Inbound Marketing and Sales Insights

Traditionally, B2B selling involves mostly outbound techniques such as trade shows and cold calling. Companies doing so are simply casting a wide net and hoping for the best. ...

For most people, websites mean business. Their objective is to generate leads and sales. They need to get down to business right away to grab the reader’s attention and encourage ...

There are a lot of reasons why your business may not be giving much thought to inbound marketing. In all likelihood, your business model is built more on B2B sales than broad ...

In a recent survey, marketing executives reported spending as much as one-fifth of their marketing budget on social channels, and they anticipate increasing spend on these ...

If there's one thing all digital marketing professionals can agree on, it's that site traffic is a key indicator of success. And as a key part of your site, your blog plays a big ...

In an online marketplace, your brand needs to stand out. It’s important to communicate a unique brand message through your marketing and sales materials, but nothing generates ...

Any content marketing plan requires many elements to be effective at attracting prospects, converting them into leads and nurturing them until they request a discussion with a ...

Introduction We've all heard of the age-old law of supply and demand. But how do you create demand for your business? Whether your company is B2B or B2C, demand generation is ...

One business strategy that can be the most challenging is developing ways to generate qualified leads for your sales channel. In a world where "Interruption" techniques are ...

Just about everyone has a customer service horror story involving endless waiting on hold, mind-numbing repetition of the same information over and over again to yet another ...

One of the biggest challenges for startups operating in congested markets is demand generation. Unlike lead generation, which only focuses on the initial step of the buyer's ...

There's an age-old principle in the business world known as the law of supply and demand. In basic terms, a company has a product or service (the supply) that consumers need (the ...

Lead generation is absolutely vital for a business to thrive. Because so much of modern business takes place on the Internet, digital lead generation in particular is key. There's ...

The prospect of quick and easy returns can be a real temptation in the marketing world. Everyone wants to run the campaign that immediately brings in leads and gives the company's ...

If content is king, video content is the emperor. Last year, video was the number 1 form of media used in content strategy, leaving blogs and info-graphics far behind. The power ...

When implementing any new marketing strategy, you need to know that it is going to do its job. The overall goal of marketing is always to build your company brand, increase ...

You might think that digital skills are only crucial for tech-specific jobs like web design or web development, but that is far from the truth. The truth is that digital skills ...

In the old days, many successful businesses depended on drumming up sales by means of outbound marketing techniques, such as direct physical mail, magazine, radio or tv ...

In the 21st century, content marketing is the central part of any digital promotional effort. What is behind the concept?   The power of words is hard to underestimate. Especially ...

Digital marketing. Online marketing. Inbound marketing. Content marketing.  Businesses have a wealth of marketing strategies available to them—but keeping track of which one is ...

Social media is ever-changing. What worked for your business a few months ago may not be working as well now, and it's always important to stay ahead of the curve. Here are a few ...

Imagine it's fall, and you're thinking about doing some landscaping to beautify your property (and perhaps add to its value). Like most consumers, you start your search on the ...

Growth is certainly important for long-term business survival. This is why so many businesses spend a considerable amount of time strengthening their marketing efforts. However, ...

Content marketing is one of the most talked about marketing and promotional strategies today -- and one of the most misunderstood. So, let’s start by clearing this up. Content ...

As the owner of a landscaping business, your livelihood hinges on your ability to grow your customer base. While this may sound like a fairly straightforward task, attracting new ...

Sales funnel automation is a must-have for business. Sales teams can no longer count on cold calling alone to generate leads for their business. Interruptive tactics have lost ...

Becoming a digital first company doesn’t start with an IT department or a sales and marketing team. It begins with a commitment to customer experience (CX) above all else, and ...

Marketing today occurs at a dizzying pace—so much so, that it can be challenging to determine which strategies, tools, and tactics will actually make an impact. We’re helping you ...

As a business owner or operator, your livelihood hinges on your ability to develop a winning digital marketing strategy. While this task may sound fairly simple, knowing how to ...

Keyword research is one of the three fundamental search engine optimization (SEO) factors along with link-building and content marketing. Of course, link-building is more ...

