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.

Successful inbound marketers understand the link between campaign development, content marketing and branding, and the power it holds to staying competitive while boosting ROI. In fact, according to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2015 Report, companies are three times more likely to see a higher ROI on inbound marketing campaigns than outbound. With the right mix of content contributors and promotion of content, businesses will experience more traffic, engagement, lead generation and sales.

According to HubSpot’s report, organizations that saw the largest increase in ROI from 2014 to 2015, expanded their content creation strategies by employing and including contributions from not only staff writers, but also guest contributors and freelancer / third party writers. Companies that called on fewer guest and staff contributors experienced a definitively lower ROI for the year. What this tells us is that successful inbound content creation, takes as much balance as walking a tight rope.

Inbound marketing success starts and ends with the creation, amplification and distribution of unique and valuable content. Great content can inspire, solve a problem, answer a question and build the foundation for consumer trust every brand seeks. So it is no surprise that business both big and small are writing, posting, tweeting and sharing more content than ever before. In a single 24-hour period there are 2 million new blog posts published, 294 billion emails sent, 864 thousand hours of video added to YouTube and 400 million posted tweets.

For years, inbound marketing pioneer, HubSpot, revealed insightful and successful tactics that helped businesses grow while decreasing, or altogether eliminating traditional advertising from their marketing budgets. One exception has been the use of pay-per-click (PPC) and promoted social ads. As an agency, we have experienced that these types of digital ads can be an essential element of both B2C and B2B campaigns. At last week’s 2015 Inbound Conference, HubSpot representatives reiterated the benefits this type of advertising provides when implemented in a way that is measureable. In fact, 53% of customers have tried ads this year. As our team sat in the audience and listened to HubSpot co-founder, Dharmesh Shah, announce the release of the new Ads Add-On feature, we were all in agreement that this new enhancement will provide even more value for many of our clients.

Qualifying prospective customers is an essential function for many companies that want to nurture and convert the best prospects. It is also an important factor in analyzing information about less qualified leads and determining factors that could be used to increase their level of qualification. A valuable resource that has allowed HubSpot users to establish a scoring system that assigns point values to contacts based on individual contact properties, form submissions and list memberships is called Custom Lead Scoring. Its benefits include:

Bloggers and content producers often feel like they carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. Between managing stakeholder requests and begging for team content contributions, creating fresh topics can be a constant struggle in the quest to engage readers and drive website traffic.

Last week we collaborated with Weidert Group of Appleton, WI to host an amazing 2-day conference called Experience Inbound. The event was held at two of the states most iconic sports venues including Wednesday at Miller Park in Milwaukee and Thursday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Over the course of the two days, 240 attendees came together to meet, share expertise and throw down some serious sales and inbound marketing knowledge. We can’t thank these dynamic speakers enough for their time and participation in our event.

•  Mark Roberge, HubSpot CRO and author of The Sales Acceleration Formula
• Chad Pollitt, VP of Audience, Relevance.com, #5 on Top 100 Content Marketers
• Ryan Panzer, Google Adwords Strategist
• Elise Ramsay, Wistia Community Manager
• Caitlin Moyer, Director New Media, Milwaukee Brewers
• Jeff Coon, Partner, Stream Creative
• Greg Linnemanstons, President, Weidert Group
• Steve James, Partner, Stream Creative
• Frank Isca, Partner, Weidert Group

Additionally, we’d like to extend a big thank you to our event sponsors:

• Gordon Flesh Company
• SalesSmith
• OnMilwaukee.com
• Insight
• Big Shoes Network
• Wayne Breitbarth: Power Formula For LinkedIn Success

Take a look at what our attendees and speakers had to say about the event throughout the day!

Personalization and engagement does not come naturally for every business or brand in regard to communication across various social channels. Developing meaningful and relevant conversations with customers, followers and fans drives deeper interaction and long-term loyalty. In addition to truly listening to your network, it takes a dedicated team, time and commitment to establish a high level of personalization across social channels.