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Inbound Marketing

You are here: Home / Archives for Inbound Marketing

What are my top 5 Digital Marketing Insights from Inbound19?

October 21, 2019 //  by WSI Connect

My first Inbound marketing conference is a wrap!

It was a whirlwind of sessions and networking that sparked amazing learning and discussions. Over 24,000 people were in attendance at this remarkable event. I had a packed agenda filled with networking events and sessions. It was inspiring, fast paced and motivating. 

Let’s get started with insight #1.

1. Video is impactful

Video is critical to any marketing strategy. It aids consumers in the buying process, boosts organic search traffic and increases the understanding of your product/service thru an interactive and personal experience. I didn’t have the opportunity to squeeze in a session regarding video however my colleague did. You can read her very insightful post that sums up its importance: The #1 thing I learned from Inbound19

Almost every presentation I attended incorporated video. Snippets or clips that served as an ice breaker to garner audience attention and set the tone of the entire session.

Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text. (Insivia)

Key Takeaway:
Video is an effective tool for your overall digital marketing strategy. It can be an easier way to convey complex ideas in a highly creative format that is universally understood.

2. Storytelling / Authenticity is meaningful

I noticed each one of my sessions at Inbound 19 had a story. They weren’t case studies, self-promotion or client wins… they were personal stories about the presenters struggles, perspective or spark. Each of these stories then tied into the larger session topic and helped the audience dive deeper in its application. I didn’t recognize this pattern until I was back from the conference. I was out with my colleagues for lunch and I began sharing information about the sessions I attended. I began each of my discussions by re-telling the stories that amused or connected with me first. Those stories were essentially going viral thru my retelling albeit on a smaller scale.

One of the more memorable stories was by Sangram Vajre who’s session on How to Take Your Marketing from Good to Great focused on ABM (Account Based Marketing). It was a fresh perspective and he was able to engage the audience from the very beginning with a story about his son.  He was caring for his son while his wife went out of town and decided to take this role from good to GREAT:

  • Average Parenting – the status quo where they get by on TV, food and playtime
  • Good Parenting – picks it up a notch to Dad 1.0 where they play Xbox, watch movies and eat healthier snacks
  • Great Parenting – Dad 2.0 that lets his son watch ALL the Rocky movies and eat pancakes for ALL meals

He then dove deeper by discussing how to connect this parenting concept to how we work with our clients and focus our efforts step by step on creating GREAT marketing solutions.

Integrating super-personalized marketing into your strategy is a way for your business to say, ‘i’m listening. i know what you want… what you need… what you enjoy.’ The more your business shows this to a customer or prospect, the more likely they will be to connect with you and become a promoter of your business.” — Jess Marranco, Hubspot

The key takeaways from these sessions regarding storytelling and authenticity:

  • It should be entertaining
  • The story should be memorable
  • Something the audience can relate to
  • Contains nuggets of knowledge or awaken curiosity

Key Takeaway:
Focus on authentic long-term relationships thru a shared connection or idea.

3. Marketing Automation is essential

Automating our workflows and marketing tasks with seamless and timely touch points frees up time to focus on the customer experience and strategic solutions. When done correctly, it will accurately provide the right information to the right person at the right time. It can help reduce manual entry and keep your data and records accurate. This is important for:

  • Your sales team by having the confidence to act on accurate information
  • You marketing team by contacting and communicating with right people at the right time thru email drip campaigns and workflows
  • And management by increasing leads, deals and therefore revenue 
marketing_automation-wsi_connect

There are no limits to what you can automate thru proper planning. It will empower your sales team and streamline your overall processes which is a successful combination for all teams to thrive.

The marketing automation tech stack can include:

  • CMS (Content management system) or website
  • Email marketing software
  • Landing page and form builder
  • Campaign tool
  • Social media publishing tool
  • CRM (Customer relationship management)
  • Analytics tools

Key Takeaway:
Marketing automation helps to scale growth and reduce time on repetitive manual tasks.

4. Email Marketing is alive

Over the years I am sure you have heard that email marketing is dead. It would appear that number of emails that reach an already cluttered inbox are usually never opened, are deleted or marked as spam. However did you know: 

Email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing channel, including search and social” – Campaign Monitor

I attended a fascinating session showcasing how to build a list of engaged subscribers thru A/B testing, welcome emails, personalization and focused relevant content. The main question to ask is: Why Should Anyone Care?  The main point many marketers and business owners miss with email marketing is if you are providing value thru the content in your newsletters and segmenting your lists based on answering the main question then your email newsletters WILL be impactful.

