All types of businesses, but especially startups and smaller businesses, can benefit from these inbound marketing techniques, says contributor Neil Patel.

• 1.5K
• MORE

Every business needs to do some kind of marketing. But what kind of marketing is the most effective? Most of the conventional marketing approaches are too expensive or unwieldy for smaller businesses and startups to successfully employ. That’s why inbound marketing, and its various techniques, make sense for any business — but especially for startups and smaller businesses.

Inbound marketing is more of an approach than it is a list of tactics. Inbound marketing, at its core, is about attracting prospects to your business rather than going out to find those prospects. Traditional marketing relied on email lists, cold-calling, billboard advertisements, and direct mail.

Modern inbound marketing uses organic search traffic, opt-in email forms, and content publication to attract customers. Inbound marketing is the best approach for today’s businesses, whether B2B, B2C, e-commerce, SaaS, tech, non-tech, brick-and-mortar or otherwise.

Here are the six inbound marketing techniques that I’ve used with amazing success in my startups, and that you can use to grow your business.

1. Give Away A Free Guide That Is Directly Related To Your Business

If you’ve ever seen any of the resources like these I’ve created, you’ll know that I’m a big believer in creating advanced guides.

Each of my guides are thousands of words long, making them a huge source of organic traffic. I didn’t publish them simply to get words out. I published them to provide marketers with rock-solid information. Many marketers I know use this technique to build their email lists, like AudienceBloom, which published The Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business Online.

One of the best publishers of free guides and resources is HubSpot, the grandfather of inbound marketing. HubSpot’s collection of resources deserves to be called a “library” simply due to the sheer volume of resources. If you’re looking for a good model of a company that creates free guides, HubSpot is the exemplar.

Make sure that the guide is relevant to your business. HubSpot can afford to publish a huge variety of guides, because they are a big business that plays in a lot of sandboxes. Keep your guide as specific as possible, because you are using it to gain a certain type of visitor — ideally one who will convert to become a customer.

2. Pick One Or Two Keywords, And Optimize The Heck Out Of Them

Inbound marketing is nearly synonymous with “SEO.” So, how do you “do SEO?”There’s a lot to know. One of the most important features of SEO, however, is the power of keywords.  In order to successfully gain traffic for relevant keywords, you have to use those keywords on your site.

Though some may argue that keywords aren’t as important as they used to be, you still need to be aware of — and use the words — that people might enter into a search engine when they’re looking for content like yours. Many marketers I know try to gain traffic for tons of different keywords. Instead of focusing on a few relevant terms and variants that mean the same thing, they try to do this:

• Gain first-position result for head terms — the most commonly searched terms. But, try as you might, you’re not going to gain the first position on Google for “iphone” or “computer.”
• Simply improve their keyword rank. However, there’s more to SEO than keyword rank. Moving the needle on keyword position is nice, but that’s not going to create better traffic.
• Trying to gain position for a huge variety of keywords. Although, it’s good to have a comprehensive list of keywords that you’re tracking and targeting, it’s a waste of time to try to win all of these keywords at once.

The solution is to focus on a few keywords that are valuable, and create specific pages on your website that are for those keywords specifically. A good example of this is Practical ECommerce, which targeted the keyword “A/B testing tools for small business.” When you eliminate ad results, they rank number one:The company chose a long-tail (less-searched) keyword that was relevant to its business, optimized for that word, and came out on top.

3. Build Your Personal Brand

In order to be a truly successful marketer, you’ll need to build your personal brand. I recommend the personal brand approach for anyone who’s involved in marketing, but especially for startups. Today’s startup culture is dominated by personalities who can successfully advertise themselves as leaders, as much as they advertise their companies as innovators.

Entrepreneurs like Jayson DeMers, Joel Gascoigne, and Hiten Shah are examples of people building businesses by means of building their personal brand. If you start a business, it’s virtually impossible to separate yourself from that business. It only makes sense to use your personal brand to build that business. Many brands such as Tim Ferriss’s and Ramit Sethi’s depend almost exclusively on the power of their personal brand.

Some entrepreneurs build businesses that are founded upon their personality and their advice.

You may choose a different approach. Instead of building the brand upon your personality (like Sethi and Ferriss), you can build your brand then use your personal brand to promote it.