What is lead generation? Lead generation is a method of identifying, attracting, and converting people unfamiliar with your business’s products or services to potential customers. ...

We had the opportunity to read the latest "State of Inbound Marketing" research report, and it reinforced many of the behaviors that we perform for our clients. The most important ...

What is content marketing? Simply put, content marketing is the creation and distribution of valuable content to a targeted audience, with the goal of securing conversions and ...

Growing a landscaping business is easier than ever thanks to a well developed digital marketing strategy. There are so many landscaping businesses that have the potential to grow ...

In the modern customer-driven business world, chatbots are one of the most useful tools any business can put to use. Infinitely available and friendly, a chatbot is often the ...

It wasn’t too long ago that artificial intelligence (AI) was associated with evil robots and vintage science fiction movies. Today, AI is fast becoming a fundamental component in ...

For business owners operating in this digital age, lead generation is a vital component to achieving sustainable success. Just as blood must continually circulate throughout the ...

Video can be an incredibly powerful tool for a landscaping business or any business. It can help people find you, build trust, and convert them to a lead and ultimately, a ...

If you’re a sales and/or marketing professional, you’re probably finding the internet both terrifying and exciting all at the same time. And for good reason. The Web provides an ...

Video is something no other medium can boast:  It can tickle the senses with sight, sound, motion, and emotion.  Videos can make you think.  They can make you smile.  They can ...

It would be hard to overestimate the power of video in today’s digital marketing world. If content is king, then video content is the emperor. We recently saw the 2019 Video in ...

I recently recorded a Hub of Success podcast with David Elmasian from Applied Synergy Group.

Today’s B2B buyers have figured out how to dodge and deflect the interruptive marketing techniques that were successful in the not-too-distant past. In response, vendors are ...

Want to start marketing your landscape business in new ways, but not sure where to start? We've worked with landscape businesses like yours before, and have seen firsthand what ...

What’s the most important thing for a modern business? Many will automatically refer to profit as the single biggest driver of success. However, business leaders who put ...

Virtually every organization of size has some sort of customer relationship management (CRM) infrastructure that enables them to automate many of the functions associated with ...

In the old days, the customer journey was a concept few brands had heard of. The interaction between brands and customers often started and finished the moment they walked into a ...

Several social media platforms offer salespeople opportunities to build awareness and generate leads. However, few offer the same multitude of powerful inbound lead generation ...

It’s a problem that we’ve seen before: An owner of a landscape company wants to grow their business, but spends all of their time in the field providing services—leaving seemingly ...

Each year, we like to pull together a digest of relevant articles about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for our readership because SEO is a moving target. Implementing SEO the ...

If you have anything to do with business IT, sales, or marketing, chances are very good that you’ve heard the term “single view of the customer.” And if you’re someone who ...

We are pleased to announce that Bristol Strategy has become a Hubspot Gold Certified Agency. The following is the press release we issued earlier today.  Boston MA: Today, Bristol ...

What if I told you that there was a method to attract customers ready to purchase your services or products, and at a lower cost than your traditional marketing techniques? Sounds ...

Anyone would be hard-pressed today to over-estimate the power of social media. The use of social media by consumers and business professionals alike is tightly woven throughout ...

Before we entered the Digital Age, consumers traditionally relied upon advertising and company sales materials to learn about products and services for sale. The Internet has ...

I took my annual pilgrimage to the Inbound Conference during the week of September 4th. The week began with the Hubspot Partner Day event on Tuesday. This day provided me with the ...

It is springtime here in New England! Trees are sprouting new leaves; tulips and daffodils are blooming, and the no-longer dormant grass is green again after a long winter. ...

Press releases are a great way to communicate news or information about your company through carefully crafted messages that are under your control in terms of content, tone, and ...

The term "digital footprint" has been around for quite awhile now, but what exactly does that mean for your business? Basically, it's the digital trail that your business leaves ...

In our previous blog post we discussed the importance of creating a content strategy to effectively attract visitors to your website and help fill your sales funnel with leads. ...

The cornerstone of an effective inbound marketing strategy is a comprehensive content strategy aligned with every stage of the inbound sales funnel. Wait a minute, some of you ...

