Is your department challenged with creating stronger customer engagement and a more meaningful experience, all while finding ways to decrease expenses?  If so, you are not unlike many other marketers who are faced with the same challenges regarding time and budget. Many companies are looking for a way to differentiate, position themselves as a leader and build their brand while getting the most ROI. Here are a few inbound marketer time-saving tactics that can help you stretch the funds.

Are you considering redesigning your website? Be sure to think about it from a marketing perspective more than from an IT perspective. In other words, focus on the messaging and content rather than the functionality. 

According to CMI’s B2B Content Marketing 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report, 70% of B2B marketers find case studies to be an effective content marketing tool. Case studies do more than just tell what the services of a company are. They show how the services can work for you through revealing the success stories of current customers. Case studies increase potential customer confidence and show the value of your company.

The following is a guest post from Frank Belzer, a sales development expert and Senior Sales Strategist and VP of Corporate Training at Kurlan and Associates. Frank is a regular contributor to the sales and sales management training curriculum at Kurlan and Associates and is the host of the weekly Internet Radio Show, Sales Talk Live.

Often businesses who are trying to expand their internet presence are unsure how to market themselves.  It really doesn't matter if the business is brick and mortar or online only, it can be frustrating to determine which direction to go.  You wouldn't just jump in your car and drive without an idea where you're going, the same thing applies to marketing your business online.  This is why it's critical to implement a game plan for your website.

Looking for a great way to engage leads, prospects, and keeps customers “in the know” about your company/product? Email marketing is your answer.

Email marketing allows you to target a specific market audience; it draws people, and enforces a call-to-action. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your email marketing campaign.

• With any email, it is important to make sure that you state who you are and why the customer is being contacted. By reestablishing the relationship with your reader, you are more likely to have a high click-through rate on the call-to–action you have included in your email.
• An easy email marketing technique is to send an email if your customer has abandoned a shopping cart on your website. With this email, you will want to remind the customer that they have left some unfinished business and call them back to your website. While doing that, you will want to remind them of the value of your service or product.
• You can send an email that will help you to later personalize future emails to your customers. Think of a shoe website asking a few questions about what a customer likes or have them take a "test”, by doing this you are capturing a lead, as well as getting information that will allow you to send more personalized emails in the futures. With this approach, your “test” should be short, provide clear instructions, and only have one call-to-action. The easy and more upfront the email is, the more likely your customer will be to fill out the information
• Email marketing should be all about keeping your customers informed, to do this send out emails that let your customers know about any special promotions or upcoming events. You can combine this idea with the idea above to really show the customer your care about them and which promotions/events are going to suit their needs best.

With these few tips you are ready to create an email marketing plan that will keep you in the inboxes of many current and potential customers.

Today as part of HubSpot's Marketing Agency and Consultants Office Hour we had the opportunity to get a sneak preview of HubSpot's new Email and Contacts tools.  So far, from what I've seen the email process seems more intuitive and cleaner than any other email tool I have previously used.  

The new tool will be available to new customers Tuesday (5/22/12), and rolling out to existing clients over the coming months via a migration process.  All customers will be migrating to the new email tool regardless of the product version you subscribe to.

Here are some of the highlights from the presentation:

SPEED IMPROVEMENTS

As a consumer, have you ever used a “loyalty” or “rewards” punch card? You know the kind that offers you something free after a certain amount of purchases. Have you ever lost that card?

Black Friday seems to be the trending topic this time of year. It seems people are preparing for more the shopping extravaganzas than for Thanksgiving! And just like your Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday either turns out perfectly where you get exactly what you wanted or you leave unsatisfied.

With any SEO strategy, valuable information that engages an audience needs to be offered. Publishing and sharing useful content will draw more customers to you. When creating great content, various rules must be followed so that the content doesn’t fail. In this weeks Inbound Marketing Recap, learn how to create beneficial content that reaches your audience.