If you are looking for digital marketing support and direction, make sure you source a boffin proficient in all platforms!
Read moreOn the 2nd of May, we visited the 2017 London Inbounder event and we just wanted to put together a short blog to highlight our biggest takeaways from the event.
Read moreEmail is still one of the best channels for driving marketing ROI so it comes as no surprise that marketers around the world keep sending billions of emails every day. Email marketing has traditionally been associated with outbound marketing and is indeed one of the prime examples of good old traditional marketing. Those who have managed to turn email marketing into a successful inbound channel, however, see better results.
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When looking to grow your Instagram page it can often feel like a very high mountain to climb and you can sometimes feel that you’re never destined to reach the many thousands of followers that some Instagram accounts have already accumulated. I’m going to give you 7 handy tips on how you can go about changing this.
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This week, Breckenridge is very happy to have been awarded the Google Premier Partner badge. This means Google recognises us as having advanced PPC knowledge and demonstrating a higher level of AdWords skill and expertise.
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We live in a world which is heavily dependent on Social media now and Instagram is one of the biggest photo sharing platforms in the world, so why would businesses not want to take advantage of this?
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I’m a Londoner, born and bred and I’ve spent 10 years working in London PR agencies. I loved my time in London, but the 2.5-hour commute and rising rental market were getting on my nerves, so, four weeks ago, I moved to Southampton.
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Social media plays a crucial role in today’s modern day living, it acts as an important tool for people to stay up to date with what is going on in the world and has become a fundamental source of customer communication for companies.
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... And we are not ashamed Where did it go? More to the point, what did we do with it? Did we remain buoyant in the face of Brexit, Trump, and the lampooned peak of half-baked marketing that is Toblerone's rotting roofline – slashed from top-value terrace to short-change semis? Of course we did! And a looming New Year is no time to be coy about achievements and activities.
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Once again the Breckenridge team has flexed its marketing muscle and researched, written, designed and produced the latest issue of StannahTalk, the magazine of world-leading stairlift manufacturer, Stannah Stairlifts.
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At Breckenridge, we have a proud reputation of running bold and creative marketing campaigns on behalf of for-profit and nonprofit companies alike. We especially love it when we get to work on something that’s truly beneficial for the world, so we were really excited to take the reins on a project on child lift safety for the Lift and Escalator Industry Association (LEIA).
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As a marketer, a large part of your job is to track and optimise your performance over time. You need to record your results against your goals to see how on-target you are, and so you can continue to improve moving forward. That’s why reports, both within your team and for your colleagues and bosses, are so important.
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There are many free tools out there like Buffer, Hootsuite and Tweetdeck to help you manage your social media accounts from one platform, but our favourite paid platform is HubSpot for its convenience, ease of use and the fact that it handles everything from blogging to email, to landing pages all in one place. Anyway, we digress...
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HubSpot is probably the most intuitive, useful blogging platform around, and I’m not just saying this because we’re a HubSpot inbound certified agency. It’s more truthful to say we chose to become HubSpot certified because it’s so great.
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2016 has seen rapid growth for Breckenridge with five new members added to the team. One of our new recruits was Rachel, a placement student from Bournemouth University. Rachel joined us in February to manage some of the social media channels for Breckenridge and our clients. With her placement now coming to an end, she’s reflecting on her time with us and everything she’s learnt! Over to you Rachel…
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The old adage of 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' has no place in today's digital marketing landscape. Quite simply, for any organisation to establish, maintain and grow its profile and market share, all promotional activities must stay abreast of today’s rapid and continuous technological developments. What better example of this than Breckenridge's recent revision of the existing Stannah Lifts website, also by Breckenridge. This was an Herculean metamorphosis to help future-proof Stannah’s status as the UK's largest independent lift company, as their Marketing Manager, Jo Monro, explains:
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Your landing pages: not always the first place a customer lands on your website, but the page they arrive at after clicking a call-to-action in an email, a blog post or on social media.
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The Breckenridge team has been working closely with the Lift and Escalator Industry Association (LEIA) on their latest safety campaign for 2016. We have created the Liam Loves Lifts children’s story book, height chart and sing-a-long song to teach lift safety to young children and their families across the UK.
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We’ve almost reached the halfway mark of 2016, the perfect opportunity to review your marketing plan and performance. A half year review will see you dissecting your strategy so far, and making better marketing decisions for the second half of the year.
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'Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand' – on topic as always (thanks, Duran Duran), the summer edition of StannahTalk is out and centers on the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro – carnival capital of the world.
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We don’t mean to brag but last Wednesday we had the pleasure of attending what turned out to be the largest and most successful Grow with HubSpot event in Europe. An event series dedicated to helping businesses achieve remarkable growth through inbound marketing, Grow with HubSpot brings top inbound experts and HubSpot enthusiasts together to share their knowledge and gather inspiration.