Are you familiar with the concept of a buyer persona? You may have heard or seen the term used in various marketing articles, webinars, and conference talks. If you’re not really ...

In the fall of last year, we embarked upon a journey to redesign our website. The site was several years old, outdated, and no longer truly represented the services we offered. It ...

We received several comments about the article we wrote about the Inbound marketing conference. Most thanked us for highlighting the changing world of digital marketing and where ...

As a business owner, you know you need a good website to attract visitors and get them to buy from you. You research products yourself and casually surf. You can see that the look ...

If there’s anything we can rely on when it comes to digital marketing, it’s that things are always changing and improving when it comes to creating better online visibility. It ...

If there’s anything marketers have in common, it’s the goal to find methods to generate more highly-targeted leads. After all, this is the way to boost your revenue and expand ...

You’re a high-tech company looking to target a specific internet audience. But where are most users spending their time?

Over 500 million (half a BILLION) people watch video on Facebook every day. The truth of the matter is that consumers prefer video. Text consumption is on the decline, and more ...

Video marketing has been on the rise for the past few years. With 97% of marketers saying that video content has improved prospects' understanding of their products or services ...

Even if you haven’t yet embraced online marketing for your business, you’re probably aware of some of the benefits it offers. Moving from a more traditional form of marketing and ...

Marketing is a fast-evolving discipline. Customer expectations are changing rapidly and posing new challenges to many businesses. Thankfully, the technologies available to ...

Before we delve into the value Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) offer to an Inbound Marketing program, let's first drill into the sources of the website traffic and the value ...

According to a recent study, 75% of video viewers report that they will click through to a website after watching a high quality video. It’s clear that video is an effective tool ...

The popularity of content marketing has grown exponentially over the past several years. Businesses of all sizes and in all industries have begun to realize the benefits of ...

Let’s face it – nobody likes to be “sold.” And being on the receiving end of a sales pitch is made worse when the receiver sees no benefit to being subjected to the pitch. If ...

Virtually every business professional will agree that a good website is highly valuable for their company. The problem, is many can’t tell you what that value is, especially in ...

If your firm has not yet embraced digital marketing, I’m willing to bet a large amount of money that there is a gnawing feeling in your gut telling you you’re late to online ...

The Internet has changed the world from one where information was scarce to one where there is an overabundance of it. This change has had a significant impact on the buying ...

The goal is the same: increase sales for the business. Yet, many times marketing and sales departments have a big disconnect when it comes to the goals and strategy of getting ...

2017 was a tremendous year for inbound marketers. The fascinating thing about digital marketing, which inbound marketing is one methodology, is that the landscape is constantly ...

Would it surprise you that there are plenty of high-quality prospects looking for precisely the goods and services you offer? And would it disturb you further to know that they ...

Taking sales productivity to the highest possible level is a worthy goal for any business. Additionally, if all of your competitors are pursuing improved sales productivity, your ...

Much of the emphasis of inbound marketing is attracting the attention of people to your website who need your products and services. However, establishing a strong and positive ...

Inbound marketing, with its customer-centric focus and data-driven approach, has allowed companies to vastly improve the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Automation, in ...

Selling to companies and other organizations is still a lot like selling to people. In essence, it is not B2C or B2B it is H2H - Human to Human! In recent years, digital ...

I like to take the opportunity at the Inbound conference to learn new techniques to help businesses grow online. When I first looked at the Inbound 17 agenda, I was floored by the ...

As a CEO, you have a lot of responsibilities and power. While the concept of blogging might have passed your mind a few times, it probably wasn't something you would have ...

I really enjoyed a lot about the Inbound conference at the end of September in Boston. As my earlier article about Inbound 17 states, I see these conferences as a tune up. I don't ...

Each year, me and 14,000 of my closest friends descend upon the Boston convention center to get our annual digital marketing tune-up. The Inbound 17 conference is a great learning ...

Reaching out to prospects by phone is still a channel that sales teams use to connect and raise awareness among the potential buyers of their brands. However, with the changes in ...