4. Ask And Answer Questions On Social Media

Social media turned inbound marketing into a viral interactive experience. Now, instead of just hearing about companies and going to them, potential customers found companies, followed those companies, and interacted with those companies. In study after study, social media has a very low track record of bringing in conversions.

Image source

Email and organic search are by far the best sources for conversions. Don’t depend upon social for your conversions. But you should engage social as a powerful method of inbound marketing. It may not bring conversions, but it does other things that enhance your brand.

It’s not enough to merely have a presence on the social media platforms. Instead, you need to engage these platforms. Social media is social. That means that there are real people behind every like and follower. In order to connect with those people, you need to ask questions, answer questions, respond to tweets, recognize +1s, and be a presence.

In the case of HubSpot, it is vigilantly monitoring its brand, and scouring the social sphere for mentions. People might hashtag it, tweet at the company or talk about it. Each of these social mentions provide an opportunity for HubSpot to interact with the mention, thereby increasing its brand image and its reach into other social networks.

5. Create An Email Popup

Popups are controversial. Even though some people hate them, they’ve proven to be successful. In every business I’ve built, I’ve used some form of email opt-in to build my email list.

An email list is one of the single most important factors in building a business. I’ve been able to leverage the power of my email list to create compelling subject lines, and grow my businesses even more.If you really want to grow your email list, use a popup opt-in form. You’ll be blown away by the results. ShopifyNation is a great example of using a successful popup opt-in.

Image Source Check out their helpful tutorial on creating a successful email opt-in form.

6. Guest Blog

Guest blogging is an ideal form of marketing for so many reasons.

• Powerful linkbacks
• Bigger audience
• Personal brand building

One great reason that guest blogging is such an awesome form of marketing, is that it gives you the right to do this:

The list of publishing brands on the landing pages lends a sense of prestige and cachet. As the reasoning goes, if you’re mentioned on Marketing Land, New York Times, Huffington Post, etc., you’re probably pretty important. This is just one of the reasons that guest blogging is such an effective inbound strategy.

Conclusion

There are hundreds of ways to use inbound marketing to grow your business. These six are just the start, but I think that they are the best way to start. I wouldn’t suggest them if I haven’t used them myself. They truly work, and I can prove it. The best way to prove it to yourself is to try it yourself. If you aren’t using any of these inbound techniques, pick one, try it for six months, and see what an impact it makes for your business. What inbound marketing technique have you found to be the most successful?

Source:Neil Patel (Quick Sprout)

LinkedIn doesn’t play when it comes to professional profile pics and neither should you. If you upload a pic to your profile that isn’t actually of you or isn’t even a headshot, LinkedIn reserves the right to yank it. (Newsflash: There’s no way Hello Kitty’s your doppelganger, m’kay.) Seriously screw up your photo three times and -- stee-rike! -- you’re out. You’ll be banned from uploading your mug ever again. No joke.

In my opinion, LinkedIn doesn’t ax awful profile pics enough. Sloppy, cheesy, awkward snaps. Egregiously immature, unprofessional lemme-take-a-selfie-style pics that cut it no problem on Instagram, Tinder or Facebook. Here's a friendly reminder, particularly for the 39 million students and recent college grads lurking on LinkedIn: It’s not for Man Crush Monday, not for swiping right and not for stalking your 8th grade crush.

The 313 million-plus member site is for professional networking, specifically with past and present colleagues, hiring managers, potential clients and investors, and other hopefully business-related contacts. That said, your headshot should be professional. In other words, safe. Appealing to a wide audience. Even a little vanilla.  

So, if you want to put your best professional game face forward on LinkedIn -- and you do, don’t you? -- don’t be guilty of committing these common (and often comical) profile pic sins:

1. The selfie in the mirror pic.

Just please, save your smug, snapped-in-the-bathroom mirror head-to-toe selfies for Facebook. They make you look like an amateur on LinkedIn, even if you look like a boss in your hipster Hugo Boss slim fit suit, or so you think. Come on, by now you should know that selfies of any kind are way too casual for LinkedIn. #wrongplatform  

2. The freaky filter overkill pic.

Chill with the funky filters already. Actually, don’t use them at all, not on LinkedIn. Potential employers and clients want to size you up straight up, just as you are, not all uber-emo. In Instagram speak: The "Earlybird" that skips the "Sutro" is more likely to get the worm, dig?

