People make buying decisions much differently today than they did 15…10… even 5 years ago. Gone are the days where a cold call is an acceptable form of capturing the attention of new prospects and customers. In fact, most people don’t even like answering a phone call from a friend, much less have a conversation with someone they have not met. This is just one example of the drastic change businesses have experienced in recent years with generating leads and mapping their buyer’s journey.

In part one of my series on setting up the new Facebook pixel on your website, we focused on creating a pixel and adding it to your website. If you are a marketer that is currently running Facebook ads, these two steps are critical because they allow you to track actions people take after viewing your ad across different devices. By placing the pixel on important pages of your website (like the checkout or thank-you page), you will have access to the information needed to understand who converts as a result of your advertising. In part two of this series, we are going to focus on custom conversions.

If you are a marketer that has incorporated social advertising into your marketing plan, it’s likely that you’ve heard about Facebook’s new conversion pixel that was rolled out in the summer of 2015. If you are new to social advertising, it is important to understand how conversion measurement allows you to track actions people take after viewing your Facebook ads across various devices. By creating a Facebook pixel and adding it to the pages of your website where conversions happen (like a check-out or thank you page), you’ll get a clear picture of who converts as a result of your Facebook advertising.

Just when marketing professionals thought they had a handle on using social media to build brand recognition and sales, social advertising gets thrown into the mix and adds both optimism and confusion. While social media has been an effective way for individuals to learn about new products, brands and services, more and more marketers are accepting the shift in advertising strategy it presents. With the opportunity for hyper-focused segmentation and visual interaction that social ads offer, the percentage of overall marketing budgets spent on social will jump from 10.7 percent in 2015 to 14 percent in 2016. Consider the following stats when making decisions on the best social ad platforms for your product or service.

Facebook is notorious for making frequent policy and security changes, particularly for business pages. Over the past year, our agency has made a considerable effort to educate ourselves on the policies that directly effect our clients as well as ensure that they are setup correctly with a Facebook Business Manager account. As we ramp up and make more recommendations that include Facebook advertising, it was essential that we took the necessary steps that included following Facebook best practices.

Staying on top of the ever-changing world of digital marketing and online visibility can be exhausting for a marketer. Considering mobile usage, Google web search and algorithm changes, as well as being able to provide the best overall online experience for a visitor; businesses are constantly challenged with finding ways to improve the functionality of a company website. When considering a website redesign or refresh, one important factor to keep in mind is that new features should incorporate components that not only improve SEO, but the overall perception, interaction and awareness of your business.

Converting bottom of the funnel leads to customers may be the most critical stage of your sales funnel. At this point you’ve captured a prospect’s attention through blog articles, tip sheets, ebooks and more. Now is the point where if you offer a unique product or service, a “request a sample” opportunity could be the next phase that ultimately seals the deal. This step can be particularly valuable if the product and service you offer is complex, best explained visually, and showcases superior features offered within your industry.

In 2015, the number of mobile-only internet users exceeded desktop-only users. Additionally, Google championed responsive website design by judging how “mobile-friendly” a site is and using that metric to weight results served to mobile devices – affecting actual page rankings. Many companies scrambled this past year to be sure their websites were up to par in regard to Google’s mobile standards. For businesses who have not yet made the necessary website design changes that provide responsive design for multi-size device users, you may struggle to be found by prospective customers or lose them due to an inadequate experience.

Creating a lead-generating ebook can be especially challenging for manufacturers given the complexity of their products and services. Understanding the unique challenges and interests of key personas for a particular product group is the first step to developing valuable content and determining a direction for a design that appeals to the reader. At the start of the ebook development process, it’s important to keep in mind that regardless of the ebook’s theme, its ability to teach, inspire and motivate are the ultimate elements for success.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully secured the green light to pursue your inbound marketing campaign dreams. But the biggest challenge you’ll face as an inbound marketer is yet to come and it’s not at all what you might expect.