The Inbound Sales Methodology attracts the prospects to you who fit the profiles of the customers you can serve best. The primary goal is to create a selling experience that helps ...

For decades, sales strategy centered around promoting goods and services directly to potential customers. In most cases, the “spray and pray” approach was employed, from standing ...

It’s Monday, August 21st, 2017, and a swath across the middle of the United States is experiencing a total eclipse. The darkness may have been a surprise to some people who either ...

There is a maxim in startup culture that is attributed to Uri Levin, founder of Waze. It says that you should, "fall in love with the problem, not the solution, and the rest will ...

A social media strategy is important for your business. By now you are likely aware that the days of most direct outbound marketing tactics (email blasts, direct mail, cold calls, ...

Want to succeed with Digital Marketing?  If your answer is yes, then you need to know how Conversion Rate Optimization (commonly called CRO) works and why it is so important.  ...

Implementing Sales Funnel Automation has become a must-have resource for sales teams in a world with fickle prospects. Gone are the days where you could count on cold calling ...

When it comes to creating an overall marketing plan, many companies need to add local marketing to the mix. Specifically, local search engine optimization (SEO) can be a powerful ...

When it's time to make tough decisions, many people like to follow others on an issue. But sometimes, following the crowd can lead you astray, especially with the fast-paced world ...

These days, even the acronym SEO has become a little hackneyed. Of course, companies are still optimizing their websites to rank highly on Google, and maybe some of the other ...

The days of “set it and forget it” website design are over—at least for those companies that want the agility to respond to market conditions and customer demands. Move over, ...

Many of you know that I have a high-tech background and there are few industries that are more high-tech than semiconductors. I worked in the semiconductor space through the mid ...

According to a web credibility study conducted by Stanford University, 75% of people judge a company’s worth and abilities based on the design of its website alone. That’s just a ...

While the benefits your company offers don't necessarily change, the journey for a digital buyer is often much different than that of a traditional buyer. Therefore, you need to ...

What does it mean to ‘build customer experience’ on a website? Too many companies don't know -- and it's costing them a lot in terms of market share, customer loyalty and return ...

How many times have you been told to follow a specific Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rule, only to find out it’s the very thing you need to avoid. You do your research, but the ...

More companies, in the tech industry and beyond, are waking up to the idea that it pays to invest in better online content. Videos and infographics and neat visual features can ...

So, you’ve decided to launch that business and need a website that will not only be attractive but will also work smart for your inbound marketing initiatives. However, you may ...

The recently published State of Inbound 2017 report is chock full of deep insight into the challenges and opportunities of sales and marketing teams worldwide. Since we have been ...

The internet is changing the way customers perform research to address problems or implement solutions. They want relevant information when they search for a product or service. ...

Wouldn’t it be great if your company had intimate knowledge of its ideal buyer? You would know how this person thinks, behaves, and shops so you can market to him or her ...

What’s the problem with these so-called “trends” that crop up in the digital marketing space each year? A few things: being on-trend doesn’t guarantee long-term success, buzz ...

So you're eager to tackle the marketing challenges of a promising new year for your B2B company. Good for you! But don't just draft out a carbon copy of last year's marketing ...

Decision makers tend to be busy people who have neither the time nor patience to absorb themselves in surface-level content that leaves them unfulfilled. All too often, a B2B ...

Content is king. It’s a phrase that has become an overused and often misunderstood cliché in the world of inbound marketing. In a desperate rush to make an impact on the Web, many ...

SEO Marketing World states that an inbound link is one of the most important aspects of any searching engine optimization (SEO) marketing campaign. It backs up this statement by ...

Increase Brand Awareness with Inbound Marketing and these Six Hacks. Promoting a company through inbound marketing is an excellent choice to bring consumers in close contact with ...

What is Inbound Marketing and Why Should You Care? There is a great answer to this question by one of the pioneers of inbound marketing, HubSpot, but the simple answer is ...

Wondering how to optimize a blog article to improve SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become an important topic for B2B business ever since the power for product research ...

The commitment to producing a consistent business blog is often one of the first things to go when marketing budgets get tight. It is always unfortunate to see a blog get ...

