pIf I were allowed to keep only one piece of advice in my marketing career, that would be, “question conventional wisdom.” It’s easy to blindly follow the old preachings of industry experts. It’s riskier, and often more effective, to take new directions and a href=”http://go.hubspot.com/ebook-busting-marketing-myths/” title=”experiment with the unknown” target=”_blank”experiment with the unknown/a./p
a href=”http://go.hubspot.com/ebook-busting-marketing-myths/” target=”_blank”img id=”img-1326257194128″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/shirt_vertical-resized-600.png” border=”0″ alt=”marketing myths” class=”alignRight” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” //a
pWe want to take you down the latter path. Our new ebook, ema href=”http://go.hubspot.com/ebook-busting-marketing-myths/” title=”6 Deadly Marketing Myths Busted” target=”_blank”6 Deadly Marketing Myths Busted/a/em challenges some widely held marketing theories. Authored bynbsp;HubSpot Social Media Scientist Dan Zarrella, this ebook relies on real data to protect you from superstitious bits of bad marketing advice. (The ebook is free and available to all, so make sure you a href=”http://go.hubspot.com/ebook-busting-marketing-myths/” title=”grab your copy today” target=”_blank”grab your copy today/a.)/p
h2strongMyth #1: Social media is for conversations, not broadcasting./strong/h2
pDan’s research showed no significant correlation between the number of comments a blog post received and the amount of traffic that blog post generated. In other words, the conversation didnrsquo;t drive traffic./p
pInterestingly enough, Dan also proved that there may be no useful relationship between the amount of feedback (comments and likes) on a a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-use-facebook-to-grow-your-business” title=”Facebook wall post” target=”_blank”Facebook wall post/a and the number of people who see that wall post. Finally, his research on Twitter showed that highly followed accounts tend to have a lower percentage of their overall tweet stream starting with an ldquo;@rdquo; sign. In other words, theyrsquo;re less conversational./p
h2strongMyth #2: ldquo;Please ReTweetrdquo; doesnrsquo;t work./strong/h2
h2img id=”img-1326257760073″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/retweets.png” border=”0″ alt=”retweets” width=”379″ height=”184″ class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” //h2
pDan’s research also showed that tweets containing the phrase ldquo;please retweetrdquo; received more retweets than tweets that didn’t contain either ldquo;please retweetrdquo; or “please RT.” The lesson here is that marketers shouldn’t forget to include a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-create-effective-calls-to-action/” title=”calls-to-action” target=”_blank”calls-to-action/a in their tweets. As Dan a href=”http://go.hubspot.com/ebook-busting-marketing-myths/” title=”writes in his ebook” target=”_blank”writes in his ebook/a, “If you want someone to take a specific action, you have to actually ask them to do it.”/p
h2strongMyth #3: Donrsquo;t market on the weekends./strong/h2
pDan has found that articles tend to be shared on Facebook far more on weekends than on weekdays. Similarly, in his a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/the-science-of-email-marketing/” title=”Science of Email Marketing” target=”_blank”Science of Email Marketing/a research, he found that emails sent on the weekend had a much higher click-through rate (CTR). The lesson here is that marketers should embrace contra-competitive timing and question conventions./p
h2img id=”img-1326257894103″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/guru-resized-600.png” border=”0″ alt=”guru resized 600″ width=”410″ height=”287″ class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” /strongMyth #4: Donrsquo;t call yourself a ldquo;guru.rdquo;/strong/h2
pWhen Dan analyzed more than five million Twitter accounts using data from a href=”http://tweet.grader.com/” title=”Twitter Grader” target=”_blank”Tweet Grader/a, he found that accounts containing the word ldquo;gururdquo; in their bios had 100 more followers than the average user. This shows that you shouldnrsquo;t be afraid to identify yourself authoritatively./p
h2strongMyth #5: Send less email./strong/h2
pIn a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/the-science-of-email-marketing/” title=”The Science of Email Marketing” target=”_blank”The Science of Email Marketing/a, Dan found that there was no major drop off in click-through rates when sending more email messages. Instead of worrying about the number of messages you send to your database, what you should be concerned about is your subscriber recency. Dan’s research showed that the older a subscriber was, the lower their response rates were./p
h2strongMyth #6. Klout is worthless./strong/h2
pThe argument has been made that a href=”http://klout.com” title=”Klout” target=”_blank”Klout/a isnrsquo;t a useful measure of marketing influence. Dan compared Klout score to two other unrelated measurements of marketing effectiveness (inbound links to a website and website traffic) and found a relationship between high Klout scores and incoming links and traffic. This goes to show that social media and other marketing channels are tightly connected and impact each other on levels that we are often unaware of./p
pemAre there any other marketing myths you’d like us to debunk? Share them in the comments below. Don’t forget to a href=”http://go.hubspot.com/ebook-busting-marketing-myths/” title=”download the ebook” target=”_blank”download the ebook/a for an in-depth description of the research, including charts and graphs./em/p
pemspan id=”hs-cta-wrapper-b301d047-15b1-449e-886e-549a93037745″ class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-b301d047-15b1-449e-886e-549a93037745″ id=”hs-cta-b301d047-15b1-449e-886e-549a93037745″ a href=”http://go.hubspot.com/ebook-busting-marketing-myths/” data-mce-href=”http://go.hubspot.com/ebook-busting-marketing-myths/”img id=”hs-cta-img-b301d047-15b1-449e-886e-549a93037745″ src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/8f7ee528-b753-4b3d-be63-be9dea532f38-1326292783829/marketing-myths-ebook.png?v=1326292784.15″ alt=”marketing-myths-ebook” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width:0px” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/8f7ee528-b753-4b3d-be63-be9dea532f38-1326292783829/marketing-myths-ebook.png?v=1326292784.15″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=b301d047-15b1-449e-886e-549a93037745″; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-b301d047-15b1-449e-886e-549a93037745″).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-b301d047-15b1-449e-886e-549a93037745″).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span br //em/ppstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Ybj_joiwLOk:LTbotRPe0B4:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Ybj_joiwLOk:LTbotRPe0B4:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Ybj_joiwLOk:LTbotRPe0B4:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=Ybj_joiwLOk:LTbotRPe0B4:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Ybj_joiwLOk:LTbotRPe0B4:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=Ybj_joiwLOk:LTbotRPe0B4:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Ybj_joiwLOk:LTbotRPe0B4:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=Ybj_joiwLOk:LTbotRPe0B4:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/Ybj_joiwLOk” height=”1″ width=”1″/