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In short, inbound marketing is a way to get customers through the door by delivering the content they want, precisely when they want it. Although inbound marketing methodology is a framework that applies industry-wide, there are many ways to tailor it to your niche.
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Email has been around for 45 years now, overtaking text messaging to become the number one method of communication in 2013. For a few years now, it’s been one of the most popular smartphone activities. In 2016, email marketing is showing no signs of slowing down.
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PPC is paid media that sits at the top and bottom of Google search results pages (SERPs). PPC ads appear when people search for certain keywords, and they ideally link to content on your website that provides the information searchers are looking for, making your ads both relevant and timely.
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Whatever your company’s focus within the marine industry — whether fishing, boat building, repairs, marine engineering, shipping, yacht sales, rentals or supplies — marketing your business must move with the times.
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As a charity marketer, you’re probably used to bootstrapping to make your budget go further. With limited cashflow from trading income, government grants and donations, it’s important you know how to run a successful but thrifty inbound marketing campaign. Only then can you maximise your return on investment.
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Move over Frankenstein, there’s a new beast on the block: a 6' publicity hunter called Titch, the Field Mouse.
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All types of companies — from small and medium-sized businesses to large multinationals, whether in the private or public sector — can benefit from implementing an inbound marketing strategy.
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Social media and inbound marketing go together like hand in glove. The major social channels for inbound are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. This post will focus on the third most popular of these platforms; LinkedIn — with its 100 million monthly active users and its professional focus, lends itself perfectly to B2B inbound marketing.
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Inbound marketing for the healthcare industry shares the same characteristics as inbound marketing for other industries, but it comes with its own specifics as well.
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When it comes to reach and online presence, social media is king. Social platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, are a key component of any inbound marketing strategy. You can use them to share content, attract new visitors to your website, network and engage with relevant people and build a community of fans that will keep coming back to you.
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It’s widely agreed these days that inbound marketing is better than outbound marketing, with more and more brands making the switch from old school marketing techniques to newer ones. But does that mean we should completely forget about outbound?
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We’re leaving winter behind and entering the spring months, so what better time for a review of how the year is going so far? The end of a quarter is also a new beginning, and the chance to start afresh with an updated set of opportunities and goals for the next three months. After all, Fast Company has reported that 90-day goals are better than annual ones.
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Easter is on its way, and with it comes the opportunity to plan an array of holiday strategies across your inbound marketing channels.
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Search engine optimisation is an essential part of any inbound marketing strategy. It’s what gets people ‘through the door’ and onto your website, whether they are researching the solution to a problem they want to solve for themselves, or comparing solution providers to do it for them.
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As a SaaS company, your product revolves around solving a problem for your customers. The content you publish can serve the same function. If your aim is to make your clients' lives easier and more efficient, why wouldn't you start via your approach to content marketing?
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As marketers, part of our role is to move prospects through the sales funnel, from awareness to consideration to decision stage, until they are ready to buy. By gathering information on and scoring our leads, we know more about how to market and sell to them. This makes it much more likely that they will go on to purchase, request a consultation or be receptive to a sales call when it comes their way. The better qualified a lead, the more chance we have of closing the deal.
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The beauty of the tried and tested inbound marketing methodology is its universality; you can apply it industry-wide, as it lends itself to being tailored precisely to your buyers’ needs. Successful tech or SaaS inbound marketing relies on content and messaging that champions thought leadership and problem solving ability.
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In their 2015 report Socialising your CEO: From Marginal to Mainstream, PR company Weber Shandwick found that eight in 10 CEOs (80%) are now engaged online and via social media, compared with just 36% in 2010. As more CEOs join the Twittersphere, it’s vital to learn how to best use the platform to make a splash and blow the competition out of the water.
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One of the topics we talked about at our What’s the future in Digital Marketing event last September was the trendiest inbound marketing moves in 2016. One of the questions asked of our panel was what do we, as inbound marketers, need to stay on top of and incorporate into our strategies for this year?
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Email marketing nurtures leads and creates customers, and is on the rise even in the age of social media and content marketing.
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Did you kick off 2016 with all the best intentions for implementing an inbound marketing strategy, setting SMART goals and (more importantly) achieving them? The next step is finding ways to monitor your progress against these targets throughout the year.
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The following blog post is in response to an article posted by Brand Republic on 20th Jan 2016, titled "Welcome to 2016. Facebook just killed your website forever": http://www.brandrepublic.com/article/1380040/welcome-2016-facebook-just-killed-website-forever
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More and more companies are waking up to the need to invest more into their digital marketing; 77% of companies planned to increase their digital marketing budget in 2015, up from 71% in 2014 according to Econsultancy’s Marketing Budgets 2015 Report.