The Inbound Marketing conference in Boston was an opportunity to get a tune up from the experts with tips and techniques that improve on-line marketing results for those lucky ...

In a competitive online marketplace, it's critical to make your product or service stand out from the crowd. And these days, snappy slogans and eye-catching images can only take ...

Geoffrey Moore, the author of Crossing the Chasm and other sales and marketing strategy books, recently published an article about how our digital world is disrupting the normal ...

Businesses are recognizing the strategic importance their website plays in lead generation and sales. The challenge they face though is how to design a modern website so that it ...

As you are aware, all buyers go through a three-step journey with major purchasing decisions. The first step is simply becoming aware of the need to buy the item. Unlike the ...

It was a lot of hard work, but you have finally launched your startup company and you’re ready to make your online presence known. Before you hire a website design team or do any ...

One of the biggest issues with business websites is the lack of opportunities for visitors to convert into leads and become part of your email nurturing program. How many websites ...

There are so many marketing automation tools available on the market that researching each of them can make a CMO's brain hurt just thinking about the best strategy to select and ...

I like to think about Inbound Marketing as a process to attract the best prospects to your business using digital marketing methods and Content Marketing as the fuel that drives ...

In this issue of Inbound Marketing digest, we have selected several expert articles about SEO to help you improve the organic search performance of your Inbound Marketing. One ...

Inbound marketing and social media go hand-in-hand. To attract new leads and customers, businesses should strive to reach them in the places where they spend their time. Social ...

Blogging is one of the most important, informative, educational and interactive components of a content marketing system. However, companies often face a challenge when trying to ...

Every once in a while, a new marketing term emerges.  I recently came across the term "Intrigue Marketing" and thought to myself, "Oh not another one!"  I decided to write this ...

If you told your investors that your start-up was going to take a different approach to selling your product, and it would result in 25% CAGR over five years, I think they would ...

Generating a large volume of leads is of little use if you don't effectively nurture them to produce sales conversions and long-term customer relationships. Implementing ...

As an extention to the Thought Leader Series written about sales last year by Jim Welch, I decided to extend it in 2016 with several additional articles, this time with a focus on ...

The desire for clear and efficient communication is a common trait among digital marketing (or Inbound Marketing) buyers across many customer segments. In competitive industries ...

No one can debate that the internet has changed lives and industries. Products like the smart phone have accelerated this change since billions of us now have instant access to ...

The Federal Trade Commission recently released its "Enforcement Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Advertisements." The FTC has long monitored false advertising practices, ...

The volume of mobile Internet searches now exceeds searches on desktop computers. Additionally, statistics on engagement suggest that mobile communication offers far and away the ...

The database is the salesperson's best friend, but it needs to receive the appropriate care and attention before it can prove its true worth as a B2B sales lead generation ...

If you're wondering whether you've selected the right B2B agency for your business's marketing needs and goals, start by taking a close look at the varieties of critical data they ...

It's become increasingly evident in the modern B2B marketplace that one size most definitely does not fit all. It isn't enough just to market the perfect products and services to ...

Inbound marketing is all about bringing your clientele to your doorstep, freeing you from the horrible inefficiency of cold calls and high-dollar, low-yield, poorly-targeted ...

What will this year bring for your B2B company? The answer may hinge on how you disburse your inbound marketing budget. "Spending more money on marketing" doesn't address the ...

The terms "LinkedIn" and "business" have become synonymous over the years, so it'll come as no surprise that you can profit from incorporating this major social media platform ...

If your B2B marketing efforts have been faltering lately, ask yourself whether your marketing content has grown a bit thin, anemic, irrelevant or scarce. Any or all of these flaws ...

Effective inbound marketing encompasses content strategies, social media, website, SEO strategies and more. If you run a B2B business, you need an effective inbound marketing ...

During the first full week of September, I attended the annual pilgrimage to the mecca of Inbound Marketing, Boston, MA. Inbound15, sponsored by Hubspot, the founder of the ...

We gain most of our new clients from company CEOs, Presidents or Sales VPs who need to address the inability of sales to gain access to prospects through traditional means and the ...

