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Welcome to INKsights! We’re excited to share what’s now and what’s next in content marketing and PR with you. Come back often for the latest best practices and industry resources to maximize your marketing efforts, or sign up for our e-newsletter to ensure you never miss an INKsights post.

Dec

Want better marketing? Start by retaining your agency

December 4, 2014

by: Heather Kingry in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing , Public relations

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Many companies struggle with determining whether it makes sense to secure a monthly retainer with an inbound agency or marketing firm, or employ these agencies on a project-only basis.

As someone who used to work for an agency on the project fee model, where assignments are scoped and an agreed-upon budget is determined before work begins, I can honestly say that the employees, the agency and the work suffer. Projects are underbid and overspent, leaving creatives frazzled and holes in agencies’ pockets.

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Nov

How to choose a web firm: get (and love) what you pay for

November 20, 2014

by: Heather Kingry in B2B , Marketing strategy

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It won’t take much convincing to make the case that your corporate website is one of your hardest-working assets. It’s:

• Your brand’s first impression for most people
• A marketing and sales tool that works 24/7/365
• An information resource for prospects
• The most powerful recruitment tool
• Where visitors turn into leads, and hopefully customers

With the typical lifespan of a corporate website lasting three to four years, you’ll want to make sure your decision is one you can live with for that long. One of the best ways to avoid buyer’s remorse is to not let price be your deciding vote when choosing a web firm.

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Nov

The content shock is coming: what to do about it

November 13, 2014

by: Michelle Calcote King in B2B , Content marketing , Public relations

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At the beginning of this year, noted marketing thought leader Mark Schaefer of {grow} wrote a now somewhat infamous blog post titled Content Shock: Why content marketing is not a sustainable strategy. If you haven’t read it, I’d recommend taking a moment to do so. His basic theory is that we are nearing the intersection of increasing volumes of content with our limited human capacity to consume it.

In other words, as companies jump on the content marketing bandwagon in droves, pumping out blogs, e-books, reports, videos and more, it’s becoming harder and harder to get people’s attention and succeed with the strategy. Just a few years ago, if you put a blog up and plugged away at it, you were a first mover and were pretty much guaranteed to have some success and earn attention from the audiences you were trying to reach. Today it’s much harder.

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Oct

From customer retention to customer delight in 6 steps

October 23, 2014

by: Heather Kingry in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing

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Acquiring new customers is a full-time job. It’s easy to get caught up in feeding the acquisition machine and neglect those who have already evolved from visitor or lead to the prime position of customer.

Truth is, it costs businesses 6 to 7 times more to attract a new customer than retain an existing one. So how do you go about keeping the customers you have?

It’s no coincidence that companies with great customer service are also ranked high in employee engagement and satisfaction. But you can’t have great customer service and delight first. As HubSpot’s Loree McDonald so eloquently put it, “Inspire from within and influence outwards.”

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Oct

#INBOUND14 takeaways, part 2: listen, empathize, connect

October 9, 2014

by: Heather Kingry in B2B , Content marketing

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In my last post, I shared some inspiration from profound speakers at HubSpot’s content marketing conference, INBOUND 2014. Today I’d like to take a closer look at one of the recurring themes and what we as marketers can do to improve our efforts.

It’s common knowledge that good communicators are also good listeners. But as marketers (and perhaps creatures of habit), we tend to forget this fact and jump at the chance to talk about our product to anyone who even looks in our direction. So how can we listen more and talk less?

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Oct

Law firm marketing: are ads and ‘paid profiles’ in legal directories worth it?

October 6, 2014

by: Michelle Calcote King in Law , Marketing strategy

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As legal marketers, we are regularly asked by our law firm clients about rankings, directories, awards and the like (for the legal marketers out there reading: shocking, I know). Rankings like Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, Chambers and Partners, Martindale-Hubbell and more have proliferated to the point that entire jobs exist at law firms for the sole purpose of managing the lengthy and detailed submission processes. In fact, I believe the number now hovers around 1,000—that’s right, 1,000—surveys and rankings out there of law firms and attorneys, all competing for attention and advertising dollars.