Key Takeaway:
Refine your email marketing strategy and focus on answering the main question: Why Should Anyone Care?

5. Accessibility is for everyone

We recently launched a new ADA Compliant service at WSI Connect so I was excited to attend the session called: Accessible Marketing Is Modern Marketing: Building Accessibility In Instead of Opting Out by Christi Olson from Microsoft. She specifically focused on Inclusive Design principles and how to apply them across digital media.

If you aren’t building accessibility into your products, website, or marketing campaigns, it’s like saying to one in five customers, “I don’t want your business.””

ADA-Accessibility_WSI_Connect_Digital_Marketing

Christi took a deep dive into understanding how implementing this across your customers experiences. Below is a high level overview of the top 10 areas to focus on:

  1. Content Writing and Structure
  2. URL and link text and descriptions
  3. Text readability
  4. Accessible fonts
  5. Images and video
  6. Color contrast and shapes
  7. Keyboard navigation
  8. Contact information
  9. Call to action buttons
  10. Event space and registration

Key Takeaway: 
Focusing on accessibility and inclusive design as part of your overall strategy and design instead of an afterthought.

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(and discover why you should work with WSI Connect!)

Category: BlogTag: ADA Compliance, Automation, Email Marketing, Hubspot, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Automation, Video Marketing, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Website ADA Compliance

The #1 Thing I learned from Inbound19

October 17, 2019 //  by Tabitha Middendorf

Hint: It isn’t just comfortable shoes.

This year was my first year attending HubSpot’s HubSpot’s annual marketing conference, Inbound. It was a two solid days of packed learning and lots of walking. Lots. Of. Walking. It was organized chaos that was overwhelming and exhausting.

Long Live Video – #1 Thing I Learned

For awhile now, I’ve been reading (and seeing) that video is king and it continues to be so. This year, the biggest focus I kept hearing on replay was video. V-i-d-e-o.  Video is being used more and more because it provides a way to connect with your prospects and clients, and for you to tell your brand’s story.

Why was this a big theme for Inbound19? Video is an effective piece of content for your digital marketing strategy. It is easier to convey complex ideas in a creative format that is universally understood. Video version 2019 is now being integrated into overall marketing strategies. Why? Over 50% of consumers want to see and learn from video, from a brand they like and trust. Yet, Frankly my dear, I’m scared of video. Let’s face it, many of us are scared of video. Scared to shoot it. Scared to put ourselves in front of it, in it and, especially, share it for the world to see.  We have no problem shooting video of someone else, but as soon as we become the focus – our nerves get the best of us.

Different Types of Video for Digital Marketing

Admittedly, when I think of video I think of my son’s soccer games, the off-key tunes of happy birthday songs, or the typical commercial you see for a product or service.  To the contrary, there are many different types of video to consider depending on your marketing needs and strategy.

1. Demo – Demonstration videos are great for showing how something works and how it can be used. Like those magic bullet blender videos. 

2. Brand – Brand videos are part of an advertising campaign. These videos increase awareness and attract prospects.

3. Event – Event videos are short shots promoting an event.

4. Expert Interviews – Build authority and trust with your audience by interviewing an industry expert. 

5. Education/How-To – Instructional videos are a great tool to teach your audience something new. Consider this video excerpt on How to Build a Competitive Analysis for Your Business (26 minutes in length). 

6. Explainer – Fictional in theory, an explainer video is used to help your prospects better understand your product/service and why they need it.

7. Animated – Do you have a challenging concept you need to convey? If so consider an animated video with strong visuals. 

8. Case Study and Testimonial – Turn your raving reviews into client testimonial/case study videos to further advocate your company and brand.

9. Live Videos – Live videos are fun to watch. The IRL video gives your audience an opportunity for authentic interaction. Live stream your expert interview or next webinar.

10. 360 & Virtual Reality – These videos allow a viewer to see the entire space as though they were present. You’ll see these types of videos when booking a hotel room and you can scroll to view every aspect of the room. You might have also seen or created similar videos on Facebook.