6 Deadly Marketing Myths BUSTED

pimg id=”img-1326233339319″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/spam1.jpeg” border=”0″ alt=”describe the image” class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” /Writing the subject lines for your emails can be one of the most stressful steps of a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/7-steps-to-jump-start-your-email-marketing-strategy/” title=”email marketing” target=”_blank”email marketing/a. Is it engaging? Too short? Too long? Too boring? Will people click ‘delete’ because of it? Or will they open it? Will it even get to them, or will it trigger SPAM filters? It’s the last of these concerns that we’re here to help with today.nbsp;/p
pspanSPAM filters can be triggered for a variety of reasons, causing your email to skip recipients’ inboxes and land straight in their SPAM box. One of easiest ways to avoid SPAM filters is by carefully choosing the words you use in a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29591/The-6-Step-Secret-Sauce-for-Awesome-Email-Subject-Lines.aspx” title=”your email’s subject line” target=”_blank”your email’s subject line/a. Trigger words are known to cause problems and increase the chances of your email getting caught in a SPAM trap. By avoiding these words in your email subject lines, you can dramatically increase your chances of getting beyond SPAM filters.nbsp;/span/p
pNext time you sit down to write an email subject line, consult the exhaustive list below and make sure you aren’t using any words that will get you in trouble. In fact, you might want to bookmark this list so you can refer back to it every time you craft an email subject line. Back off, SPAM filters!/p
h2strongCommerce/strongnbsp;/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″As seen on/td
td width=”175″Buy/td
td width=”175″Buy direct/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Buying judgments/td
td width=”175″Clearance/td
td width=”175″Order/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Order status/td
td width=”175″Orders shipped by/td
td width=”175″shopper/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strongPersonal/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Dig up dirt on friendsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Meet singlesnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Score with babes/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strongEmployment/strongnbsp;nbsp;/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Additional Income/td
td width=”175″Be your own boss/td
td width=”175″Compete for your business/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Double your/td
td width=”175″Earn $/td
td width=”175″Earn extra cash/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Earn per weeknbsp;/td
td width=”175″Expect to earnnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Extra income/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Home based/td
td width=”175″Home employment/td
td width=”175″Homebased business/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Income from home/td
td width=”175″Make $/td
td width=”175″Make money/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Money making/td
td width=”175″Online biz opportunity/td
td width=”175″Online degree/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Opportunitynbsp;/td
td width=”175″Potential earningsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″University diplomas/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″While you sleepnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Work at homenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Work from home/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strongFinancial – General/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″$$$/td
td width=”175″Affordable/td
td width=”175″Bargain/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Beneficiary/td
td width=”175″Best price/td
td width=”175″Big bucksnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Cash/td
td width=”175″Cash bonusnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Cashcashcash/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Cents on the dollarnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Cheap/td
td width=”175″Check/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Claims/td
td width=”175″Collect/td
td width=”175″Compare rates/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Cost/td
td width=”175″Credit/td
td width=”175″Credit bureausnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Discount/td
td width=”175″Earn/td
td width=”175″Easy termsnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″F r e e/td
td width=”175″Fast cash/td
td width=”175″For just $XXX/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Hidden assetsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″hidden charges/td
td width=”175″Income/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Incredible deal/td
td width=”175″Insurancenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Investment/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Loans/td
td width=”175″Lowest pricenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Million dollars/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Money/td
td width=”175″Money back/td
td width=”175″Mortgage/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Mortgage ratesnbsp;/td
td width=”175″No cost/td
td width=”175″No feesnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″One hundred percent freenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Only $nbsp;/td
td width=”175″Pennies a daynbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Price/td
td width=”175″Profitsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Pure profit/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Quote/td
td width=”175″Refinance/td
td width=”175″Save $/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Save big money/td
td width=”175″Save up to/td
td width=”175″Serious cash/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Subject to credit/td
td width=”175″They keep your money — no refund!nbsp;/td
td width=”175″Unsecured credit/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Unsecured debt/td
td width=”175″US dollars/td
td width=”175″Why pay more?nbsp;/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strongFinancial – Business/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Accept Credit Cards/td
td width=”175″Cards accepted/td
td width=”175″Check or money ordernbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Credit card offersnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Explode your business/td
td width=”175″Full refundnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Investment decisionnbsp;/td
td width=”175″No credit checknbsp;/td
td width=”175″No hidden Costs/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″No investment/td
td width=”175″Requires initial investment/td
td width=”175″Sent in compliance/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Stock alertnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Stock disclaimer statementnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Stock picknbsp;/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongFinancial – Personal/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Avoid bankruptcy/td
td width=”175″Calling creditors/td
td width=”175″Collect child support/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Consolidate debt and credit/td
td width=”175″Consolidate your debt/td
td width=”175″Eliminate bad creditnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Eliminate debt/td
td width=”175″Financially independent/td
td width=”175″Get out of debt/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Get paidnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Lower interest rate/td
td width=”175″Lower monthly paymentnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Lower your mortgage rate/td
td width=”175″Lowest insurance rates/td
td width=”175″Pre-approved/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Refinance homenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Social security numbernbsp;/td
td width=”175″Your income/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongGeneral/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Acceptance/td
td width=”175″Accordingly/td
td width=”175″Avoid/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Chance/td
td width=”175″Dormant/td
td width=”175″Freedom/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Here/td
td width=”175″Hidden/td
td width=”175″Home/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Leave/td
td width=”175″Lifetime/td
td width=”175″Lose/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Maintained/td
td width=”175″Medium/td
td width=”175″Miracle/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Never/td
td width=”175″Passwords/td
td width=”175″Problem/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Remove/td
td width=”175″Reverses/td
td width=”175″Sample/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Satisfaction/td
td width=”175″Solution/td
td width=”175″Stop/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Success/td
td width=”175″Teen/td
td width=”175″Wife/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongGreetings/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Dear [email/friend/somebody]nbsp;/td
td width=”175″Friend/td
td width=”175″Hello/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongMarketing/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Ad/td
td width=”175″Auto email removalnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Bulk email/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Click/td
td width=”175″Click below/td
td width=”175″Click here/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Click to removenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Direct emailnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Direct marketingnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Email harvestnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Email marketingnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Form/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Increase salesnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Increase trafficnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Increase your sales/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Internet market/td
td width=”175″Internet marketing/td
td width=”175″Marketing/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Marketing solutionsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Mass emailnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Member/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Month trial offer/td
td width=”175″More Internet Traffic/td
td width=”175″Multi level marketing/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Notspam/td
td width=”175″One time mailingnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Online marketing/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Open/td
td width=”175″Opt in/td
td width=”175″Performance/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Removal instructions/td
td width=”175″Sale/td
td width=”175″Sales/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Search engine listings/td
td width=”175″Search engines/td
td width=”175″Subscribe/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″The following form/td
td width=”175″This isn’t junknbsp;/td
td width=”175″This isn’t spamnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Undisclosed recipient/td
td width=”175″Unsubscribe/td
td width=”175″Visit our website/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″We hate spamnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Web traffic/td
td width=”175″Will not believe your eyesnbsp;/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongMedical/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Cures baldnessnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Diagnostics/td
td width=”175″Fast Viagra delivery/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Human growth hormone/td
td width=”175″Life Insurance/td
td width=”175″Lose weight/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Lose weight spamnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Medicine/td
td width=”175″No medical exams/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Online pharmacynbsp;/td
td width=”175″Removes wrinkles/td
td width=”175″Reverses aging/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Stop snoringnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Valium/td
td width=”175″Viagra/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Vicodin/td
td width=”175″Weight loss/td
td width=”175″Xanax/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongNumbers/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″#1/td
td width=”175″100% free/td
td width=”175″100% Satisfied/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″4U/td
td width=”175″50% off/td
td width=”175″Billion/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Billion dollarsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Join millions/td
td width=”175″Join millions of Americansnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Million/td
td width=”175″One hundred percent guaranteednbsp;/td
td width=”175″Thousands/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongOffers/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Being a member/td
td width=”175″Billing addressnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Call/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Cannot be combined with any other offernbsp;/td
td width=”175″Confidentially on all ordersnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Deal/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Financial freedomnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Gift certificate/td
td width=”175″Giving away/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Guaranteenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Have you been turned down?nbsp;/td
td width=”175″If only it were that easy/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Important information regarding/td
td width=”175″In accordance with laws/td
td width=”175″Long distance phone offer/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Mail in order formnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Message contains/td
td width=”175″Name brandnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Nigeriannbsp;/td
td width=”175″No age restrictionsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″No catchnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″No claim formsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″No disappointmentnbsp;/td
td width=”175″No experiencenbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″No gimmicknbsp;/td
td width=”175″No inventorynbsp;/td
td width=”175″No middleman/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″No obligation/td
td width=”175″No purchase necessary/td
td width=”175″No questions asked/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″No selling/td
td width=”175″No strings attached/td
td width=”175″No-obligation/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Not intendednbsp;/td
td width=”175″Obligation/td
td width=”175″Off shore/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Offer/td
td width=”175″Per day/td
td width=”175″Per week/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Priority mail/td
td width=”175″Prize/td
td width=”175″Prizes/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Produced and sent outnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Reserves the right/td
td width=”175″Shopping spreenbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Stuff on sale/td
td width=”175″Terms and conditions/td
td width=”175″The best rates/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Theyrsquo;re just giving it away/td
td width=”175″Trial/td
td width=”175″unlimited/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Unsolicited/td
td width=”175″Vacation/td
td width=”175″Vacation offers/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Warranty/td
td width=”175″We honor allnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Weekend getawaynbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″What are you waiting for?nbsp;/td
td width=”175″Who really wins?nbsp;/td
td width=”175″Win/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Winnernbsp;/td
td width=”175″Winningnbsp;/td
td width=”175″won/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″You are a winner!/td
td width=”175″You have been selectednbsp;/td
td width=”175″Yoursquo;re a Winner!/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongCalls-to-Action/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Cancel at any timenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Compare/td
td width=”175″Copy accuratelynbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Get/td
td width=”175″Give it away/td
td width=”175″Print form signature/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Print out and faxnbsp;/td
td width=”175″See for yourself/td
td width=”175″Sign up free todaynbsp;/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongFree/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Free/td
td width=”175″Free accessnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free cell phonenbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Free consultationnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free DVDnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free gift/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Free grant money/td
td width=”175″Free hosting/td
td width=”175″Free installationnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Free Instant/td
td width=”175″Free investmentnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free leadsnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Free membershipnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free moneynbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free offernbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Free previewnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free priority mailnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free quotenbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Free samplenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free trialnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Free websitenbsp;/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongDescriptions/Adjectives/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″All natural/td
td width=”175″All new/td
td width=”175″Amazingnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Certified/td
td width=”175″Congratulationsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Drastically reducednbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Fantastic dealnbsp;/td
td width=”175″For freenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Guaranteed/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Itrsquo;s effective/td
td width=”175″Outstanding valuesnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Promise you/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Real thing/td
td width=”175″Risk free/td
td width=”175″Satisfaction guaranteednbsp;/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongSense of Urgency/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Access/td
td width=”175″Act Now!/td
td width=”175″Apply now/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Apply Onlinenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Call freenbsp;/td
td width=”175″Call nownbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Can’t live without/td
td width=”175″Do it today/td
td width=”175″Don’t deletenbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Don’t hesitate/td
td width=”175″For instant accessnbsp;/td
td width=”175″For Only/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″For you/td
td width=”175″Get it now/td
td width=”175″Get started nownbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Great offernbsp;/td
td width=”175″Info you requested/td
td width=”175″Information you requested/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Instant/td
td width=”175″limited time/td
td width=”175″New customers onlynbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Now/td
td width=”175″Now only/td
td width=”175″Offer expiresnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Once in lifetimenbsp;/td
td width=”175″One time/td
td width=”175″Only/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Order now/td
td width=”175″Order today/td
td width=”175″Please readnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Special promotionnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Supplies are limited/td
td width=”175″Take action now/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Time limited/td
td width=”175″Urgent/td
td width=”175″While supplies lastnbsp;/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
h2strong/strongstrongNouns/strong/h2
table border=”1″
tbody
tr
td width=”175″Addresses on CD/td
td width=”175″Beverage/td
td width=”175″Bonus/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Brand new pagernbsp;/td
td width=”175″Cable converternbsp;/td
td width=”175″Casinonbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Celebrity/td
td width=”175″Copy DVDsnbsp;/td
td width=”175″Laser printernbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Legal/td
td width=”175″Luxury carnbsp;/td
td width=”175″New domain extensionsnbsp;/td
/tr
tr
td width=”175″Phone/td
td width=”175″Rolex/td
td width=”175″Stainless steelnbsp;/td
/tr
/tbody
/table
pemPhoto Credit: a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/arndog/” title=”Arndog” target=”_self”Arndog/a/em/p
pspan id=”hs-cta-wrapper-e90c7764-2a7b-48b8-8877-ee045ec726fe” class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-e90c7764-2a7b-48b8-8877-ee045ec726fe” id=”hs-cta-e90c7764-2a7b-48b8-8877-ee045ec726fe” a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/7-steps-to-jump-start-your-email-marketing-strategy/” data-mce-href=”http://www.hubspot.com/7-steps-to-jump-start-your-email-marketing-strategy/”img id=”hs-cta-img-e90c7764-2a7b-48b8-8877-ee045ec726fe” src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/4c40eb0b-6758-445c-b3c4-02504617f6d5-1314195827536/7-email-marketing-steps-cta.jpg?v=1314195827.95″ alt=”7-email-marketing-steps-cta” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width:0px” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/4c40eb0b-6758-445c-b3c4-02504617f6d5-1314195827536/7-email-marketing-steps-cta.jpg?v=1314195827.95″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=e90c7764-2a7b-48b8-8877-ee045ec726fe”; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-e90c7764-2a7b-48b8-8877-ee045ec726fe”).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-e90c7764-2a7b-48b8-8877-ee045ec726fe”).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span/ppstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QnScivbcSNs:t7TC37nHdng:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QnScivbcSNs:t7TC37nHdng:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QnScivbcSNs:t7TC37nHdng:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=QnScivbcSNs:t7TC37nHdng:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QnScivbcSNs:t7TC37nHdng:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=QnScivbcSNs:t7TC37nHdng:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QnScivbcSNs:t7TC37nHdng:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=QnScivbcSNs:t7TC37nHdng:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/QnScivbcSNs” height=”1″ width=”1″/

