In Spain, they'd call it "Cervezas con Max, numero 4," but here in Boston we call it a darn good marketing discussion! On this episode we talk about the challenge of getting leads in the door quickly: if you aren't bringing prospects to the sales team fast enough, you risk getting dropped like a burning coal.
Unfortunately, many marketers believe paid advertising = instant leads. Let's get to work on discovering the real equation.
How can we accelerate lead generation with paid content promotion so we don't get fired?
Back in ye olden days, sales reps had all the information, so they controlled the buying process. Things are different now - with the internet and smartphones, we can have answers to buying questions much more quickly. This transition has given birth to the inbound era: buyers now use the internet to self educate during the buying process.
Your inbound marketing method is an engine. That engine is powered by gas. Content is the gas.
Too many marketers are treating PPC like a shortcut. They invest in paid advertising so they don't have to invest in content, or so they can "skip" the process. These marketers take prospects who have no idea what their organization does and bring them directly to the point of sale; they view PPC as a way to eliminate parts of the inbound journey. This is not the right way to do things!
The correct way to look at PPC and paid advertising in the context of our analogy is as a faster car. It'll turn your marketing Toyota into a Ferrari. Paid advertising accelerates the process of establishing trust and relationships with prospects (because it gets your trust building content in fron of more people with problems) but you still have to put in the time and create the content necessary to grow those relationships.
Not all inbound opportunities are created equal. There are two common situations:
1. Sitting on a GIANT opportunity - these people have a well-established base, plenty of traffic, a good base of content, lots of resources - their lead gen just needs a swift kick in the pants. With a little paid promotion, they can see serious results.
2. The traps! - these are the people who have drank too much of the inbound marketing Kool-Aid. They are convinced that if they write content on a regular basis they can sit back and watch the money roll in.
It takes 6 - 12 months to gain credibility with Google. Remember - PPC is not a shortcut! In the words of the immortal Big Black, you'll still need to "do work, son!"
For one month, cut your content creation budget in half. Use the money you save to promote the content you create. Track your progress and see how this move affected your lead gen - did it increase?
After this point, we opened the discussion up to our super-smart panel of marketing ninjas. Gil Roeder, HubSpot's AdWords program manager who was hand-placed by Google and has trained over 2,000 businesses on AdWords, discusses his view of the current paid advertising landscape. Rob Bailey, founder and CEO of an inbound marketing agency focused on paid Facebook ads, dishes on how to think about the different groups that can be targeted through paid advertising.
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