how-to build an online teaching business FOR FREE!  What happens when an authoritative figure such as Brian Clark releases a free “how-to” report?  Like-minded individuals willingly give their email addresses and names in order to read and link to this excellent content (like I just did).

Another way to generate high quality leads for your business is through PPC Advertising.  One avenue for PPC Advertising is purchasing keywords on Google AdWords.  Purchasing keywords on Google AdWords allows you to target a specific persona/audience and measure the results.  Optimal PPC Campaigns will have well organized and relevant keyword taxonomies which are turned into AdGroups, compelling ad copy that speaks directly to those keywords in the aforementioned AdGroups, an efficient bidding strategy and sending prospects to relevant landing pages (SEO).

Landing pages should be optimized for search.  Identifying high quality, specific keywords related to your industry is the first step in authoring quality content for on-site SEO.  High quality content is king and will generate links to your site.  As the number of links to your site increases, the search engines reward your site by increasing your page rank for particular keywords/search queries.

Please don’t be mistaken.  Solely focusing on blogging and authoring content is not enough.  Focusing efforts solely on content 5 years ago was probably enough to generate enough links to rank for particular keywords/search queries.  But, The world in changing.  Social Media Marketing and micro-blogging have played and will continue to play a vital role in spreading high quality content quickly to target audiences.  The emergence of social media communities like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have provided a forum for bloggers, authority figures, consumers, businesses, and individuals to express their opinions and communicate with one another like never before.

Google, the 800 lb Gorilla will do as they please, and enter high margin businesses like loan aggregation in order to add revenue streams.  What does that mean for the majority of businesses?

Watch out!  And Pay Attention!  Protect your business by diversifying your inbound marketing strategy.  Think one step ahead of your competition.  Author high quality, relevant content on your blog, give away something that prospects want, and listen to your prospects.  Have a conversation with them.  Be Transparent.  Your prospects and customers are talking about you online.  It is time to engage, interact and manage your reputation with the goal of establishing yourself as an authority figure in your field so you will have the last laugh.  Not Google.

Thoughts?

Gorilla Photo Attribution

Diverse Portfolio of Stocks

First,  I would like to give a Great Big “THANK YOU” to everyone live blogging #ASE09 and #SESSJ.  I especially would like to thank Lisa Barone, Chief Branding Officer of OutSpoken Media for the excellent coverage and comedy at #ASE09 and Virginia Nussey, Associate Writer at Bruce Clay Inc for her complete coverage of #SESSJ.

This week is one of the most important weeks of the year in Search Engine Marketing.  The Affiliate Summit East 2009 Conference was held in New York City and The Search Engine Strategies 2009 Conference was held in San Jose.  Both of these events had agendas packed with educational sessions covering the latest topics and trends in Internet Marketing.  I am based out of Boston, MA and could not make it to either conference this year but I was eager to learn the new trends in PPC, SEO, Social Media Marketing and Web Analytics, so I turned to my conference-attending liveblogging friends.

There are many benefits to Liveblogging and I am not talking about the obvious free education that myself and every other non-conference-attending-knuckleheads interested in internet marketing consumes.  Blogger Benefits to Liveblogging include:

1. On-Site SEO: New Compelling Content is great for readership (new and returning readers)
2. Off-Site SEO: New Compelling Content tends to attract backlinks from bloggers interested in the same topics
3. Social Media Marketing: People with common interests will discover your blog through Social Media sharing

Engaging new readers gives you the ability to establish yourself as an authority figure in your industry.  Brian Clark, also known as The CopyBlogger recently published a Report on the shocking power of authority called “The Ten Rock-Solid Elements of Effective Online Marketing.” If you have not yet read his report, please STOP READING and read Brian’s Report.

Here is a comprehensive list of liveblogging for #ASE09 and #SESSJ.