The Ultimate List of Email SPAM Trigger Words

pimg id=”img-1326292881798″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/facebook ads in news feeds.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”facebook ads in news feeds” width=”370″ height=”236″ class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” /You’ve probably heard rumblings of it over the past few weeks, and like it or not, the time has finally come: Facebook is now a href=”http://www.facebook.com/help/featured-stories” title=”featuring paid advertisements” target=”_blank”featuring paid advertisements/a in users’ News Feeds./p
pYes, right in between photos of your cousin’s new baby and your college roommate’s update about burning his toast emagain/em this morning (lol, am I right?!), you could now see an ad from a company that paid to have it featured in your News Feed. These ads are officially being called “Featured Stories.”/p
pstrongBut it’s not just any company’s Featured Stories that can show up in a user’s a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-use-facebook-to-grow-your-business/” title=”Facebook” target=”_blank”Facebook/a News Feed; there are two major caveats for placement/strong./p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”1.) A user will see Featured Stories from brands they have already ‘Liked’ on Facebook./p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”2.) Users will also see Featured Stories from brands their friends have liked, even if they haven’t liked the brand themselves./p
pem(Therefore, a user will only see Featured Stories from brands they or their friends have Liked.)/em/p
pThe content of a Featured Story can be anything from an update you post on your a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-use-facebook-to-grow-your-business/” title=”company Facebook page” target=”_blank”company Facebook page/a, to someone liking your page, to someone checking in with you or using your app. If you want to pay for any post or behavior to appear as a Featured Story in News Feeds, you can do so. Users will know they’re looking at a Featured Story because, as you see below a href=”http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-starts-displaying-ads-in-the-news-feed/7143″ title=”courtsey of Zdnet” target=”_blank”courtesy of ZDNet/a, they are marked with the word “Featured.” An explanation of what that means appears when a user hovers over the word. However, unless people are staring at their News Feed all day, Facebook anticipates the average user to only see one ad per day./p
pimg id=”img-1326294474158″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/facebook_featured_ad_news_feed.png” border=”0″ alt=”facebook featured ad news feed” width=”446″ height=”258″ class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” //p
h2strongMarketing Takeaway/strong/h2
pThe social world is in the middle of a battle between free, ad-driven services, and paid, ad-free service. It’s unclear which way consumers and the industry are going to lean, but the biggest marketing takeaway in the interim is that we all have to know our audience. Are your fans likely to be turned off by this interruption in their News Feed? Will it cause them to unlike your a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/Beyond-the-Facebook-Business-Page/” title=”Facebook page” target=”_blank”Facebook page/a?/p
pI predict this update will be received like most Facebook updates: Users will be up in arms for about a week, and then Featured Stories will settle into the norms of day to day Facebooking. So if you’re worried about fan backlash from experimenting with Featured Stories, just wait a short time until the hoopla dies down. After all, Featured Stories gives you the opportunity to get in front of your fans’ friends. So even if a few fans unlike your page in the beginning, you’re still benefitting from ever-expanding reach as your fan base grows over time./p
pIf you decide to pay for Featured Stories, the most important thing you can do is ensure your content is valuable. If you’re choosing to not only interrupt your fans, but to pay to do so, it should be with something so awesome — remarkable content, a valuable coupon or discount, etc. — that your fans would regret missing out on./p
pFinally, make sure you’re really, really likeable — both in the Facebook sense, and as a brand. If your foray into Featured Stories turns out to be a bust, it’s crucial that a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-use-facebook-to-grow-your-business/” title=”your brand and it’s Facebook page” target=”_blank”your brand and its Facebook page/a be likeable enough for your fans to forgive you the misstep. Keep your page content entertaining and useful to ensure you don’t suffer a barrage of unlikes from your current fans, or suffer alienating your fans’ friends in the process of testing out a new ad tool. But if your Featured Stories are interesting and don’t add to the clutter of the News Feed, you shouldn’t experience tidal waves of unlikes./p
pemAs a marketer, are you excited for Featured Stories in users’ news feeds, and will you be experimenting with it? As a Facebook user, do you feel differently?/em/p
pImage credit: a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/birgerking/” title=”birgerking” target=”_blank”birgerking/a/p
pspan id=”hs-cta-wrapper-3e7e6622-d676-4345-98cb-5911d6457528″ class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-3e7e6622-d676-4345-98cb-5911d6457528″ id=”hs-cta-3e7e6622-d676-4345-98cb-5911d6457528″ a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-master-facebook-marketing-in-10-days/” data-mce-href=”http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-master-facebook-marketing-in-10-days/”img id=”hs-cta-img-3e7e6622-d676-4345-98cb-5911d6457528″ src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/988bc04a-e246-4d87-a2a5-51a251d14e77-1325805902304/blog-cta-test-facebook-10-days.png?v=1325805902.78″ alt=”blog-cta-test-facebook-10-days” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width:0px” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/988bc04a-e246-4d87-a2a5-51a251d14e77-1325805902304/blog-cta-test-facebook-10-days.png?v=1325805902.78″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=3e7e6622-d676-4345-98cb-5911d6457528″; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-3e7e6622-d676-4345-98cb-5911d6457528″).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-3e7e6622-d676-4345-98cb-5911d6457528″).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span/ppstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Iw0M1RVj1kk:yDpljmNAAEI:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Iw0M1RVj1kk:yDpljmNAAEI:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Iw0M1RVj1kk:yDpljmNAAEI:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=Iw0M1RVj1kk:yDpljmNAAEI:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Iw0M1RVj1kk:yDpljmNAAEI:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=Iw0M1RVj1kk:yDpljmNAAEI:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=Iw0M1RVj1kk:yDpljmNAAEI:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=Iw0M1RVj1kk:yDpljmNAAEI:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/Iw0M1RVj1kk” height=”1″ width=”1″/