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Reporting the results of your inbound marketing efforts to your boss and sales team is no easy feat. The KPIs you normally use to measure your success, such as reach or website visits, probably aren’t the same as the ones they care most about. They need to see the direct impact of your marketing activity on their bottom line ROI.
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The start of a new year is the ideal time to consider and set your inbound marketing goals for 2016. Setting your objectives means initially reflecting on your performance with each channel in 2015 and then deciding what you want to achieve over the next 12 months.
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Inbound marketing efforts would be meaningless without the biggest inbound discovery tool of them all. With over 3.5 billion queries performed via its search engine every day, Google is king when it comes to attracting visitors to your website and content.
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Creating remarkable content is a struggle in itself. SEO guru Rand Fashkin calls it "10X content", because remarkable content is 10 times better than anything else that can be found in the search engine results.
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For all the years it has been around, PPC advertising is still a mysterious area with many myths and misconceptions surrounding it. Since it’s such a powerful tool when it comes to increasing traffic to your website, remarketing previous visitors and promoting your content, it’s time to set the record straight.
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If you are looking for a marketing agency that works, look beneath the bonnet – check core values and drill down for evidence to substantiate claims. Do your homework: ask questions, make phone calls, send emails, gumshoe your way across the internet.
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It doesn’t matter whether 2016 is your first year of inbound marketing or you’re simply ready to step up last year’s game to improve your results. The first step towards success is perfect planning.
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The holidays are coming, but will customers be coming to you? The Thanksgiving and Christmas season is nearly upon us, so it’s the ideal time to get your PPC campaigns ready for the inevitable festive rush.
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Digital and inbound marketing is an ever-changing, always evolving space. As you gear up for an incredible 2016, it's vital to plan around the latest trends.
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Last Wednesday we hosted the first 'What's the Future' conference for marketers in the Solent area. For this inaugural event focusing on digital marketing, we invited Google and HubSpot to present alongside Breckenridge's own Ross Breckenridge and Shawn Harding.
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Of all the metrics that can measure the success of your email campaign, the click-through rate is by far the most telling. But how does one achieve a decent click through-rate? The answer is: segmentation.
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In a perfect world the marketing team will generate leads, those leads are nurtured and then subsequently handed over to the sales team to convert into customers. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? As a business owner, who is closely involved in every step of this process, you know that you need a clear cut strategy that is effective in order to convert those leads into actual buyers.
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Yesterday I attended Future Comms 15, hosted by MyNewsDesk, looking at the future for PR and communications. I was eager and intrigued to see where the thought leaders in my profession thought the industry was going. I’m always keen to learn and expand my own perspective.
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After reading this post you might find it necessary to change your job title to Publishing Manager. This is not an exaggeration. Consumers and buyers seek information and, as a marketer, it is your job to provide it. This means creating relevant content of a high quality and lots of it.
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What a bashful bunch we are at Breckenridge - lights under bushels and all that. But, once in a while, our cover gets blown. Point in question: StannahTalk, the magazine of Stannah Stairlifts, researched, written, designed and produced by team Breckenridge, read by 1000s, and a resounding success story.
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In November last year, Searchmetrics and Search Engine Journal announced that they were teaming up to provide a series of digital marketing conferences across six US cities, with an additional date in London. In my experience, many conferences provide far too much information that it's easy to lose what the important takeaways are. The SEJ Summit tackled this head-on by focusing each presentation on three impactful and actionable points.
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The world's largest search engine has been seeing a consistent year on year increase in people searching online via their mobile phones. We are almost at the tipping point where the volume of mobile searches will consistently beat searches on computers or laptops. Make sure you’re in Google’s good books with a mobile friendly website The world's largest search engine has been seeing a consistent year on year increase in people searching online via their mobile phones. We are almost at the tipping point where the volume of mobile searches will consistently beat searches on computers or laptops. To help mobile users find what they are looking for on the web, Google will give a very large ranking boost to "mobile-friendly" websites on Tuesday 21st April 2015.
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Breckenridge has just launched a brand new website for Titchfield Dental Health which has brought a fresh new look to their online presence.
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Look what landed at Breckenridge in March this year - Wren Building Contractors Limited. This thriving local business was keen to maximize its industry presence and marketing potential with a whole new look. Recommended by a contact in the construction industy, Wren consulted Breckenridge...
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It's here -- the winter issue of StannahTalk: 23 pages of light relief to help Stannah stairlift users survive the seasonal scrum... This festive 'amuse-bouche' is thudding onto doormats throughout the UK. Free to Stannah stairlift users, it's geared to inform and entertain. Judging by the feedback from previous issues, it'll go down a treat!