We ourselves just spent the last month working on detailed Chambers submissions for several clients, and regularly write award submissions for media outlets like Law360, the National Law Journal and American Lawyer. While I see value in awards, especially those with advertising-independent research processes and those done by credible media outlets, I see no value in buying advertising (including display ads and “enhanced profiles”) in any legal directories out there. Here’s why:

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Oct

Marketers and sales execs: stop annoying, start nurturing

October 2, 2014

by: Michelle Calcote King in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing

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How to convert marketing leads to customers through lead nurturing

Ever browse through a store, and a sales rep just won’t leave you alone, despite telling her that you’re “just looking”? What about getting a phone call from a sales rep just a few minutes after filling out a form on a website to download a white paper or e-book, when you’re just doing some preliminary research?

Why’s that so annoying? You’re not ready to buy—you’re just assessing your options. In marketing speak, you’re still in the “awareness” stage of the “buying funnel.” Called many things, including “purchase funnel,” “marketing funnel,” “decision journey” and more, the buying funnel is a way to describe the steps a buyer goes through as they realize they have a problem or need, educate themselves, research, compare and analyze their options, and eventually make a decision on a provider.

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Sep

That’s a Wrap! A Facebook promo from the other side, Busch Gardens’ politically correct Halloween display, Apple’s Bendgate, bad Yelp reviews wanted and a journalist spreads some love

September 26, 2014

by: Heather Kingry in B2B , Marketing strategy

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TGIF, y’all! We’re also thankful to take a break from the NFL headlines this week and bring you some PR and social media winners and loser from other industries.

iPhone 6’s unexpected feature

Forget Jedi mind tricks. All you need to bend the new iPhone 6 is a tight pair of Dockers or skinny jeans. The Twitterverse was full of customer complaints this week, as some of the iPhone 6’s early adopters are crying Bendgate. To Apple’s credit, this isn’t the first (or only) aluminum device that bends under pressure… even the iPhone 5 and Android HTC had similar issues. On the bright side, this could encourage the creepy guy down the hall to buy looser-fitting pants.

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Sep

Inspiration from #INBOUND14: HubSpot’s content marketing conference

September 25, 2014

by: Heather Kingry in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing

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Michelle King and I had the privilege to attend HubSpot’s INBOUND14 conference in Boston last week. The list of speakers for the event read like the New York Times Best Seller list, with some inbound marketing rock stars thrown in for good measure. From 8:30am keynotes to wall-to-wall sessions, the trip was as exhausting as it was exhilarating.

Going through my 30+ pages of notes, I’m still trying to absorb everything I heard and learned. However, I couldn’t wait any longer to share some of the inspiration I received:

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Sep

That’s a Wrap! Surge soda returns, Urban Outfitters’ latest fail, how women are helping the NFL and Zumba’s first commercial

September 19, 2014

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It’s been a long week, and we’re ready to kick off our shoes, throw on some sweats and sink into our cozy couches. Who’s with us? But before we check out and get lost in what’s ahead, let’s look back at what swept headlines this week (in PR, social media and marketing—because that’s the fun stuff).

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[ About Inksights ]

Want better marketing? Start by retaining your agency

How to choose a web firm: get (and love) what you pay for

The content shock is coming: what to do about it

From customer retention to customer delight in 6 steps

#INBOUND14 takeaways, part 2: listen, empathize, connect

Law firm marketing: are ads and ‘paid profiles’ in legal directories worth it?

Read more »

Marketers and sales execs: stop annoying, start nurturing

How to convert marketing leads to customers through lead nurturing

That’s a Wrap! A Facebook promo from the other side, Busch Gardens’ politically correct Halloween display, Apple’s Bendgate, bad Yelp reviews wanted and a journalist spreads some love

iPhone 6’s unexpected feature

Inspiration from #INBOUND14: HubSpot’s content marketing conference

This Way To Better Content

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