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:

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!

Over the past 8 years, inbound marketing has become a movement adopted by a large majority of professionals in various industries from B2C to B2B. It wasn’t until recent years that this wildly successful way of attracting and nurturing prospects and customers has extended beyond the marketing department. Organization leaders in all department areas including HR, business development, training, IT and more, continue to lean on inbound philosophies to achieve goals. While these areas of business have been influential, one department that has likely made the strongest impact by using inbound marketing strategy is sales.

What do feel when you look out the window of your home and see someone walking up your doorstep with a clipboard? The first feeling may be fear, the second is likely anxiety, and the third is oftentimes annoyance. Gone are the days when people tolerated disruptive soliciting and selling.

Last week, we had the pleasure of helping our friends and partners with PR 20/20 launch their new website. As fellow inbound marketers based out of Cleveland, Ohio, the PR 20/20 team created exceptional content and imagery while our Stream Creative web team assisted with the design and development of the site. One element of the website that is a favorite of both groups is the team page - highlighting the company’s philosophy of creating a “culture of we,” along with personalized bios and individual / group interests and passions.

The personalities, expertise and ethics of the people that make up a company are as important as the company’s reputation and achievements. Creating a team page that offers unique insight into a company’s culture and character adds value to any site where client / agency partnerships are an important part of business relations. Additionally, it adds a personal element and credibility that builds trust with partners and clients. These are 5 of our favorite elements of PR 20/20’s website team page that are great examples of how to make employees stand out, while exhibiting unity: 

1. Put a face & personality to the name. Most companies include professional photos of key personnel on their team page that will help partners, clients and prospects put a face to the name. PR 20/20 took this feature a step further by not only including a headshot of each of their team members, but personal photos with friends and family to showcase each unique personality. Multiple photos of the team at social functions were incorporated on the site page to display camaraderie, teamwork and most importantly, the fun that the group enjoys together.

2. Explain what has contributed to professional expertise to establish credibility. Rather than including the traditionally, often stuffy bio information, PR 20/20 included individual team member’s “professional moments”, “favorite moments” or “fun facts” both personally and professionally to allow their staff to highlight skills, areas of expertise and other industry credentials. 

3. Include fun, personal passions and interests that make individuals approachable and showcase personalities. Each individual team member’s page includes a listing of personal passions and interests that correspond with photos of friends, family and hobbies. The value of including interesting personal information makes the individual more approachable to the reader - offering possible commonalities and interests. The bottom line is that it portrays the company as a group of real people and will likely give clients and prospects something to talk about next time they chat with their PR 20/20 partner. 

4. Include personal social media handles or links. A company is only as strong as its team and this philosophy shines through when a team member shares their expertise via social channels. While it’s important to position a company as an industry expert, oftentimes team members have much to contribute via their personal blogs, relevant publications and other content they read or research on a daily basis. The information shared through an employee's personal social channels is a reflection of the company’s expertise as a whole. Including an employee’s personal social handles or links is a great way to encourage readers to get to know your staff and the knowledge they offer, by following their daily postings.

5. Encourage team members to provide descriptive quotes for their colleagues’ pages – further showcasing personalities, expertise and work ethic. One of our favorite elements of the PR 20/20 team page is the “testimonial” quotes fellow team members provided for each individual’s bio page. The quotes not only represent who the employee is as an individual, but also the strength of their individual role and incredible value they bring to the team (as told by their colleagues). 

Team bio & about pages are one of the most important components of any website. PR 20/20 did an incredible job putting a face to the personalities that make up their team, allowing website visitors to view the “realness” of their company. Adding a human touch can help build credibility and position your company and its representatives not only as thought leaders, but partners that clients and prospects will respect. 

How can you add greater personalization to showcase the expertise and unique personalities of your team on your company bio or about page?

As if inbound marketing wasn’t exceptional enough as is – it now has its own dedicated week where professionals from around the globe will unite. In partnership with HubSpot and Eventbrite, Inbound Marketing Week will take place June 2nd – 6th, 2014 with a series of events happening globally which will allow professionals to collaborate, share knowledge and ideas, best practices and trends. Whether you'll be hosting your own event or attending one in your area, here are 3 elements to help plan your Inbound Marketing Week:

Ever get used to how something works and have everything set up the way you like it, and then it updates and changes on you? You then have to relearn the new updates and steps and get used to a new platform.

When our friends at Hubspot asked me to contribute as a guest “instructor” for their brand-new back-to-school e-book: “ABC’s of Inbound Marketing,” I jumped at the chance to cover “Y” – Youtube. I want to help marketing professionals understand how important and easy incorporating video into your marketing strategies can be and the success you will experience from increased lead generation and stronger customer loyalty.

This week, 5,000+ marketers from around the world have come together in Boston, MA for Inbound 2013 – a four-day event hosted by HubSpot featuring more than 100 keynote sessions, product demonstrations and entertainment.  The Stream Creative team is onsite and not only are we learning from colleagues representing other parts of the country and sharing a bit of our own expertise, we are hearing all about the incredible new product offerings being launched this week by HubSpot.  One of the biggest announcements happened today with the unveiling of The Content Optimization System, Social Inbox and Signals. Here’s the latest on what HubSpot platform users have to look forward to with many more details to come…