11. Augmented Reality – AR videos allow you to put layers or elements on top of a video.  Pokemon Go is a perfect example of augmented reality. 

12. Personalized Messages – Personalized message videos are great for starting a conversation and maintaining engagement with a prospect or client. 

Did you know video marketers tend to see 66% more qualified leads and a 54% increase in brand awareness? Yes, so it is a safe bet that video is here to stay. 

Inbound19 was a great first experience. Next time, I’ll plan out my sessions according to our company’s goals and my personal goals. I’ll continue to be open to learning and I’ll pack my comfy shoes.

Category: BlogTag: Hubspot, Inbound Marketing, Video Marketing

Inbound Marketing Nonprofit Case Study

June 29, 2019 //  by Luke Middendorf

How Zero Breast Cancer spread their educational materials to thousands of parents and caregivers utilizing WSI Connect’s expertise and leveraging Inbound Marketing with HubSpot.

Zero Breast Cancer, their name is their mission. They envision a world without breast cancer and so do we. This terrible disease has touched so many whether directly or through a family member, friend or colleague. We all wish that it didn’t exist and the team at Zero Breast Cancer is working hard to help make that a reality.

A known risk factor for breast cancer later in life is early puberty in girls. Studies have discovered several reasons why many of today’s girls are entering puberty earlier and earlier. A book published by two members of the CYGNET study research team, Louse Greenspan, MD. And Julianna Deardorff, PhD, called “The New Puberty: How to Navigate Early Development in Today’s Girls” is the inspiration for the Zero Breast Cancer (ZBC) “Girls’ New Puberty” (GNP) materials.

These GNP materials have been designed to help parents and caregivers understand 5 different topic areas on healthy habits and behaviors to promote in young girls . They provides information and tools to explain what these behaviors are and to present them in ways that are engaging and motivating.  All five of these topics – especially when acted on jointly – are designed to help girls achieve puberty at a time that is right for them and not speeded up unnecessarily! These actions are proven to help protect girls from risks that can be controlled.

The goal of the campaign was to present the information in front of as many parents and caregivers as possible.  

By showcasing the latest science for healthy puberty in girls, ZBC could help prevent women from developing the disease and make significant progress towards a future with zero breast cancer.

The content created for the Girls’ New Puberty campaign is world class. It provides important information in an engaging way by motivating and promoting individuals and groups to adopt healthy behaviors.

  • Dedicated Microsite
  • YouTube Animated Video series
  • YouTube Girls Talk series
Leveraging Existing Assets (1)

The Challenge

They had an abundance of valuable, bright and engaging content, that had the potential to help young girls substantially reduce their risk of breast cancer later in life, but ZBC did not have the in-house capacity or expertise to disseminate the digital content and information to parents and caregivers. With limited staff resources, they didn’t have anyone available who could construct a long-term marketing strategy or plan, nor the platform on which to organize and automate the process to bring it to the scale they wanted to achieve.

It is a problem we see often, meaningful content that has the ability to impact a life yet little to no visibility and a narrow audience. The website traffic was low and there was minimal engagement on their Facebook page and YouTube channel.

To make real progress towards their goal of a future with zero breast cancer, they knew that they had to reach a significantly larger audience.

It was also clear that parents and caregivers didn’t understand the significance of early puberty nor did they understand that there were things that they could do to help promote healthy habits and behaviors.

Zero Breast Cancer recognized they needed a marketing strategy and help in creating one.

The Plan and the Process

Zero Breast Cancer began working with WSI Connect at the beginning of 2019 to help increase awareness for the Girls’ New Puberty campaign.

Zero Breast Cancer’s staff is small but mighty.  WSI Connect worked to become an extension of their team and created a multifaceted marketing strategy based on HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing methodology.

Hubspot flywheel
Here are the tools we leveraged in each stage: 

  • Attract: Ads, Facebook, Pinterest, CTA’s
  • Engage: ebook, infographic, gated content, CTA’s, email marketing, landing pages, forms
  • Delight: great content, YouTube video series, email marketing, marketing automation

We all knew that we needed to reach parents and caregivers on a deep level and that the education process should be ongoing to increase the likelihood of them utilizing the material.

