Selling is hard work. It sucks time and energy from both seller and buyer. Both engage begrudgingly in the act to fulfill a need. If you've been reading SEOmoz for a while, you can probably feel my personal allergy to "sales" as a process and to "selling," even when that's what I'm supposed to do. It causes discomfort to be on the pushing or receiving side of sales and over the last two decades, we, as a generation have been drifting further and further away from it. Door-to-door salesmen are nearly gone. The effectiveness of brand advertising, direct mail, trade show marketing and cold calling sales have all diminished rapidly in favor of a new set of channels we all use to buy - nearly all of which center around the web.
Just look at what marketers themselves have to say about where they'll be spending their dollars over the next few years:
The trend is quite clear - this new bundle of marketing channels that consumers pursue themselves (social media, blogs, SEO, email marketing, etc.) is the future. Traditional marketing tactics may not die, but they're not going to be where businesses invest nor where ROI is going to see dramatic rises. We're living at the beginning of the new era (and if you've been reading SEOmoz, you're likely part of the revolution).
I recently read through and provided some feedback for a book on precisely this topic - Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah:
Although the book's contents are likely to be relatively basic for most of us who engage heavily in the SEO and social media worlds, it's precisely the volume you need to give your CEO, VP, director, client, partner who hasn't yet grasped why these channels are so much more valuable than their traditional marketing predecessors.
Here's an excerpt:
Megaphone vs. Hub
If your website is like most others, it is a one‐to‐many broadcast tool – think megaphone. The web was originally built to be a collaboration platform by Tim Berners‐Lee in the 1980’s. It has taken a couple of decades to get there, but the web is now truly collaborative. If you look at the top ranked websites on the web, they are not broadcasting to their users with a megaphone, they are creating communities where like‐minded people can connect with each other. We need to rethink our websites to take full advantage of the collaborative power of the web – think hub.If your website is like most others, people visit it once, click around and never return because they heard your sales message and moved on. What we want to do is change the mode of your website from a one way sales message to a collaborative, living, breathing hub on the internet for your marketplace.
It’s Not What You Say – It’s What Others Say About You
If your company is like most others, you put all your web energy on your site. In fact 75% of your focus should be on what is happening off your website about your brand, about your industry, about your competitors, creating communities off your site for people to connect with you and your products, and ultimately driving people back on your site.
One of the reasons I like this book so much is because it distills the somewhat complex, hard-to-explain phenomenon of consumers moving away from a "being sold to" culture to a "finding things for themselves using the web" ecosystem. Grab a few copies, put them on your shelf and hand them out to those you need to convert. Like one of my favorite web volumes of all time, Don't Make Me Think, Inbound Marketing leverages cartoons, illustrations, simple writing and a direct actions to drive understanding and readability.
p.s. A quick note - Inbound Marketing is from the guys who run Hubspot (which is a company I very much admire), so there's some directional recommendation to use their tools, including the grader.com properties. The section on SEO itself isn't hugely robust, but it's a solid overview (I did my best to provide feedback when reviewing to help make it more accurate) and this book isn't meant to be a tome of all human knowledge on these subjects.
Thanks so much for the article/review, Rand.
Now that the book has been out for a few days, we've found that it is a very popular tool for helping convince others that things like SEO and building great content are worth investing in.
Though the book is not likely to teach readers of this blog about SEO (our treatment of the topic is basic), it would likely be a good "gift" to executives (and if you're a consultant, clients) to help them see the value in what SEOs have to offer.
I wish you the best on your book sales! Anyone who puts enough energy (and I mean a lot of energy...) into writing a good book, deserves a big Thumbs Up from me! Respect...
Thanks for writing something about SEO for the executives! Kudos on the book and I hope you do well.
When I talk to clients I always try to mention that one of the reasons SEO is successful, is that potential buyers aren't usually aware they are being marketed to.
The effect is strengthened by the notion that the buyer has found something himself, that he has search and behold! he has been successful in his search.
People like the idea that they are immune to advertising efforts. SEO addresses this trend very well, because - like it or not - SEO is (in a way) advertising in disguise.