Affiliate Summit East Conference LiveBlogging

1. OutSpokenMedia’s LiveBlogging Coverage for all 3 days: http://outspokenmedia.com/internet-marketing-conferences/liveblogging-affiliate-summit-east-09/

Search Engine Strategies San Jose Conference

1. SearchEngineLand Aggregated Day 1 liveblogging coverage: http://searchengineland.com/ses-san-jose-day-one-live-blog-coverage-23842
2. SearchEngineLand Aggregated Day 2 liveblogging coverage: http://searchengineland.com/ses-san-jose-day-two-live-blog-coverage-23935
3. SearchEngineLand Aggregated Day 3 liveblogging coverage: http://searchengineland.com/ses-san-jose-day-three-live-blog-coverage-23987

Post Picture Attribution

Now that you know why Internet Marketing is important, let’s discuss 3 internet marketing strategies for any business. The Top 3 Internet Marketing Strategies for all businesses are Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising, and Social Media Marketing (SMM).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

According to Wikipedia, Search Engine Optimization

is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

SEO Benefits:

* Low Cost
* Higher ROI relative to other Marketing Strategies
* Long Term Visibility for your business/product/services

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Wikipedia defines PPC as

an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites, such as blogs, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.

PPC Benefits:

* Targeted Customer Acquisition
* Discover/leverage new keywords that are driving traffic and more importantly, Conversions
* The ability to target and track ROI unlike any other media outlet

Social Media Marketing

Wikipedia defines SMM as

an engagement with online communities to generate exposure, opportunity and sales.

SMM Benefits:

* Low Cost
* Viral ability to generate large amounts of unique visitors to your website
* Increase Brand Visibility through Conversations

These 3 Internet Marketing Strategies can be used by any business, regardless of marketing budget. In order to effectively leverage these 3 Internet Marketing Strategies, businesses must understand how to discover, organize and manage keywords. Discovering, organizing and managing keywords related to your business on an ongoing basis will provide a strong foundation for efficient SEO, PPC and SMM campaigns.

Before explaining why internet marketing is important, one must know the definition of Internet Marketing.  Wikipedia defines Internet Marketing as

“the marketing of products or services over the Internet.”

  Prior to the Internet, traditional marketing techniques included Advertising, Sales and Public Relations in the form of Outbound Marketing.  More specifically, marketers seem to use the following techniques to fill the top of the sales pipeline:

•    Trade Shows
•    Hiring Interns to generate Lead Lists
•    Outsourced Telemarketing Campaigns
•    Email Blasts
•    Cold Calling

Sound familiar?  Not only are these marketing strategies interruption-based and costly, but they are becoming increasingly less effective.  Why are these marketing techniques becoming less effective?  One reason – over time, and with the help of new technology, humans have gotten better at blocking out the proverbial noise.  Advances in technology that have helped us block out interruptions include but are not limited to Digital Video Recording, Caller-Identification and Email Spam-Filtering.    Another reason – Cost!  The cost associated with traveling to trade shows, buying lists, hiring employees to generate lists is expensive!

Enter the Internet and Search Engines.  Search Engines have quickly become the medium which humans use to find answers to their questions, find services that solve their problems/inefficiencies, and find products that satisfy their needs.   According to http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm – World Internet Users as of December 31, 2008 is 1.58 Billion People.  Marketers, Entrepreneurs and Business Owners should consider using the Internet to have the 1.58 Billion internet users find their products/services rather than spending heavily to ultimately interrupt potential customers and get less than optimal results.

Let’s do some math.  If there are 1 Billion internet users and 1% of them are interested in my product, then I have 10 Million people in the world that I need to reach on the internet.  Out of those 10 Million people interested in my product, if 1% find my website that would be 100,000 people found my product.  If 1% of the 100,000 people bought my product, at $10/unit, then I would earn $100,000 in Revenue ([.01*100,000]*10=100,000).  Not bad.

As time goes on, humans will continue to find better ways to block out interruption-based marketing methods and smart businesses will leverage Internet marketing strategies to stand out amongst their competitors to get found by their prospects.  Would you like to get found by your customers?  Join me next time when I write about Internet Marketing Strategies.