As the team completed the content audit of available materials, we began forming and implementing the various areas of the strategy: 

  • Leverage Existing Assets
    • The Girls’ New Puberty microsite was converted into a comprehensive and informative eBook.
    • Imported existing contacts from their database to the HubSpot CRM.
    • Created an opt-in email campaign to enroll the imported contacts into the Girls’ New Puberty campaign.
  • Implementation
    • With multiple teams and many different contributors, the HubSpot on-boarding tool helped define individual responsibilities and keep the campaign organized and on track.
    • We setup integrations with Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel to help enhance the data in HubSpot reports.
  • Lead / Subscriber Generation
    • Utilize the eBook as gated content to capture contacts and grow.
  • CTAs / Landing Pages / Forms
    • CTA’s were strategically placed to prompt the target audience to click through to various landing pages.
    • Specific HubSpot landing pages to guide the target audience to engage.
    • HubSpot forms were added to the landing pages. This allowed to capture email address for marketing automation and demographic information to ensure that we were reaching the right audience.
  • Social Media Promotion
    • The eBook was heavily promoted on Facebook and Pinterest through targeted segmentation.
    • WSI Connect setup, installed and integrated ZBC’s Facebook pixel within HubSpot to streamline ad reporting and analytics.
  • Workflows / Marketing Automation 
    • Once opted in, subscribers joined a carefully designed workflow that generated weekly emails linking to ZBC’s YouTube video series and book reviews.
    • This allowed us to disseminate information to parents and caregivers over time, keeping them engaged and furthering their education.
  • A/B Testing
    • We A/B tested like crazy. Multiple versions of ad copy, ad images, demographic targeting, landing page design, email subject lines and ebook covers were created and tested.
    • HubSpot provided essential data by showing the CTA display and click through rates, email open and click rates, form view and submission rates, and landing page performance. This allowed us to understand how our audience connected with the content and we used that information to develop better content and processes.
  • Reports / Analytics
    • HubSpot reports allowed us to track our KPI’s.
    • We looked at traffic analytics, landing page performance, persona metrics, email performance, audience growth and engagement.
    • The reports were shared with Zero Breast Cancer’s board of directors to demonstrate the progress of the campaign.

Our teams worked closely together.  One on one conversations were frequent and we held bi-weekly meetings to review KPI’s, discuss progress and set backs.

AB Test GNP ebook Title (1)

Because the campaign is focused on education, the ROI cannot be quantified in dollars.  Instead we measured ROI by audience growth and engagement and we tracked multiple channels to help measure the success of the campaign.

The Impact

Growth by channel:

  • Website traffic
    • 425% growth year over year
    • Organic search increased dramatically as awareness brought more people searching for additional information on Girls’ New Puberty & Zero Breast Cancer
  • Facebook Page
    • Followers increased 120%
    • Audience reach – over 360K / over 622K impressions
  • YouTube 
    • Views increased by 460%
  • HubSpot
    • 400+ new contacts added to HubSpot workflows
  • Pinterest Pins
    • 205% increase in daily impressions
    • 115% increase in daily viewers
  • Email
    • Average 40% open rate – targeted donor email 
    • Average 22% open rate – automated workflow
      • 6% click rate
ZBC GNP HubSpot Reporting WSI Connect

The campaign went from reaching hundreds of people to thousands and continues to grow.

The success of the marketing campaign was so strong that it was announced in Zero Breast Cancer’s monthly newsletter to donors and presented to board members.

ZBC Pixel Power Recognition-1

Zero Breast Cancer’s campaign, Girls’ New Puberty, is different from our other clients. Whereas, with our other clients we’ve been able to show success through growth in profit, with ZBC’s campaign, success is measured on an entirely different scale. A scale that weighs reach, awareness, and ultimately healthful actions. Healthy actions that when started early in life will result in reduced breast cancer risk.  HubSpot’s platform has helped us enable ZBC’s campaign so that there is continued engagement which in turn keeps awareness top of mind.  At WSI Connect we believe that this is a far more important measure of success. 

Next Steps

WSI Connect and Zero Breast Cancer are scheduled for  an in-depth campaign review in July.  The review will include, workflow audit, sustainability of the social media growth and content production. We plan to take a look at implementing additional HubSpot features such as the chat bot and exit intent popup along with considering blog integration and deepening the Zero Breast Cancer team’s knowledge of HubSpot and Inbound Marketing through the learning center.

Category: BlogTag: Hubspot, Inbound Marketing

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