I have noticed a real shift in dynamic when selling SEO services to a new client that is reflected in the way that people actually find and buy products on the Internet.
I'm totally with Randfish when it comes to the vaguely depressing sales pitch that sucks the life out of both parties. These days I just go along and chat to the prospect and educate them as to what search can achieve and give them a bit of detail as to the how's, why's and wherefore's.
The result is that they trust us even though we haven't really hammered home the string of horrendous things that will happen if they DON'T adopt some kind of Web Marketing Strategy ;-)
So, like their individual online journey and the sense of satisfaction that they get for finding something to match their needs themselves; our new clients have convinced themselves that they want to work with us just by being able to ask us questions and to understand, they feel that they have driven the meeting.
The results see us skipping off into the sunset, hand-in-hand if you will, toward a common goal.
Thanks Rand,
Anything with Dharmesh behind it is going to be on my shelf. The man is a freakin' business genius.
Thanks for the kind words, Even though the compliments are undeserved, they're appreciated.
Appreciate your support.
I'm Just curious,
do I get a thumb down for my comment?
or for thinking Dharmesh might know something worthwhile?
or is it because someone has taken offense to the entire subject here?
Or is it that you are some dumb ass spammer that got pissed off because actual involved members here thumbed you down when you tried to get some link juice pointing at yourself from one of the top rated websites on the planet?
Right on, maybe Linkscape can be put to use to detect if some spammer here at SEOmoz outlinks in his or her comments to one of their own OR affiliated sites.
@Rand, would that be an idea? And if so, an applicable one?
All comment links are nofollowed, plus we do our best to get rid of comment spam. Something definitely looks fishy here though.
Did you call me a rank whore ealier this week? ;-) I'll help you back up to your feet buddy!
I really think it should be mandatory to leave a comment when giving someone a thumb-down!
I agree with the need for placing a comment if you are thumbing down a comment. Constructive criticism can really help you grow as an SEO. Can we have this feature added please?
i agree i would like a comment when i get a thumb down to clarify something if something interpreted wrong or to speak to their point for giving me the down thumb
But do you also want a response for every thumbs up? I think that would get a bit out of control. People can thumbs up/down with anominity and have the ability to comment as they wish. If we were to take away the anominity it would all be rainbows and sunshine... and how boring is that?
Maybe that's the better solution then? In order to give a thumb, you have to leave a comment. I reckon this would be the best way, as that forces everyone to justify their "thumb".
Also, it's annoying when people try to run up their own ranking by giving everyone else the thumb down.
Another function they should add is notification when someone replies to your comment. Not when they comment on the same post as me, but when they reply to my spesific comment!
I'll just add that thumbs down are not as prevalent as you think they are. If you look at Mozpoints.com you will see that there are not many thumbs down in a day/week/month.
Don't require a comment on a thumbs down, then we get into the whole death spiral about requiring comments on thumbs up. Let the readers vote up or down the content based on the impression received without the overhead of spending 73 seconds drafting a response.
Granted seomoz needs to police any thumbs abuse but don't stifle the power of the commentless thumb.
Your points are all well made Rand (and Dharmesh), but as I've spent a large portion of my career as outside sales rep, I can't wrap my head around all sales moving to the web.
I agree completely that the web has forever changed sales channels, some a lot, some a little.
If you are selling "things" that can be manufactured, stored, and shipped by common carrier, then I think the web will eventually totally rule this space.
But if you've got a large ticket item, or something that requires hand holding through the sales process the web will be an adjunct to the sales rep.
That said, I'm a huge believer in every company having a world class website, whether or not they sell from it directly. It's my opinion that the first thing most people do when researching a company is to try to find it on the web.
Which makes the company website the provider of the "first impression"
I agree.
There are definitely offerings that need people to sell them.
However, the book is talking more about marketing/leads not sales/customers. Even in industries where hand-holding is required, the real question is: How do you reach your customers in the first place?
I'd also add that we're not suggesting that inbound marketing replaces outbound marketing completely. Just that over time, it's likely that inbound marketing approaches will be more efficient and effective at drawing in prospective customers than outbound ones. As a society, we're become more and more difficult to reach through classical outbound methods.