Facebook Now Features Paid Ads in News Feeds

pimg id=”img-1326149736476″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/1681924558_6bd681424c_o-resized-600.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”newspaper” width=”200″ height=”299″ class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” /Pitching to the press is no easy task. Every day, journalists receive thousands of emails from a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/public-relations-kit/” title=”public relations professionals ” target=”_blank”public relations professionals /awho are pitching their clients’ ideas; sometimes hundreds of mass pitches are sent to unsuspecting journalists from just emone/em person in a given day. With such a high quantity of pitches, it is really easy to make a mistake, but it’s a shame when those mistakes could’ve easily been avoided with just a little awareness./p
pTake a look at the 7 biggest mistakes, and unfortunately some of the most common ones, that PR and marketing professionals make when pitching their stories to journalists. And next time you’re pitchingem your/em story, make sure you don’t fall victim to these a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/public-relations-kit/” title=”public relations” target=”_blank”public relations/a faux pas so you can increase your instances of a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/public-relations-kit/” title=”PR success” target=”_blank”PR success/a./p
h2strong1. Forgetting to Follow Up/strong/h2
pThere is a fine line between calling and emailing a reporter non-stop until they answer you, and leaving a friendly voicemail reminding them about your pitch or sending over a short email following up. Reporters get so much email, that it is easy to lose track of a pitch, even if it’s one they’re interested in writing about. Give them a day or two to think about the email, and then make your contact. But most importantly, keep track of who you follow up with so you do not contact those who have already said “no.”/p
h2b2. Pitching at the Wrong Time/b/h2
pOn a Friday afternoon, your a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/7-steps-to-jump-start-your-email-marketing-strategy/” title=”email” target=”_blank”email/a will not only get lost in the other mass emails from the week, but journalists will also not want to talk to you. It is almost the weekend, and many people will already be out of the office. It is also important to figure out what times the reporters are on deadline because they will not be interested in hearing new pitches; they’ll be busy finishing up some of their other stories. Timing is EVERYTHING./p
h2strong3. Depending Solely on Press Releases/strong/h2
pPress releases used to be the best way to get out messages about new developments. But in a world dominated by a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-for-pr-ebook/” title=”social media and short messages” target=”_blank”social media and short messages/a, press releases are not always the most successful way to announce something new. Press releases are still useful, but they should not be the only tool used. Combining a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/7-steps-to-jump-start-your-email-marketing-strategy/” title=”press releases with email pitches” target=”_blank”press releases with email pitches/a that have bullet points of the main information in the press release can be the perfect combination to get the press you are looking for. It gives your media contacts the wherewithal to disseminate your information in other ways that may be even more beneficial for you./p
h2strong4. Not Conducting Research About a Reporter/strong/h2
pWhen you are pitching a reporter, make sure you are knowledgeablenbsp;about his or her past articles. Research what topics he or she likes to write about and whether or not the reporter has written about competitors. Also conduct research on the news source that reporter works for to see what type of topics they have written about in the past. Having this context will make the pitch much stronger and make your conversation with reporters more relevant, increasing your likelihood of coverage./p
h2strong5. Not Doing Background Research On YOUR Industry/strong/h2
pIt is important to know a lot of information about your own industry, competitors, and other press in these areas. Before you get on the phone with a reporter, know all of this information like the back of your hand so your answers aren’t generic, but rather speak to the meaty topics in your industry. Competitive and industry knowledge will let you, and thus the reporter, position you correctly in their coverage./p
h2b6. Making Careless Mistakes/b/h2
pWith the large quantity of pitches public relations professionals send out every day, it is all too easy to make a careless mistake. Unfortunately, that usually guarantees your email goes right in the trash or your voicemail is deleted. In addition to proofing for grammatical errors, make sure you’re not misspelling a reporter’s name in a pitch, using the wrong news source, or point blank including incorrect information to ensure you’re taken seriously. nbsp;/p
h2strong7. Not Personalizing Your Pitch/strong/h2
pNo one wants to be on the receiving end of a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/7-steps-to-jump-start-your-email-marketing-strategy/” title=”mass communication” target=”_blank”mass communication/a. Every pitch should make the reporter feel like he or she is special and that you put a lot of thought into a pitch that was appropriate for just one reporter. Whether that means referencing past articles that the reporter has written or connecting with them via Twitter or other a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-for-pr-ebook/” title=”social media networks” target=”_blank”social media networks/a, it is a necessary step to get their attention./p
pemWhat egregious mistakes have you seen public relations professionals make when pitching to reporters?/em/p
pemPhoto Credit: a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/” title=”Valerie Everett” target=”_blank”Valerie Everett/a/em/p
pbr /span id=”hs-cta-wrapper-8690f9d2-329a-4868-84d0-d6a8cd5aad74″ class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-8690f9d2-329a-4868-84d0-d6a8cd5aad74″ id=”hs-cta-8690f9d2-329a-4868-84d0-d6a8cd5aad74″ a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-for-pr-ebook/” data-mce-href=”http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-for-pr-ebook/”img id=”hs-cta-img-8690f9d2-329a-4868-84d0-d6a8cd5aad74″ src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/bb24e913-c5d5-4a27-8d8e-d4d28e775f32-1326215835196/public-relations-ebook.png?v=1326215835.48″ alt=”public-relations-ebook” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width:0px” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/bb24e913-c5d5-4a27-8d8e-d4d28e775f32-1326215835196/public-relations-ebook.png?v=1326215835.48″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=8690f9d2-329a-4868-84d0-d6a8cd5aad74″; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-8690f9d2-329a-4868-84d0-d6a8cd5aad74″).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-8690f9d2-329a-4868-84d0-d6a8cd5aad74″).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span/ppstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=g4L997o-ZVs:Q6Ln_fYYqgk:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=g4L997o-ZVs:Q6Ln_fYYqgk:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=g4L997o-ZVs:Q6Ln_fYYqgk:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=g4L997o-ZVs:Q6Ln_fYYqgk:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=g4L997o-ZVs:Q6Ln_fYYqgk:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=g4L997o-ZVs:Q6Ln_fYYqgk:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=g4L997o-ZVs:Q6Ln_fYYqgk:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=g4L997o-ZVs:Q6Ln_fYYqgk:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/g4L997o-ZVs” height=”1″ width=”1″/

7 Silly Mistakes to Stop Making in Your PR Pitches

pemimg id=”img-1326218288751″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/qr code-resized-600b.png” border=”0″ alt=”qr code resized 600b” width=”310″ height=”334″ class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” /This is a guest blog post written by Jamie Turner, span class=”style714″founder and chief content officer of the 60 Second Marketer. In addition, /spanJamie is the co-author of the book /ema href=”http://amzn.to/JamieTurnerGoMobile”Go Mobile/aem, written with Jeanne Hopkins, VP of marketing @HubSpot. He is a regular guest on CNN and HLN on the topic of digital marketing and is a popular /ema href=”http://60secondmarketer.com/MobileMarketingSpeaker”emmobile marketing speaker/em/aem at events and corporations around the globe. /em/p
pIf yoursquo;re like a lot of people, you may be wondering how to use mobile marketing to generate leads for your business. For HubSpot users, the good news is that you have a head start — the a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/products” title=”HubSpot platform” target=”_blank”HubSpot platform/a automatically creates a mobile version of your site for you./p
pBut what should you do next? After yoursquo;ve got a mobile website, what mobile tools should you use to attract new customers to your business?/p
pIn doing research for our new book a href=”http://amzn.to/JamieTurnerGoMobile”emGo Mobile/em/a, Jeanne Hopkins and I took a deep dive into the most important mobile tools for small- to mid-sized businesses. There are plenty to choose from, including QR codes, mobile apps, SMS (text messaging), location-based services (Foursquare, WHERE, SCVNGR), and mobile display ads./p
pOut of those listed above, QR codes are one of the easiest to get started with. Yoursquo;re probably already familiar with QR codes, but if not, theyrsquo;re the square barcodes like the one on this post that are being used by companies to drive prospects to their websites. On the emGo Mobile/em website, wersquo;re using QR codes to provide clues for a a href=”http://www.gomobilebook.com/”nationwide scavenger hunt/a for four iPads hidden across the country. Visitors to the site can scan the QR codes to download the clues. To ensure that we capture leads from the promotion, wersquo;re also providing the clues via email for anyone who fills out the form on the site. That way, we capture the lead information so we can re-market to that audience in the future./p
pA key point to remember about a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/Connecting-QR-Codes-with-Consumers/” title=”QR codes” target=”_blank”QR codes/a is that emtheyrsquo;re simply a mechanism to engage prospects and customers/em. In other words, theyrsquo;re not the end-game, so itrsquo;s up to you to figure out how to use them to capture the visitors you drive to your website as leads using a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/intro-to-building-landing-pages/” title=”landing pages” target=”_blank”landing pages/a./p
h2strongHow to Create Your Own QR Code Promotion/strong/h2
pCreating a QR code promotion is actually pretty simple. Here are the steps we followed when we created the promotion for our iPad nationwide scavenger hunt./p
pb1) Create a Landing Page:/b First and foremost, yoursquo;ll need to a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/28776/The-Ultimate-Cheat-Sheet-for-Mastering-Mobile-Marketing.aspx” title=”create a mobile-optimized landing page” target=”_blank”create a mobile-optimized landing page/a. That means a landing page that is designed to be viewed on a smartphone screen. Keep things simple ndash; for example, on a mobile landing page, forms should be kept to a few fields only. Most people donrsquo;t have the patience to fill out lengthy forms from a smartphone./p
pb2) Create Your QR Code:/b Once yoursquo;ve created your landing page, copy the URL into a QR code generator. There are a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29449/How-to-Create-a-QR-Code-in-4-Quick-Steps.aspx” title=”plenty of QR Code Generators on the web” target=”_blank”plenty of QR code generators on the web/a, so just do a search for one. Paste your landing page URL into the QR code generator and, like magic, your QR code will be generated on the spot. This QR code is unique to you, so nobody in the world has another one just like it./p
pb3) Add Your QR Code to Your Promotional Materials/b: Grab your QR code from the generator. On a PC, that means right-clicking it and saving it to your computer. (On a Mac, you can drag and drop.) Now that you have the QR code handy, add it to your promotional materials. That includes any printed materials or websites that are going to be part of the promotion.b/b/p
pb4) Let the World Know About Your Promotion/b: Therersquo;s no point in launching a QR Code promotion if yoursquo;re not going to let the world know about it. So broadcast your message using your blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google + or any of the other social media tools at your disposal. The key part at this stage of the game is to let as many people know about the promotion as possible./p
pb5) Stretch Out the Promotion:/b For our a href=”http://www.gomobilebook.com/” title=” iPad Scavenger Hunt” target=”_self”iPad Scavenger Hunt/a, we wanted as many people as possible to participate, so wersquo;re uploading a new QR code each day for several weeks. That way, our audience builds, and wersquo;re able to create as much buzz around the promotion as possible./p
h2bHow to Put QR Codes to Work for Your Business/b/h2
pThere are a variety of a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/Connecting-QR-Codes-with-Consumers/” title=”ways you can use QR codes for your business” target=”_blank”ways you can use QR codes for your business/a, and new ones are cropping up every day. Here are some great ideas you can use below. And let us know in the comments about any other ideas we may have missed!/p
ol
libldquo;Hello, My Name Isrdquo; Tags:/b You know those big red and white tags people wear at events with their names on them? If you put a QR code in place of your name, yoursquo;ll engage people and easily be able to strike up conversations./li
libOutdoor Billboards:/b Be one of the first businesses in your market to run a giant QR code on a billboard for your business./li
libWebsites:/b Add a QR code to the ‘Contact Us’ page on your website so visitors can download your contact information to their smartphones./li
libBusiness Cards:/b Add a QR code to the front or back of your business card so people can instantly download your contact information./li
libWebinars:/b Ready to make your webinars more engaging and fun? Then simply include a QR code as part of your presentation. Itrsquo;s a terrific way to keep the audience engaged and involved.b /b/li
libLinkedIn and Facebook Pages:/b Want another way to stand out from everyone else? Add a QR code to your LinkedIn and Facebook pages to pull people into your website. Itrsquo;s one of the best ways you can position yourself as a forward, innovative thinker./li
libT-Shirts:/b Ready to promote your product or service in an innovative way? Then add a QR code to a T-shirt that you give away to customers and prospects./li
libIn-Store Posters With Coupons:/b Want to provide instant coupons to people while they’re shopping? Then add a QR code that drives them through to a special discount that can be scanned at the register./li
libDial a Phone Number:/b Want to encourage people to dial your number so they can order your product? Then give them a QR code to scan. If itrsquo;s set up properly, it will instantly dial your number on their phone and connect them with your sales center.b /b/li
/ol
pTherersquo;s no real mystery to a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/Connecting-QR-Codes-with-Consumers/” title=”using QR codes to grow your business” target=”_blank”using QR codes to grow your business/a. All you have to do is generate the code, and drop it into your promotion. Be sure you test the campaign before you go public with it ndash; people who scan your code expect things to work relatively smoothly the first time out of the gate. But other than that, running a QR code promotion is a snap./p
pGood luck! And let us know about your QR code experiences in the comments section below./p
pemWhat are you doing to make sure your mobile marketing efforts generate leads? a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/mobile-marketing-workshop/” title=”Join us” target=”_blank”Join us for our free mobile marketing workshop/a on Thursday, January 12 at 12 PM ET to learn how to master mobile marketing in 2012. a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/mobile-marketing-workshop/” title=”Reserve your seat for the webinar here” target=”_blank”Reserve your seat for the webinar here/a./em/p
emspan id=”hs-cta-wrapper-d768df0d-6de9-4a1c-b59a-0a7a9803020b” class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-d768df0d-6de9-4a1c-b59a-0a7a9803020b” id=”hs-cta-d768df0d-6de9-4a1c-b59a-0a7a9803020b” a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/mobile-marketing-kit/” data-mce-href=”http://www.hubspot.com/mobile-marketing-kit/”img id=”hs-cta-img-d768df0d-6de9-4a1c-b59a-0a7a9803020b” src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/a7f0a79b-d5a2-4455-a8cc-b3d4b9f94506-1314215836219/mobile-marketing-kit.jpg?v=1314215836.55″ alt=”mobile-marketing-kit” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width: 0px;” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/a7f0a79b-d5a2-4455-a8cc-b3d4b9f94506-1314215836219/mobile-marketing-kit.jpg?v=1314215836.55″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=d768df0d-6de9-4a1c-b59a-0a7a9803020b”; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-d768df0d-6de9-4a1c-b59a-0a7a9803020b”).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-d768df0d-6de9-4a1c-b59a-0a7a9803020b”).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span br //empstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=AsO06xjcNQI:QUIjEJeu-1M:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=AsO06xjcNQI:QUIjEJeu-1M:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=AsO06xjcNQI:QUIjEJeu-1M:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=AsO06xjcNQI:QUIjEJeu-1M:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=AsO06xjcNQI:QUIjEJeu-1M:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=AsO06xjcNQI:QUIjEJeu-1M:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=AsO06xjcNQI:QUIjEJeu-1M:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=AsO06xjcNQI:QUIjEJeu-1M:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/AsO06xjcNQI” height=”1″ width=”1″/

