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.
It’s all about getting found. How you go about getting found is the real test. Search engines, social media, and blogs have revolutionized lead generation. Consumers spend most of their time online for shopping research, reading reviews and blogs, and just using search engines. Because of this, businesses are making the transformation from outbound to inbound marketing. To remain competitive with their websites, businesses should create an engaging online atmosphere for their customers, to make it more readily available to sell products and services. Here are steps, strategies, and advice from lead generation experts.
We are in flight out of Milwaukee and headed to the HubSpot User Group Summit for two days of jam-packed Inbound Marketing goodness! From a company standpoint, we found last year's trip to be so beneficial that we are sending everyone this year. A lot has happened within the year with HubSpot's software upgrades and integrations, it will be exciting to see what's new and upcoming to bring back and share with our clients. On top of that, we'll have two days devoted to learning more about inbound marketing, social media and SEO from some leading experts! On our first day we'll be hearing Paul Roetzer of PR 20/20 talk about his upcoming book The Marketing Agency Blueprint, and keynotes from Guy Kawasaki and Dan Heath at the Inbound Marketing Summit.
School may be done for the summer but my education continues. I'll be spending my summer in Milwaukee, interning at Stream Creative. And I'm kicking things off with my first blog post!
If you've struggled reaching your prospects via traditional marketing, it might be time to try something new. How about starting a lemonade stand?
Jeff and I will be speaking at the WISN 12 "Drive Your Sales" Speaker Series tomorrow. Our presentation will explain how to use FREE online and social media tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs to drive more traffic to your website, increase your online visibility, build your brand awareness and generate more leads to drive sales. The 8:30 am session is full, but an 11:00 am has been added to the schedule. For more information visit WISN.com
As 2010 ends, let's reflect on how many B2B corporations have been made aware that their online presence is losing out to competitors who "get" inbound marketing and social media. For many of these corporations, the focus in 2011 will be to grow social networks, drive more quality leads online, and be able to measure and track their inbound marketing campaigns.
Here are four key topics that every marketing department will be discussing in 2011:
The following articles have been taken from a few great leading web sites within each of the above categories - these are their 2011 predictions:
Find and Convert
Why 2011 is the Year of Content Marketing
by Bernie Borges
Marketing Sherpa
New Chart: Expected Changes in B2B Marketing Budgets for 2011
by Jen Doyle
Social Media Today
11 B2B Marketing Predictions for 2011
by Paul Dunay
Blue Focus Marketing
Top 11 Ad Agency Predictions for 2011
by Cheryl Burgess
MarketingProfs
Predictions From Customer-Experience Experts for 2011
by Linda Ireland
Open Forum
5 Trends that Will Shape Small Business in 2011
by John Jantsch
Mashable
6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011
by Jesse Thomas
Smart Blog on Social Media
Why 2011 will be the year of social-media convergence
by Jesse Stanchak
Entrepreneur Magazine
10 Social Media Trends for 2011
by Starr Hall
Social Media Today
Seven Predictions for Social Media in 2011
by AmithaAmarasinghe
Social Media Today
5 predictions for social media in 2011
by Trevor Jonas
oneforty.
4 Social Media Predictions for 2011
by Janet
ReadWriteWeb
10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2011
by Ravit Lichtenberg from Ustrategy.com
Search Engine Land
SEM Trends For 2011: What To Expect & What To Do
by Siddharth Shah
Search Engine Land
5 Social Marketing Predictions For 2011
by Ciarán Norris
Search Engine Land
Digital Marketing Trends & Predictions For 2011
by Matt Lawson
Search Engine Journal
5 Link Building Predictions for 2011
by Kristi Hines
I Need Hits
2011 Predictions: Online Marketing Trends
by Courtney Mills
TopRank
SEO Tops Digital Marketing Tactics for 2011
by Lee Odden
Business Insider
Five Unexpected Mobile Predictions For 2011
by Jamie Hall
RCR Wireless
Reader Forum: 2011 mobile industry predictions
by William Dudley
Mobile Marketer
11 trends for mobile apps in 2011
By Kunal Gupta
Mashable
5 Predictions for Mobile in 2011
by Christina Warren
Our flights and hotel rooms have been booked and today four of us at Stream Creative are flying (gotta love AirTran Wi-Fi) to Boston for two inbound marketing events this week.
Article originally written and published for Inbound Marketing University