For example, most of the people I know don't answer calls from strange numbers anymore (they first check their Caller ID). This was not the case 20 years ago.
And just to add a little more, people of a certain age respond to certain sales tactics in drastically different ways. Older people, for instance, are more likely to respond to outbound marketing techniques because its what they have grown up with and are used to.
My boss for example - a man in his 60's - will still pick up telemarketer calls (mostly from SEO's trying to improve our Google rank.. haha) and politely speak to them for a few minutes before politely telling them to get lost, and "thank you very much for calling."
We have reduced our print advertising in favor of SEO and other web techniques - but we still put ads in the paper and see results.
Outbound marketing is far from dying - but there is certainly a strong shift away from it.
Rand, the Forrester stats are interesting for sure and I fully agree that the internet in general and SEO in particular will play a continuing larger role in marketing & sales efforts.
But I also feel strongly about an ideal mixed medium marketing model for transaction marketing purposes ('traditionally' called 'brick & click' marketing), in which both inbound internet marketing as well as outbound traditional marketing efforts each play their own role.
Second, 'traditional (internet) marketing' (5 P's) efforts focus mostly on transactional processes (i.e. creating new business sales, conversion tactics) where long-lasting business cycles between customers and suppliers becomes relatively neglected, despite the vast amount of proof that it's roughly about 7 times easier to sell a dollar's worth to a recurrent/existing customer than it is to a new one. A more relational marketing approach (I personally recommend 'The handbook of relationship marketing', by Sheth & Parvatiyar) focuses far more on existing relationships, and I argue that SEO is relatively less important to these type of marketing areas (at least when you're not strictly a 'dot com' organisation), and traditional marketing channels are relatively more important.
For example, when my (B2B) organisation starts with the sales of a new product or service, I'm not going to wait until my existing clients read about it online when searching for it themselves. It's far more effective and even appreciated when I give them a personal call about it.
Concluding on this: I recommend a combined / plural approach on marketing efforts (for further reading, see this International Journal of Bank Marketing article by Adam Lindgreen Ph.D.).
I agree with what you are saying for the most part. Communicating new products or services with your "existing" customers is just good business practice whether you do it through social media, email, newsletters, websites, phone, or in-person. Hopefully you have an understanding with your client as to what form of communications you should maintain. What I'm talking about is selling your new product to new clients. The old approach of cold calling is easily disrupted these days. Personally I choose to keep existing clients informed with online engagement but your approach of phone and personal visits is not being questioned, by me anyway. I believe you can handle it online for a fraction of the cost of a traveling sales team though. In principle I think we agree, as long as we don't lump cold-calling new clients in the same category as staying in contact with existing clients.
Yes, I don't think we're disagreeing on anything really, but I think you missed my principal argument in that SEO (Rand's partial point probably is to place SEO in the Inbound Marketing corner) is not the best marketing tool for every marketing objective. (Bummer! ;-) )
'Sales' (in the strict form of the word a transaction of goods/services and money) is not necessarily the only objective of a marketing strategy. I'm guessing SEOmoz for example is currently making more money on SEO consulting for business customers not being very active (or at all) on this website, than they are on SEOmoz Pro subscriptions, but this website functions as an online hub to attract interesting large business customers that are looking for SEO services and alike via inbound marketing (kw: 'SEO'@Google for example).
And neither is 'sales' the only objective of an outbound strategy either. I don't mind at all if a telemarketer is calling me to inform me on something I didn't know before or haven't given enough thought at that point. If they attend me on something interesting and send me an email/whitepaper/brochure afterwards, that's fine. I just don't like getting something pushed down my throat, but the same thing applies for irritating large pop-up/under/whatever banners in my face when I just want to read an article online (and the conversion of that probably is inbound marketing too, an irritating one).
Again, bottom-line: adopt a nice, intelligent, plural approach ( I guess that message came through before! ;)).Cheers... (I appreciate your reply btw..)