9 Unique Ways to Generate Leads With QR Codes

pimg id=”img-1326141203261″ src=”http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3033/3535379567_2e61f20ed8_m.jpg” alt=”" width=”315″ height=”252″ align=”right” /Last week, span class=”il”nonprofit/spannbsp;blogger Kivi Leroux Miller ran the results of a survey she conducted about the biggest a href=”http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2012/01/05/6498/” title=”marketing challenges facing nonprofits” target=”_self”content challenges facing nonprofit marketers/a. Unsurprisingly,strong time and money led the results with 31% of the responses/strong. But a number of other challenges emerged as well. I had the opportunity to talk to a few nonprofits about the survey and asked them how they handle managing a a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/introduction-to-business-blogging/” title=”successful blog” target=”_blank”successful blog/a amidst their multitude of other tasks. Here’s what they said, along with a few tips from HubSpot’s own blogging experiences. Each challenge is also followed by its difficulty rating from a href=”http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2012/01/05/6498/” title=”Kivi’s study” target=”_self”Kivi’s study/a./p
h2strongLack of Time or Budget (31%)/strong/h2
pIt’s no secret that nonprofit marketers often have to juggle an enormous workload. But the a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/introduction-to-business-blogging/” title=”benefits of blogging” target=”_blank”benefits of blogging/a on Search Engine Optimization and community engagement are typically significant enough to validate finding the time. The question is, how? I talked with Brian Adams of a href=”http://speakunited.org/” title=”United Way of Massachusetts Bay amp; Merrimack Valley” target=”_self”United Way of Massachusetts Bay amp; Merrimack Valley/a, who offered the following advice:/p
blockquote
p”Use your full network and staff to tell your stories. The informal nature of a blog means that there arenrsquo;t as many rules about what you post, provided itrsquo;s something thatrsquo;s relevant to your audience.”/p
/blockquote
pBy inviting your entire staff and your network of volunteers and donors to a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30523/12-Business-Blogging-Shortcuts-for-Time-Crunched-Marketers.aspx” title=”contribute posts” target=”_blank”contribute posts/a, the workload gets distributed in a more sustainable way, and the blog benefits from diverse voices and outreach opportunities. To keep things organized, we advise that one person act as a central blog editor. If you’re a nonprofit that deals with numerous causes, consider assigning different journalistic “beats” or topics to your bloggers and setting up a schedule that spreads out the posts evenly throughout the week and month. Christi Cahill of a href=”http://mylifeline.org/” title=”MyLifeLine.org ” target=”_self”MyLifeLine.org/a Cancer Foundationnbsp;echoes this. She writes:/p
blockquote
p”Plan in advance. Set an editorial calendar and stick to it! If yoursquo;re running low on content ideas, find people willing to guestnbsp;span class=”il”blognbsp;/spanfor you.”/p
/blockquote
h2strongProducing Content That Engages Supporters (27%)/strong/h2
pNonprofits have one of the most powerful sources for posts possible: the stories of their clients and participants. And though finding individual stories to highlight takes time, creating a channel for these voices gets to the heart of the mission and provides a direct line of sight to the impact donors and volunteers are trying to drive. nbsp;/p
pUnited Way’s Adams writes:/p
blockquote
p”Our most widely read posts share several key aspects; they are connected to relevant news topics, they provide a look ldquo;behind the curtainrdquo; with anecdotes and emotions not shared elsewhere, they are written by leading experts, and the content is fresh yet linked to additional information that provides context and additional factoids.”/p
/blockquote
pOne organization in Boston, The a href=”http://www.liveworkthrive.org/our_voices” title=”Crittenton Women’s Union” target=”_self”Crittenton Women’s Union/a has taken a unique approach to this. They not only invite their staff and network to contribute to the blog, but also the families they serve. CWU’s Kirsten Blocker elaborates:/p
blockquote
p”As the blog evolved, it became a broadcasting space for CWU program participants to use as a learning tool for their exposure to social media, especially as an advocacy outlet. This year, the blog will undergo yet another exciting expansion and will be transformed again to include the voices of our participants as well as keeping an active eye on anti-poverty reporting…”/p
/blockquote
pIt’s important to remember that the blog audience does not need to be restricted to just donors. It can be an important resource for the people your organization is trying to help, as well.nbsp;/p
h2strongRepurposing Content (7%)/strong/h2
pOne way to save time and give your content a larger reach is to a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/10870/How-to-Turn-One-Piece-of-Content-into-Five.aspx” title=”repurpose content” target=”_self”repurpose content/anbsp;for your blog from other channels, and vice versa. When doing so, nonprofits should keep in mind that repurposing is not a simple cut-and-paste operation. Think in terms of editorial campaigns, and leveraging the blog as one of many ways to get the word out about a particular topic of the week or upcoming event. Take this example from a href=”http://supportunitedway.org/” title=”United Way of Massachusetts Bay amp; Merrimack Valley” target=”_self”United Way of Massachusetts Bay amp; Merrimack Valley/a:/p
blockquote
p”We have had some success using the blog to preview content for an upcoming event. For example, our Womenrsquo;s Initiative group held an educational panel about sexual exploitation, and we ‘previewed’ the content of the panel by featuring a guest blog post from each of the panelists in the week leading up to the event. It allowed those panelists some exposure on our blog (and hopefully gave us exposure through their networks) and also connected the on-the-ground marketing strategy with our online marketing strategy. During the event, we also shared quotes via Twitter and posted photos via Facebook.”/p
/blockquote
h2strongKnowing Which Content to Use in Which Channels (7%)/strong/h2
pTo know which content to use in a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/22285/How-to-Choose-the-Right-Online-Channels-for-Your-Marketing.aspx” title=”which channels” target=”_self”which channels/a, you really need to dive into your marketing analytics to get a sense for the role each channel plays in your overall marketing and communications program. Channel behavior often varies by audience segment. What channels do your donors typically use? How does that differ from your volunteers or your constituents/clients? Do some research on your most active channels and their characteristics before creating your outreach strategy. For example, it might make sense to share content on ‘how to run a workplace fundraiser’ on a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-generate-leads-using-linkedin/” title=”LinkedIn” target=”_blank”LinkedIn/a, while personal stories of impact may be better shared with your email subscribers.nbsp;/p
h2strongWhat to Do Right Now to Help Your Nonprofit Blog/strong/h2
pThe success of your blog will always depend on the quality and frequency of your posts. And while time can feel like a long lost luxury to nonprofit marketers, getting organized helps. As a final thought, here are a few things you can do this week to get started:/p
ul
liCreate a recruitment list of staff, donors, volunteers, clients, and partners who would be good contributors to your blog./li
liReach out to them with a first-time blogging assignment and due date. Having a a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/100-Inbound-Marketing-Content-Ideas/” title=”topic to write on” target=”_blank”topic to write about/a always seems less daunting than a blank page./li
liExamine your a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/products/business-blog-analytics/” title=”blog analytics” target=”_blank”blog analytics/a to find your best channels for outreach./li
liCreate an editorial calendar and stick to it. Start with 1-2 posts a week if you can./li
liPick a date (several months out) to evaluate your progress and choose next steps./li
/ul
pemDo you know of a nonprofit blog that has overcome blogging challenges particularly well? Share your experiences in the comments below!/em/p
pPhoto by: a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/3535379567/sizes/s/in/photostream/” pasukaru76/a/p
pspan id=”hs-cta-wrapper-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc” class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc” id=”hs-cta-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc” a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/introduction-to-business-blogging/” data-mce-href=”http://www.hubspot.com/introduction-to-business-blogging/”img id=”hs-cta-img-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc” src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/52135cb1-d1da-4319-929a-c89afa0f4fe5-1322683761013/business-blogging-intro-ebook.png?v=1322683761.32″ alt=”business-blogging-intro-ebook” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width:0px” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/52135cb1-d1da-4319-929a-c89afa0f4fe5-1322683761013/business-blogging-intro-ebook.png?v=1322683761.32″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc”; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc”).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc”).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span/ppstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QY-e6MxZmhQ:7lxejVCJgSM:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QY-e6MxZmhQ:7lxejVCJgSM:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QY-e6MxZmhQ:7lxejVCJgSM:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=QY-e6MxZmhQ:7lxejVCJgSM:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QY-e6MxZmhQ:7lxejVCJgSM:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=QY-e6MxZmhQ:7lxejVCJgSM:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=QY-e6MxZmhQ:7lxejVCJgSM:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=QY-e6MxZmhQ:7lxejVCJgSM:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/QY-e6MxZmhQ” height=”1″ width=”1″/