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Finally the dreadful days of cold contacting leads that do not want to hear your sales pitch are over (insert cheering from sales reps from around the world here!). Instead of being the cause of frustration for possible prospects (and themselves) the sales team can now work with warm or, even better, hot leads.
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You know that your company website needs fresh and engaging content. As a marketer, you will need to deliver content that will stand out above the rest in order to grab (and keep) your audience’s attention. But with so much content creation and social media traffic happening on the web, how will you expand your online presence with your content on a tight budget and limited time? Here are 7 tips to assist you with mastering the skill of fast, effective and inexpensive content delivery... and turn you into a content ninja!
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Why? Because bloopers are bad for your brand – your sales. Whether you believe English to be evolving or devolving, spelling and grammar matter when it comes to credibility and making your marketing work.
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Steering the sales team, developing marketing campaigns and reporting on sales revenue is a balancing act for any marketer. You have to stay on top of your game and quickly determine what's working and what isn’t to be able to adapt or change your marketing strategy.
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So you’ve invested in awesome content and transformed your company website into a lead generating machine - and you've most likely already celebrated your first genuine lead off your website. It’s a win and an exciting time for your company. The pressure is on to take your leads through the marketing process until they are sales-ready. Aligning the Sales and Marketing teams around the same goals and buyer personain order to increase As a marketer, you know that having gained more leads is huge step in the right direction, but that it’s not enough and won’t, by default, mean more sales. You now have the job to nurture those prospects and prime them for the sales team. What is the best, proven and cost-effective means to achieve this? The answer is simple and probably right at your fingertips: email.
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Do you have a buyer persona? Are you using it effectively?
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Marketing automation has injected a hefty zap of ZING into the time-worn process of pushing out news to harried press pros. OK, it never hurts to have a great story, a new way of looking at something, and a good old-fashioned scoop will always have legs – and press releases still have to be written.
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As a busy marketer who constantly has to battle time and campaigns the question of automating your social media updates is probably a possibility that has crossed your mind more than once. But what are the benefits and what are the disadvantages of going the automation route? Will choosing to schedule your social media work for you or will it have a negative impact on your particular line of business? There are strong arguments for both, but the bottom line is that you should choose what works for you.
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What is Smarketing and why is it so important? Sales + Marketing = Smarketing. In a nutshell, it is about aligning the Sales and Marketing teams around the same personas and goals in order to increase revenue. As a marketer who has time constraints and pressure to keep up with marketing trends and show ROI - Smarketing makes sense and should be the next step in your marketing strategy.
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Breckenridge launches a brand new site for Kick4Life FC – the world's first football club exclusively dedicated to social change
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Justifying your marketing spend and determining the ROI (return on investment) for major sales campaigns are obstacles every marketer faces at one point or another. Without enough data and an adequate means of interpreting and reporting on what the numbers mean, it’s near impossible to make smart, informed decisions as to what will improve your bottom line. The good news is that marketing can indeed be measured. By making sense of the marketing-sales cycle, you can identify what worked (and what didn’t) and adapt your plans accordingly. This is called closed-loop marketing. And by equipping yourself with the right tools, you can efficiently (and confidently) justify and report on your marketing strategies.
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Are you the business owner who is running the day-to-day operations of your business, servicing your clients, and taking care of a million other tasks all in a day’s work? Have you heard of the power of content marketing but feel that you do not have the time or budget to invest in creating good, valuable content for internet and social media marketing? Then read on. You can produce good, valuable content and expand your business’s presence on the internet and social media platforms without it costing you too much time or eating into your budget. How, you might ask? The answer is surprisingly simple and very cost effective: you already have good content – your company story. Your business’s story is not just its history; it’s also its present-day happenings. These day-to-day activities may seem ordinary to you, but they're bound to be of interest to your audience out there, who you'd like to attract and convert into leads and clients.
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Recent research revealed that online users spend one in every five minutes on the internet on social media. That’s an opportunity for lead generation that no marketer can ignore. New social media platforms pop up all the time, but how is a busy marketing manager to know which one to utilise and which not? The key is firstly to identify which platforms your clients (and potential clients) frequent and secondly, to understand why they have chosen that particular platform. The answers to those fundamental questions will give you, as a marketer, crucial insight into the people who make up your client base. With time always being any marketer’s toughest challenge, focus on playing smart and be selective. Start conversations with your buyer personas in the right places.
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Three words trump all others in the marketing arena: Generate. More. Leads.
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What is Inbound Marketing? Inbound Marketing (IM) is a term coined by Hubspot, Inc., a US-based Tech Company, and it describes the strategies, processes and tactics a company can use to attract their ideal clients by delighting strangers, converting them from leads to clients, nurturing existing clients and keeping them happy. As an online marketing strategy, it is based on a four-step action process specifically sequenced to generate leads and clients by means of content creation and other "customer delight" methods.
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