Great stats you have there. It really shows the changes the marketing industry have had. A few years back, if you were into "internet marketing", you weren't even good enough to call yourself a marketer. Today, if you're not into internet marketing (at least in a simple basis), you can't call yourself a marketer!
Oh Lord. Much though I hate the idea of the work, I feel a forum coming on....
definitly need a way to educate the people at the top although if you give them something too interesting they can get invovled and that is when they are at their most destructive
The debate in this post is in my opinion more interesting than the post itself. SEM is certainly growing at a rate that makes it far and away the most important marketing avenue for businesses but anyone that thinks having a marketing mix is silly; is certainly leaving revenue on the table.
As an example I have worked with a sunglasses e-tail company; good SEO, good social media, great usage of public relations and I was able to convince them to do a direct mail campaign driving consumers to the website. It turned out to be a great idea which increased revenue. I should note that the ROI wasn't as high as internet marketing but there was a ROI and that is the goal of both sales and marketing to generate my best friend "profit".
I agree with you but have you ever run across someone that actually said "marketing mix is silly"? I don't see that here. I hope that's not what you think the book is trying to say.
That's definitely not what the book is trying to say.
The message in the book is basically: As a society, we're becoming increasingly immune to classic "outbound" marketing. As such, it becomes more and more expensive to reach people that way.
As such, for most businesses and most situations, it's wise to start allocating time/energy towards more inbound methods as they will yield better results over time.
Rand,
Good to see your seal of approval on the book. I also read the book this weekend, a very short and straightforward book just like one of my all time favorites too "Don't Make Me Think". Granted there was nothing revolutionary or new, it was refreshing and like you mentioned nice to know have a tomb that you can send to C-Level executives to reference and something that should simply make sense to them.
It's going to take some getting used to, but with this week's announcements by Bing, Google, Twitter and Facebook, the lines between social media and search are becoming even more blurred. SEO's are going to need to think more about SM and vice versa. The news couldn't be better for inbound marketers, because this is where they want to be, with a strategy that marries all forms of Internet marketing into a cohesive online campaign.
The only issue I have with this post is the idea that CEO's are going to read a book on inbound marketing. Some may, but most won't. It's going to still be up to the CMO's and agencies to convince the CEO to take the plunge.
It's great to see some discussions in this area. I believe Inbound Marketing is a term coined by the founders of HubSpot, but it's an online marketing approach that's been around for a long time, although not as articulately defined.
What would have been more interesting in your post would be to see a graph showing which communication channels CONSUMERS prefer using. I mean afterall, isn't this what the focus of Inbound Marketing is all about? Marketers should be responding to consumer interests, not the other way around.
"If you look at the top ranked websites on the web, they are not broadcasting to their users with a megaphone, they are creating communities where like‐minded people can connect with each other."
This is analogous to saying that Clear Channel is the biggest radio advertiser in the world, since so many ads run on their stations. It's true, but they're not a radio advertiser the same way anyone else is -- they aren't presenting their message; they're presenting someone else's
Facebook has lots of user-generated content -- but it's not Facebook's message. The biggest message-pushers are still likely to be the ones who pay, not the ones who accept user-generated content. Which is why when you think of social networks, you mostly think of companies in the social networking business, not companies that have adapted the same ideas to their own marketing.
SEO gives you more for less, and you can use resources built by others as a consequence without paying them directly (affiliate marketing, ppc, and so on). Inbound links will bring more and more visitors and therefore exposure from sources that you didn't even expect to have. It's like having a wallmart sellilng your backpacks for you without you even knowing, and sending you the full check for each item.
My 2 cents:) Beck @
i agree with your matter of stuff that is describing totality of marketing aspect conventional and online marketing but at this current business and economy is getting a new ground like virtual land.
Today in the business arena only those can stay who are transfering their effort in the virtual business land.
The re-allocation of funds to the web is great! The viewer can choose to ignore the sells pitch or if they're interested - click to find out more about the product or service without the pressure of having to make a decision right then and there. All without leaving a bad taste in your mouth about a company or sales person who's being agressive to make the sale.