How to Overcome the Most Debilitating Nonprofit Blogging Challenges

pimg id=”img-1326146409221″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/punch in the face.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”punch in the face” width=”301″ height=”310″ class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” /Yesterday, a href=”http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2012/01/time-to-take-out-the-social-media-trash.html” title=”Cynthia Boris at Marketing Pilgrim” target=”_blank”Marketing Pilgrim/a reported data from Altimeter Group that strongthe average large company has 178 corporate-owned social media accounts/strong./p
pWait, strongwhat/strong?/p
pWho is setting up all of these accounts? How are there even Twitter handles left to go around anymore? Large companies with all the a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-monitoring-in-10-minutes-ebook/” title=”social media accounts” target=”_blank”social media accounts/a, can you please explain yourselves?/p
pAltimeter gave us some more insight into these numbers, breaking down the average number of corporate-owned accounts by social network. And yes, the most accounts were on Twitter. Take a minute to soak in this seriously mind-boggling data before we break down emwhat on earth/em is possibly happening here./p
pimg id=”img-1326145764820″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/social-media-accounts.png” border=”0″ alt=”social media accounts” class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” /strong/strongSo what’s going on here? Do large corporations really have a need for that many social media accounts? Let’s break down the reasons (some legitimate, some not) large companies are bombarding the social media world with their brands.strong/strong/p
h2strongWhy it Might Be Happening (And Actually Makes Sense)br //strong/h2
p1.) People are claiming accounts in anticipation for future use. This makes sense if you’re planning for things like product launches or expansion to other cities and countries. In fact, that’s probably a common occurrence for larger companies, and is a a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/28970/10-Sloppy-Social-Media-Mistakes-to-Fix-NOW.aspx” title=”social media best practice” target=”_blank”social media best practice/a./p
p2.) Different product and service lines may call for their own dedicated accounts. This is especially important if there is not a lot of customer overlap between products and services within the organization, or if they are all drastically different from one another. For example, product development company PTC maintains separate a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/twitter-for-business-a-beginners-guide/” title=”Twitter” target=”_blank”Twitter/a accounts for each of its four core products, along with separate accounts for product updates and news that is only relevant to a niche audience./p
pimg id=”img-1326150139964″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/ptc twitter accounts.png” border=”0″ alt=”ptc twitter accounts” width=”361″ height=”385″ class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” //p
p3.) Several departments within an organization may have created separate accounts, whether for internal departmental communications or for external communications. For emsome/em companies, large or small, this is wise, so the purpose of each account remains targeted and followers aren’t inundated with information that doesn’t impact them. While Verizon Wireless, for example, maintains a shocking number of social media accounts because its stores span so many different territories, it wisely maintains a separate support account on which the company troubleshoots service disruptions and other common issues./p
h2strongWhy it Might Be Happening (But Makes No Sense)br //strong/h2
p1.) Like Marketing Pilgrim points out, maybe these businesses are creating accounts for specific campaigns. If you’re like Geico and have such long-running campaigns as the Geico Gecko and the Geico Caveman (they’ve been going strong since 1999 and 2004, respectively), the separate social media accounts are certainly warranted./p
pimg src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/geico%20gecko%20twitter%20account.png” border=”0″ alt=”geico gecko twitter account” class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” /But one of the primary purposes of using social media for marketing campaigns is that your brand already has a following that can help give the campaign more leverage. Unless your campaign will last over the course of years like Geico’s, why make more work for yourself by starting from scratch with a campaign-specific network? Or, if you’re planning a campaign that lasts years and you find it falls flat, you should delete it, streamlining the amount of a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29543/Answers-to-31-Social-Media-Questions-You-re-Too-Shy-to-Ask.aspx” title=”social clutter” target=”_blank”social clutter/a out there surrounding your brand./p
p2.) They may have started their accounts during the “you have to be on social media” upswing from the past couple of years, but rushed into it without much strategy. In fact, a href=”http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2012/01/time-to-take-out-the-social-media-trash.html” title=”Marketing Pilgrim shares” target=”_blank”Marketing Pilgrim shares/a that strongonly 43% said they had a social media strategy designed to meet their business objectives./strong Once they figured out what they actually wanted to do with the accounts, name changes were probably required, or they just had to wipe their slate clean and start with brand new accounts. That’s understandable, but why don’t you delete those accounts?/p
pimg src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/content camp example.png” border=”0″ alt=”content camp example” class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” /At HubSpot, we decided to make this change ourselves just yesterday when we merged our @ContentCamp Twitter account with our main a href=”https://twitter.com/#!/HubSpot” title=”@HubSpot” target=”_blank”@HubSpot/a account. Now, Content Camp tweets will be tagged with #InboundLearning on the @HubSpot account so the tweets are still searchable but only one account needs to be followed, which thankfully makes the Twitterverse just a little less cluttered./p
p3.) It’s possible large companies have such giant marketing departments that there’s no intra-departmental communication. Can it be that multiple marketers are tweeting, Facebooking, Flickring, and YouTubing on behalf of the company, and on a branded company account? It’s possible, sure. Smart? No, not at all. No matter the size of your company, make sure you have a handle on what your employees are doing on behalf of your brand on social media accounts. Take a look at these other a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29441/5-Noteworthy-Examples-of-Corporate-Social-Media-Policies.aspx” title=”companies’ social media policies” target=”_blank”companies’ social media policies/a that help them rein in (for better or worse) their employees’ social behavior when speaking for their brand in the social sphere./p
h2strongSo, How Many Social Media Accounts Should My Business Have?/strong/h2
pNot as many as emyou/em need; as many as emyour followers/em need. And knowing how many separate accounts your followers need relies on pinning down not just a social media strategy, but also a very specific objective behind each account you set up. Why should people follow you and interact with you on a given account? Do you need a brand new account on the same social network to give followers and fans a reason to engage with you, or are the channels you have set up now sufficient to meet their needs? Are you leveraging all of the functionality the social networks allow to personalize a user’s experience, like hashtags on Twitter, a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-google-plus-for-business?hsCtaTracking=1a0000ca-e036-4f58-8351-1fb3ce43c09f|6a52e658-bd89-4d37-b711-71381f2741b1″ title=”Circles on Google+” target=”_blank”Circles on Google+/a, and tabs on Facebook? Are you prepared for the a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/24674/7-Social-Media-Time-Sucks-to-Eliminate-Today.aspx” title=”additional time and effort associated with maintaining multiple accounts” target=”_blank”additional time and effort associated with maintaining multiple accounts/a?/p
pMake your actions purposeful, and understand how every account plays into the larger social media strategy you’ve defined. If you sit back and realize maybe you’ve gone a little social media-crazy, no worries, it happens to everyone. Just do yourselves, your fans, and the internet at large a favor, and delete those dead accounts!/p
pemHow many a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-marketing-kit/” title=”social media accounts” target=”_blank”social media accounts/a does your organization manage? If you have multiple accounts, why do you choose to maintain them separately?/em/p
pImage credit: a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/restlessglobetrotter/” title=”xJason.Rogersx” target=”_blank”xJason.Rogersx/a/p
pspan id=”hs-cta-wrapper-03a3698c-1b70-4d57-8181-6b18f3d5b877″ class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-03a3698c-1b70-4d57-8181-6b18f3d5b877″ id=”hs-cta-03a3698c-1b70-4d57-8181-6b18f3d5b877″ a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-monitoring-in-10-minutes-ebook/” data-mce-href=”http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-monitoring-in-10-minutes-ebook/”img id=”hs-cta-img-03a3698c-1b70-4d57-8181-6b18f3d5b877″ src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/765e708f-18fa-4af2-bae3-366f015c774d-1315502970685/monitor-10-minutes-ebook.jpg?v=1315502971.17″ alt=”monitor-10-minutes-ebook” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width:0px” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/765e708f-18fa-4af2-bae3-366f015c774d-1315502970685/monitor-10-minutes-ebook.jpg?v=1315502971.17″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=03a3698c-1b70-4d57-8181-6b18f3d5b877″; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-03a3698c-1b70-4d57-8181-6b18f3d5b877″).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-03a3698c-1b70-4d57-8181-6b18f3d5b877″).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span/ppstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=SLRvVVck7kk:b-4HNnJEjM8:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=SLRvVVck7kk:b-4HNnJEjM8:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=SLRvVVck7kk:b-4HNnJEjM8:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=SLRvVVck7kk:b-4HNnJEjM8:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=SLRvVVck7kk:b-4HNnJEjM8:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=SLRvVVck7kk:b-4HNnJEjM8:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=SLRvVVck7kk:b-4HNnJEjM8:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=SLRvVVck7kk:b-4HNnJEjM8:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/SLRvVVck7kk” height=”1″ width=”1″/