I just returned from a week long fly fishing trip to Bozman Montana with one of my sons. As the vacation was ending and real life began to set in I was struck by the similarities ...

What is the best B2B content for tech buyers? Marketing professionals are constantly working to develop content to support the sales process and attract the best visitors to their ...

We've all been there. It is 11:57 on April 15th and you are working feverishly to complete the last part of your federal tax return. A bead of sweat is dripping down your browas ...

Would you run your business without a strategy for product development, sales growth, and marketing? If your answer to this question is "NO", then you will be surprised that 50% ...

Let's diagnose the 4 problems with sales productivity. At Bristol Strategy, we understand the importance of applying our Sales and Marketing experience to helping our clients fine ...

We have written about the importance of a marketing strategies that aligns with your target prospect's triggers and goals while leveraging that content with marketing automation ...

It is important to create a community that will promote your company to their peers. Within every industry, B2B buyers seek considerable input from their peers when researching ...

Your company’s website attracts plenty of traffic, but far too few of the anonymous website visitors ever emerge as contacts and convert to viable sales leads. What can you do to ...

Social engagement is an imperative for businesses - B2B social media strategies work and will boost your business and brand perception if implemented correctly. Every company ...

A winning strategy is to combine great website content with a lead nurturing engine and pay per click advertising to achieve your top of sales funnel goals. What can you do to ...

A staggering volume of business email is generated every day. According to the “Email Statistics Report, 2014-2018” published by The Radicati Group, Inc. this past April, over ...

Are your prospects stuck in your sales pipeline? Sales pipeline management is a highly controversial subject these days. Opinions vary widely on the most effective ways to ...

A well-designed B2B social media marketing strategy is essential for marketing success. In fact, 87% of B2B marketers currently rely on social media other than blogs as a primary ...

Looking for ways to improve SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has traditionally been defined as a process for achieving favorable website rank in online search results. But as ...

Have you ever wondered who first used the phrase “buyer persona”? Credit goes to well-known software designer Alan Cooper, who came up with the original concept of personas back ...

Let’s start with the assumption that your website is attracting visitors. Not just random visitors, but the right visitors who have genuine interest in the products and services ...

Are old style B2B marketing methods giving you a headache? Do you feel a headache coming on at the mere thought of conducting yet another telemarketing campaign to generate sales ...

Inbound Marketing is aligned with the Human Era brand strategy. On May 21st, I attended a Northeastern University CEO Breakfast Forum at which Karen Kaplan, Chairman and CEO of ...

The key to growing your business' revenue is to increase sales; the key to increasing your sales is an effective sales pipeline generation strategy; but the key to developing a ...

Sales Pipeline Generation is a Strategic Imperative. The title of this post would cause some sales managers to say you are crazy, and CEO’s to fire the marketing guy. Why would a ...

What sales rep has not heard the line "You are responsible for your pipeline," and every good rep know its true. We are responsible for our pipeline. The problem we all face is ...

Connect with Your Buyers with a B2B Inbound Marketing Campaign. Everyone, everywhere, especially those in the tech industry, are inexorably attached to their internet capable ...

All businesses need to win customers. More and more businesses are turning to the one-two punch of blogging and social media to anchor their inbound marketing campaign, but why? ...

Are High-Tech Businesses Behind in Using B2B Marketing Techniques? There are a lot of reasons why your high tech business may not be giving much thought to inbound marketing. In ...

Adapt to thrive.  The sales and marketing landscape has changed over the past few years; only businesses that recognize this and adapt to these changes will thrive. Cold calls, ...

Businesses should attract prospects to find your solutions and nurture them until they become a customer. Inbound marketing, simply put, is a strategy by which marketing attempts ...

Cold calling gets old, doesn't it? Instead, why not work on magnetically attracting new prospects to your technology business? Just get your brand in front of the right audience ...

CEOs continually review the effectiveness of each phase of their business. Analysis of marketing programs is no different and in many cases they get more scrutiny. Companies have ...

Inbound Marketing is the hottest marketing trend in recent years because of its effectiveness in a world that is increasingly dominated by on-line customer research and the ...