Your thinking too lofty saying we are in a "new era of inbound marketing".
You say that traditional marketing is 'decreasing' but you don't state that it currently has a MASSIVE hold on the advertising dollars. You said it yourself that SEO is only a 2 Billion Dollar industry...
ComScore says that online advertising is like 7% of all advertising/marketing.
I'd say your chart is deceptive. But something similar has been said for a few years now.
I can easily see why you say this (your mentor is Dharmesh) and there is a slight shift but reality is, that search and social media are a long ways away from becoming a dominate player.
Your view is focused on the short tail of businesses (i.e. the huge/large ones) but 99% of businesses are small. 70% of businesses gross under 1 million a year. I'd say step back and ask yourself "would mom and pop shops rather spend $ on social media (seo, etc) than direct mail?" Until you can definitively say "yes" we aren't in the "Era of Inbound Marketing".
Pitching a link bait campaign is great but the reality is, if it was stand alone (i.e. it never effected a search engine) there wouldn't be an ROI for a local mom/pop shop who needs local customers. A local mom/pop deli isn't going to benefit from 50k unique visitors if 95% of them are not within 10 miles.
So, I'm sure it's an awesome book (I've seen their Facebook ad like 100 times....lol) but we aren't seeing an Era of Inbound marketing till the small businesses partake on a large scale. And right now, for many, too much time/money is required and they might not even see an ROI.
There is a lot more risk in real inbound marketing. Until the risk goes away, we won't see a real "Era of Inbound Marketing".
P.S. I know I'm being pessimistic but at the end of the day. I feel that everyone is drinking this kool-aid and they aren't being realistic about the tremendous risk that is involved.
P.P.S. If you don't risk, you don't get to drink champagne.
Always looking for more marketing books. Will add those mentioned above to my list.
I highly suggest the book What Sticks, a very in-depth look at marketing accountability (no affiliation) for what its worth..
nice article ,
My company now is about 12 years on the web and we use more and more paper magazines we make for particalur targetgroups wich are important for our business.
So everybody focussing on the new media will make some old media strong and powerfull again.
regards
rob
Wondered when the seomoz advert for this book would be coming along.
I had to unfollow dharmesh because he was using twitter as a MEGAPHONE to market his book. (oh look big # tag, let me put that and a link to my book...)
I'll have to admit, guilty as charged.
I'm surprisingly obsessed with the book (must be a "first time author" thing). I promise to tone it down now that the first week "newness" has worn off.
The weird thing is that it's not a particularly profitable undertaking (in fact, it's not profitable at all). It must be some sort of ego-driven "spread the message" thing that's driving my obsession.
In my defense, watching the Amazon Sales Rank is similar to watching Google SERP rankings. It's easy to get caught up in it.
In any case, apologies for being annoying.
Besides, being a freakin' business genius you are very humble too. Something for all of us to admire!!
The _only_ thing that could be improved in this article is the graph at the beginning, it takes a few minutes to get used to and understand. But, and it's a big but (and I cannot lie), once one does understand it is very inciteful, so thank you for the infographic!
I've stuck this book in my 'Wants' folder on my desktop, so when I get paid next I'm going to buy it along with a load of other books that are in there...
I love and appreciate the free grader tool on hubspot. Since you are giving it a good review and they have made this wonderful tool available (and for free) I'll give it a look.
Thanks.
We just tried (against my better judgement) radio advertising. I can attest that traditional (old school) advertising is certainly on the way out. We gave radio advertising it's fair shot and virtually nothing has come of it. We simply had to give it a shot to see if there is any returns.
Your chart is spot on! :)
What a wonderful article. As an Internet marketer, I find myself spending way too much time explaining what I do and why it's important. I will definitely be sending folks to this post!
I particularly love the chart. It's right on point.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post. With this type of information available to show clients, I hope I can quit selling and start marketing!
I recently did a blog post about a telemarketer calling on a Monday to "compare my rates" for merchant services. They heard a distinct click on their end. On Tuesday a 2 man sales team showed up at our office to "certify" my fire extinquisher. They promptly left with tails between their legs. From my perspective they are rude for showing up or calling when it's convenient for them and not the customer. They have no regard for the customer's time or timeframe for purchase. That experience sums up the importance of inbound marketing.