The Average Large Company Has 178 Social Media Accounts [Shocking Data]

pemGoogle+ is changing the web, a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30449/How-Google-Is-Changing-the-Web-Even-Though-No-One-Wants-It-To.aspx” title=”even if you don’t want it to” target=”_blank”even if you don’t want it to/a./em That’s right. Now, more than ever, it’s critical for your business to create and build its presence on the new social network. But hey, if you don’t want to take it from us, another search update from Google today might help to convince you./p
pToday, a href=”http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/search-plus-your-world.html” title=”Google is launching three new features” target=”_blank”Google is launching three new features/a to its search update, dubbed “Search plus Your World.” The update brings personalization of Google search to a whole new level with the inclusion of results from an individual user’s connections on Google+, making it impossible for businesses to ignore a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29270/4-Critical-Ways-Google-Is-Changing-Search.aspx” title=”the impact Google+ is having on search” target=”_blank”the impact Google+ is having on search/a. Here is a quick overview of the three new features.strong/strong/p
h2strongPersonal Results/strong/h2
pThese results enable you to find information only pertaining to emyou/em. They show photos and updates from Google+ that include your own and those that have been shared with you on Google+, and you’re the only one with access to these specific results./p
pimg id=”img-1326208546164″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/Personal Results.png” border=”0″ alt=”describe the image” width=”400″ height=”260″ class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” //p
h2bProfiles in Searcstrongh/strong/bstrong /strong/h2
pstrong/strongThese results, also shown in autocomplete and regular search results, will display Google+ profiles of people you know or others you may be interested in following when you search for people’s names./p
pimg id=”img-1326208728691″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/09 trey ratcliff – suggest.png” border=”0″ alt=”09 trey ratcliff suggest” width=”400″ height=”260″ class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” //p
pOnce searched, you’ll also have the simple opportunity (if you’re signed in and you use Google+) to add Google+ users to your Circles from directly within the search results./p
pimg id=”img-1326208800946″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/Profiles in Search 2.png” border=”0″ alt=”Profiles in Search 2″ width=”399″ height=”389″ class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” /b/b/p
h2bPeople and Pages/bstrong/strong/h2
pThese results show you profiles or Google+ business pages on the right-hand side of the results page when you search a specific topic or area of interest. And again, it enables you to follow profiles or pages in just a few clicks./p
pimg src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/People%20and%20Pages.png” border=”0″ alt=”People and Pages” class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” //p
h2strongWhat if I Don’t Want Personalized Results?/strong/h2
pstrong/strongIf you prefer to exclude personalized results from your search results, Google has also created a toggle that allows you to see only ‘normal’ Google results. You can toggle this on and off via the results pages, or you can permanently turn it off in your Google settings./p
pimg src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/Toggle-resized-600.png” border=”0″ alt=”Toggle resized 600″ class=”alignCenter” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” /If you don’t see personalized results in your Google.com search results yet, be patient. Google has indicated it will be rolling out these new features over the next few days. For all you visual learners out there, check out Google’s video about “Search plus Your Word.”/p
piframe frameborder=”0″ height=”315″ id=”img-1326210382805″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/8Z9TTBxarbs” style=”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;” width=”560″/iframe/p
h2strongHow This Impacts Marketingbr //strong/h2
pTo give you a quick idea of how impactful these updates are for marketing, consider this hypothetical example. Say you’re an IT software company, and a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-google-plus-for-business” title=”you have a Google+ business page” target=”_blank”you have a Google+ business page/a. Now with Google’s new updates, if someone looking for IT software searched Google using the term ‘IT software,’ they might find your business’ Google+ page. And think about what would happen if you emdon’t /emhave a Google+ page but your competitors do. Competitors: 1. You: 0./p
pFurthermore, if your IT software company has built up a large following on Google+, content that you’ve shared with your followers will also show up in those followers’ relevant Google.com searches, keeping your business top of mind and increasing its visibility among existing followers./p
pYou may not emwant /emto create and maintain a presence on yet another social network, but in an online world where Google dominates, a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30449/How-Google-Is-Changing-the-Web-Even-Though-No-One-Wants-It-To.aspx” title=”you can’t afford not to” target=”_blank”you can’t afford not to/a. You can bet that Google will continue to update its search algorithm to emphasize the importance of social media, and Google+ is where it’s going to source that social data. Stay ahead of your competition, a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-google-plus-for-business” title=”create a Google+ business page” target=”_blank”create a Google+ business page/a, and regularly update it with keyword-optimized content so you can leverage another powerful opportunity to get found in search./p
pemDo you have a Google+ business page yet? /em/p
pspan id=”hs-cta-wrapper-1a0000ca-e036-4f58-8351-1fb3ce43c09f” class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-1a0000ca-e036-4f58-8351-1fb3ce43c09f” id=”hs-cta-1a0000ca-e036-4f58-8351-1fb3ce43c09f” a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-google-plus-for-business” data-mce-href=”http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-google-plus-for-business”img id=”hs-cta-img-1a0000ca-e036-4f58-8351-1fb3ce43c09f” src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/6a52e658-bd89-4d37-b711-71381f2741b1-1320801324595/google-ebook.png?v=1320801324.9″ alt=”google-ebook” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width:0px” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/6a52e658-bd89-4d37-b711-71381f2741b1-1320801324595/google-ebook.png?v=1320801324.9″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=1a0000ca-e036-4f58-8351-1fb3ce43c09f”; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-1a0000ca-e036-4f58-8351-1fb3ce43c09f”).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-1a0000ca-e036-4f58-8351-1fb3ce43c09f”).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span/ppstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=yoIlIL96L9U:YF2qS8CT0_0:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=yoIlIL96L9U:YF2qS8CT0_0:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=yoIlIL96L9U:YF2qS8CT0_0:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=yoIlIL96L9U:YF2qS8CT0_0:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=yoIlIL96L9U:YF2qS8CT0_0:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=yoIlIL96L9U:YF2qS8CT0_0:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=yoIlIL96L9U:YF2qS8CT0_0:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=yoIlIL96L9U:YF2qS8CT0_0:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/yoIlIL96L9U” height=”1″ width=”1″/

Google’s Biggest Social Search Update Yet Features Google+ Content

pa href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/straight-nochaser/5534139624/” target=”_blank”img id=”img-1326149692839″ src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/top notch.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”top notch” width=”353″ height=”235″ class=”alignRight” style=”float: right;” //aBecause a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/27485/Is-Content-Marketing-Broken.aspx” title=”content is such a core part of inbound marketing” target=”_blank”content is such a core part of inbound marketing/a, the modern marketer has to possess (or develop) a very important ability:strong content creation/strong. Whether it’s in terms of blog posts, ebooks, case studies, or other marketing collateral, pumping out content not only at a high frequency but also at a high level of quality is a critical skill every marketer should hone. Do you have it?/p
pHave no fear! With consistent practice and determination, you too can possess the qualities of a kick-ass marketing a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/content-creation-kit/” title=”content creator” target=”_blank”content creator/a. Let’s discuss what those qualities are and how you can hone them./p
h2strong10 Qualities of Top-Notch Content Creators/strong/h2
pA top notch marketing content creator…strongbr //strong/p
pstrong1) …Sets amp; Adheres to Deadlines/strong/p
pWith the fast-paced world of inbound marketing and the requirement to publish new content emfrequently/em, setting deadlines is a must. Setting deadlines elicits a sense of urgency and helps you and your contributors manage time and get stuff done. strong/strong/p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”emHow to Hone It: /emCreate an a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6231/Blog-Better-with-an-Editorial-Calendar-and-Style-Bank.aspx” title=”editorial calendar” target=”_blank”editorial calendar/a, and stick to it. For other contributors, set expectations and deadlines for contributions up front. For example, at HubSpot, every marketing team member is required to contribute 2 blog posts per month, and each member is designated two weeks during the month when each post must be submitted. For other content projects like ebooks, set a deadline for when the content must be completed./p
pstrong2) …Is Goal-Orientedbr //strong/p
pEffective content creators don’t only set deadlines; they also set goals. They set goals in terms of publishing frequency and the results of their content creation, and they keep those goals top of mind throughout their content creation efforts./p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”emHow to Hone It: /emSet goals that address both frequency and results. How often do you want to commit to publishing to your blog? Once a week? Once a day? a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/Essential-Guide-to-Writing-and-Launching-eBooks-that-Generate-Leads/” title=”How many ebooks do you want to create” target=”_blank”How many ebooks do you want to create/a this quarter? These goals should relate to your results-driven goals, such as how much traffic and leads you want to generate from your content creation efforts. How many blog posts do you need to publish to achieve these goals? Likely, lead generation makes up a big chunk of your content creation goals. Be sure to add a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-create-effective-calls-to-action/” title=”calls-to-action” target=”_blank”calls-to-action/a to every piece of content you create — blog posts, landing pages, ebooks, webinars, etc. — to let you achistrong/strongeve your lead gen goals./p
pstrong3) …Relies on Multiple Resources/strong/p
pAwesome content creators are resourceful, both in terms of human resources and informational resources. They encourage teammates to contribute content, and they know where to find information, data, and statistics to fuel their content machine. strongbr //strong/p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”ememHow to Hone I/em/ememt: /emGet your company on board with blogging and content creation, and motivate them to contribute. Interview industry thought leaders for your blog. Load up your RSS reader with websites and blogs pertaining to your industry so you can stay in the know (and open up the potential to jack the news). Incorporate data and statistics into your content to make it more credible and compelling.strongbr //strong/p
pstrong4) …Pays Attention to Details/strong/p
pGreat content creators are detail-oriented. It’s one of the qualities that separates the wheat from the chaff. They know that a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/20383/Why-Spelling-and-Grammar-Matter-in-Marketing.aspx” title=”spelling and grammar matter in marketing” target=”_blank”spelling and grammar matter in marketing/a; they obsess over the perfect titles for their blog posts, ebooks, and webinars; and they a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29824/5-Ways-Crappy-Content-Destroys-Your-Inbound-Marketing.aspx” title=”don’t sacrifice quality for quantity” target=”_blank”don’t sacrifice quality for quantity/a.strongbr //strong/p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”emHow to Hone It: /emDon’t overlook the power of details. Something as simple as the title of your blog post could make or break its performance. Be sure that every piece of content you create is proofed for grammar, spelling, and readability. Optimize the formatting of your content. Spend the extra few minutes to add internal links. Pretend you’re a perfectionist./p
pstrong5) …Never Runs Out of Content Ideasbr //strong/p
pOne of the hardest parts of producing a ton of content is idea generation. In a recent a href=”https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23inboundchat” title=”Twitter chat” target=”_blank”Twitter chat/a we hosted on blogging and content creation, a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30523/12-Business-Blogging-Shortcuts-for-Time-Crunched-Marketers.aspx” title=”idea and topic generation was one of participants’ biggest challenges” target=”_blank”idea and topic generation was one of participants’ biggest challenges/a. While even the most seasoned content creators often struggle with idea generation, they know just how to overcome it, finding inspiration anywhere and everywhere.strongbr //strong/p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”emHow to Hone It/emem:/em There is no shortage of tips for a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/26638/10-Ways-to-Never-Run-Out-of-Blog-Ideas-Again.aspx” title=”how to never run out of content ideas again” target=”_blank”how to never run out of content ideas again/a. Consult and use them! Create a backlog of content ideas, dabble in content curation, think about a topic from a new perspective, load up your RSS reader with other blogs in your industry and regularly refer to them to spark ideas — the a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/100-Inbound-Marketing-Content-Ideas” title=”possibilities are endless” target=”_blank”possibilities are endless/a! strong/strong/p
pstrong6)/strong strong…Thinks Like an Educator/strong/p
strong/strong
pFantastic marketing content creators think like educators. They seek to a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/22840/5-Benefits-of-Educating-Prospects-With-Free-Content.aspx” title=”teach their prospective customers with content” target=”_blank”teach their prospective customers with content/a so they’re better informed and can make more qualified purchasing decisions — ultimately making them better customers! They publish thought leadership-driven content in addition to their product-focused content./p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”ememHow to Hone It:/em/emstrongstrong /strong/strongUse your content as a way to get found in search engines (by optimizing it with your keywords) and generate leads for your business. Create content that emteaches /emrather than content that empushes. /emFocus on topics related to your industry, not your products. strongemstrongem/em/strong/em/strong/p
pstrong7) …Balances Quality and Quantityemstrongem/em/strong/em/strong/p
pKiller content creators understand that they need to find a delicate balance between quality and quantity when it comes to content. While you need to frequently and consistently publish content in order to climb to the top of search engine results pages, search engines — and your audience — will also a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29824/5-Ways-Crappy-Content-Destroys-Your-Inbound-Marketing.aspx” title=”ding you for poor quality content” target=”_blank”ding you for poor quality content/a./p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”emHow to Hone It: /emAs a general rule, this will mean different things for every business. For starters, you’ll need to conduct an audit and identify what high quality content means for your business and your audience. What has performed well, and what no so well? a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29823/Content-Quantity-Diminishes-Quality-Research.aspx” title=”This post” target=”_blank”This post/a will help you get started consistently creating high quality content, and nixing the not-so-good stuff.strongemstrongembr //em/strong/em/strong/p
pstrong8) …Keeps Customer Personas in Mind/strong/p
pContent creators that stand out are those who keep their ideal customer(s) in mind as they create every piece of content. They stick to addressing the needs, wants, and problems of their best customers to create content that truly caters to the right audience for their products/services./p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”ememHow to Hone It: /em/emFocus your content on addressing the problems, needs, and wants of your ideal customer(s). If you haven’t already done so, spend the time to a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/17588/How-to-Easily-Create-Remarkable-Content-With-Marketing-Personas.aspx” title=”craft accurate marketing personas ” target=”_blank”craft accurate marketing personas/a that demonstrate your best customers. As you create content, think, “Would this topic be valuable to Customer X?” If not, it’s probably not worth creating./p
pstrong9) …Thinks Like a Publisher, Toobr //strong/p
pSmart marketing content creators also know that they need to take off their marketing hat and a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/16855/8-Ways-to-Think-More-Like-a-Publisher-Less-Like-a-Marketer.aspx” title=”step into the shoes of a publisher” target=”_blank”step into the shoes of a publisher/a.strongbr //strong/p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”ememHow to Hone It:/em/em Check out a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/16855/8-Ways-to-Think-More-Like-a-Publisher-Less-Like-a-Marketer.aspx” title=”this blog post” target=”_blank”this blog post/a for starters.strongstrong /strong/strongMuch of the information there discusses stuff we’ve already mentioned in this post, but by adopting thatemstrong /strong/empublishers’ mindset, you’ll be one step closer to harnessing the habits of awesome content creators.strongemstrongembr / /em/strong/em/strong/p
pstrong10) …Uses Data to Measure amp; Improve Content /strong/p
pThe kick-ass content creator is driven by data. He/she not only regularly a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/intro-to-inbound-marketing-analytics/” title=”measures blog performance” target=”_blank”measures blog performance/a, but also uses those insights to inform future content creation efforts.strongbr //strong/p
p style=”padding-left: 30px;”ememHow to Hone It:/em/em Track your blog analytics on a regular basis to identify how different types of content are performing. Is one topic more popular among your blog readers? Does another get significantly fewer views? Is your conversion rate going up or down? Then make decisions based on that data. If the takeaways aren’t so obvious, consider a href=”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30269/28-Simple-Marketing-Tests-to-Launch-in-2012.aspx” title=”conducting some A/B tests” target=”_blank”conducting some A/B tests/a on such elements as calls-to-action, layout, etc. to optimize blog performance.strong/strong/p
pemWhat other qualities do top-notch content creators exhibit?/emstrong/strong/p
pImage Credit: a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/straight-nochaser/5534139624/” title=”Thelonious Gonzo” target=”_blank”Thelonious Gonzo/astrongbr //strong/p
strongstrongemstrongem/em/strong/em/strong/strong
pstrongstrongemspan id=”hs-cta-wrapper-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc” class=”hs-cta-wrapper” style=” border-width: 0px;” !–HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — span class=”hs-cta-node hs-cta-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc” id=”hs-cta-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc” a href=”http://www.hubspot.com/introduction-to-business-blogging/” data-mce-href=”http://www.hubspot.com/introduction-to-business-blogging/”img id=”hs-cta-img-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc” src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/52135cb1-d1da-4319-929a-c89afa0f4fe5-1322683761013/business-blogging-intro-ebook.png?v=1322683761.32″ alt=”business-blogging-intro-ebook” class=”hs-cta-img” style=”border-width:0px” mce_noresize=”1″ data-mce-src=”//d1n2i0nchws850.cloudfront.net/portals/249/52135cb1-d1da-4319-929a-c89afa0f4fe5-1322683761013/business-blogging-intro-ebook.png?v=1322683761.32″ data-mce-style=”border-width: 0px;”/a /spanscript type=”text/javascript” (function(){ var hsjs = document.createElement(“script”); hsjs.type = “text/javascript”; hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = “//cta-service.cms.hubspot.com/cta-service/loader.js?placement_guid=cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc”; (document.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||document.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(hsjs); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc”).style.visibility=”hidden”}, 1); setTimeout(function() {document.getElementById(“hs-cta-cbe8b5e3-da55-4720-a734-d3d5f47a3fdc”).style.visibility=”visible”}, 2000); })(); /script!– HubSpot Call-to-Action Code — !– hs-cta-wrapper –/span br //em/strong/strong/ppstrongConnect with HubSpot/strong:/p
a href=”http://twitter.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_twitter.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Twitter” align=”none” //a a href=”http://facebook.com/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_facebook.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Facebook” align=”none” //a a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/21005/26E6F20DD86E”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_linkedin.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on LinkedIn” align=”none” //a a href=”http://google.com/profiles/hubspot”img src=”http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/images/icon_buzz.png” border=”0″ alt=”HubSpot on Google Buzz” align=”none” //anbsp;a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HubSpot”/a
pnbsp;/p
a href=”http://blog.grader.com/blog/http://blog.hubspot.com/”/adiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=6-tYCyfYIkU:ZIiDvSdVW4Y:yIl2AUoC8zA”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=yIl2AUoC8zA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=6-tYCyfYIkU:ZIiDvSdVW4Y:dnMXMwOfBR0″img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?d=dnMXMwOfBR0″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=6-tYCyfYIkU:ZIiDvSdVW4Y:F7zBnMyn0Lo”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=6-tYCyfYIkU:ZIiDvSdVW4Y:F7zBnMyn0Lo” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=6-tYCyfYIkU:ZIiDvSdVW4Y:V_sGLiPBpWU”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=6-tYCyfYIkU:ZIiDvSdVW4Y:V_sGLiPBpWU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?a=6-tYCyfYIkU:ZIiDvSdVW4Y:_eRNYonk5uE”img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/HubSpot?i=6-tYCyfYIkU:ZIiDvSdVW4Y:_eRNYonk5uE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/HubSpot/~4/6-tYCyfYIkU” height=”1″ width=”1″/

10 Habits of Top-Notch Content Creators

Just in case you missed it, this new tool came on the scene about four months ago as the first fruit of the search giant’s purchase of travel software company ITA. At the time Google acquired ITA, the US Department of Justice required it to develop and license travel software, to establish internal firewall procedures and to continue software research and development in order to protect competition for airfare comparison and booking websites and ensure those websites using ITA’s software will be able to power their websites to compete against any airfare website Google may introduce. If yo…

Google Flight Search Not a Monopolist Move