@DBlizzard, well pardon me but how does your negative experience with some rude sales reps sum up the importance of inbound Marketing? I'm not advocating their approach, but in order to be able to use 'inbound marketing' tactics you must at least use some amount of 'outbound buzz'. Like I said below: adopt a plural approach (and of course it's bad to be rude...).
I'm confused by your confusion :)I suggest that you read the book Inbound Marketing it would go a long way towards clearing up your misunderstanding or failure to see...
Well, let's get your confusing by my confusion unconfused then! ;)
My point to you is that a single person having negative (or positive) experiences on something (in general) adds little evidence that any hypothesis may be proved wrong. Therefore I questioned your 'conclusion' out of N=1. Of course many people feel bad about agressive outbound marketing techniques and it's not just you. However,my suggestion is that neither outbound nor inbound marketing should be completely ignored or stand alone in its appliance. Adopt a plural approach.
(PS: I know my literature, thanks for your suggestion)
At the risk of this appearing to be a tit-for-tat... Doesn't your statement "Of course many people feel bad about agressive outbound marketing techniques and it's not just you" make my case for me? It totally negates your N=1 comment. If it's widely known then shouldn't one engage in inbound marketing? I have never made the claim that one should completely ignore any successful outbound marketing they are currently doing. Your comments keep implying that I am telling people to STOP outbound marketing when I am only trying to point out why they might need inbound marketing. I still think we agree, you just like a good debate :)
Well, to answer your question: no, it doesn't make your case since I was the one stating that many people feel that way (just to be fair to you) and even that's besides the point; you just mentioned a couple of harsh outbound examples and that on it's own is NOT a valid con to outbound efforts and DEFINITELY NOT a pro to inbound ones.
PS: I'm sorry if I've maybe offended you. I just asked an honest question about how your example on its own could 'sum up' the importance of inbound marketing. And apparantly, some folks agree (see for yourself).
I really enjoyed your article it is a very interesting topic.
The roles of the traditional channels have been reduced in the past few years. There are many new channels around the web, which are essential to use. I think that participation in the Social Media is the most desired place for marketers. At Miracle Technologies we believe that you should present your brand in every possible way, and Search Engine Optimization is one of the newest and greatest marketing tools nowadays.
Veronika
The title is not entirely matching your post. I mean half of the article is about your referrence to other products describing them. I've thought you would have some more interesting information. Anyhow the stats shown above is really distinctive and a good note to all search engine optimization and marketing services firm, I appreaciate your gathering. Thanks
@Harahara: Spamming links to your own SEO firm probably won't get you into SEOmoz's dofollow Inbound Marketing Heaven either! ;-)
thanks for your suggestion. Can that be possible if I am a pro? Anyhow ,I just read blogs to improve my knowledge and not to promote. In the above comment I just attempted to know if a reputable blog like seomoz accepts or not :)
i donut get it what was in the post a link?
i see "Edited by jennita on October 24th, 2009 at 3:32 pm" so i assumen something was changed by admins but just above i see her mention "All comment links are nofollowed" so what happened? i thought it was clear that all seomoz links are nofollow until you get the 100 thumbs? im sure this would be alot easier to see if google wave ran the blog we could just rerun the history and see what happened as the edits went through
What happened is that Harahara placed comment links to his own domain and afterwards those were removed by SEOmoz staff.FYI: The 100 mozPoints barrier is not intended to create dofollow comment links on whatever type of comment you write, but to create a dofollow link on your SEOmoz profile's outlink.
Cheers...
Well, now you know: comment link / spamming is not the way to go. Have you ever tried to run your own blog? Very irritating if a spam bot drops by and starts plunging in all kinds of irrelevant link spam. Comments, especially not on an SEO blog such as SEOmoz, are NOT a good way to build backlinks to your own domains. Regardless whether comment links are followed or nofollowed, it's just 'el cheapo'. Study link bait best practises for backlink building instead is my advice...