3. The 'I'm so serious I hate life' pic.

Never post a profile pic that makes you look incredibly intense, Dwight Schrute-serious or, worst of all, pissed off. There are enough mug shot-worthy frowner-downers littering LinkedIn already. Instead, post a happy (but not too I-just-won-the-lottery happy) headshot that shows off what Richard Branson calls your “competitive advantage,” your smile. Go on, let your pearly whites shine.

With a nice, relaxed smile on your face, you generally come off as more approachable and trustworthy, someone a potential employer (or investor or business partner) might be more willing to give a chance. AsPsychology Today puts it, “there’s magic in your smile.” It’s scientifically proven. Use it to your advantage.

4. The beyond blurry pic.

No one should have to squint to make you out. Familiarize yourself with how to use Photoshop’s “Sharpening” tool. Or, if your headshot is too fuzzy or pixelated to fix, use a different, clearer pic. Focus, people. This is pretty basic stuff.

5. The full-body action pic.

I’m not going to name names (I’m not that mean), but a LinkedIn user I maybe, kind of, sort of might be connected with is half-squatting, half-lunging in her profile pic. In a baggy T-shirt and Spandex leggings. On a cracked cement driveway. Yep, like a cat-like Crossfit ninja warrior about to pounce...  just after this quick yoga pose, k? Granted she’s a black belt and a personal trainer (who, er, could easily choke me out tonight in karate class and just might if she reads this), but squatting? On LinkedIn? Really? Just no.

Let’s just stick with vanilla headshots, shall we? They’re more appropriate for the venue. Full body shots, awkwardly posed or not, pack too much weird factor, a vibe you probably don’t want to give off, at least not professionally. Not unless you’re an actual ninja.    

6. The 'Say hello to my kitty' pic.

Here’s an easy rule to remember: Unless you’re a vet, please don’t pose with your pet. As much as you adore Count Fluffy McFlufferton, I’m sorry, he’s not LinkedIn profile material. You are. Just you. Save your furball’s whisker-licious glamour shots for Tag a Cat, the new Tinder for cats.   

7. The 'Oops, I cropped my shot' pic.

Technically, you’re more than just a face. You’re a person. A whole person with brains in your head, feet in your shoes and you can post any LinkedIn profile pic you choose. That is, we hope, except for one that oddly crops off the top of your head or the bottom of your chin. Or your ears. You get the full picture. Show your face, your whole face and nothing but your face. Or so help you job, the one you could have gotten (or kept) because you looked the part on LinkedIn.

8. The default LinkedIn silhouette pic.

On top of looking a bit clueless -- and like someone who lacks the confidence to back their good name with their face -- you’ll miss out on a bunch of profile views if you choose not to upload a photo at all. If you do post a pic of yourself, LinkedIn says people are seven times more likely to click on your profile. So do yourself a solid and just say no to LinkedIn’s creepy two-tone, “male silhouette” default pic. Blech.

Edited from Entrepreneur

• 1.1K
• MORE

As a start-up company or small business, it is no longer an option to ignore social media as a means of communication, promotion and possibly even recruitment or revenue. That’s true for any business new to the internet, as well.

However, diving head-first into an ever-expanding realm of social media networks can feel overwhelming at best. Each platform has not only a unique audience of users, but also its own idiosyncrasies when it comes to usernames, imagery and usage.

Below is a step-by-step guide to establishing business accounts on the top eight social networks. As time and personnel are already stretched thin at many companies, it’s highly unlikely that you will be able to maintain streams of valuable content on each of these networks from the get-go. In fact, there are still plenty of Fortune 500 companies out there who can’t, either.

Establishing Your Business Account

The most crucial first step in entering the social game is securing your brand name, or some standardized variation of it, across all of the networks you can get your hands on. Even if you don’t intend to be an active user of a platform, it is better to own your brand name there just in case, rather than risk someone else taking it.

Once you have set up basic accounts on each top social network, take a step back and focus on the one or two platforms that have relevant audiences for your brand and enable you to sustain meaningful content. Focus all of your team’s energies there for the first 6-12 months of your social campaign, until you have justifiable reasons to expand into new territories.

First Steps

• Enter your brand name on Knowem.com to see if someone has already claimed your name on various social networks. Find one version of your brand name that is available on all of the top networks to ensure consistency.
• Send this “Ridiculously Exhaustive Social Media Design Blueprint” to your designer and have him/her create appropriately sized imagery for each network you plan to have a presence on.

Facebook

Use if: You want to reach a massive audience with a diverse array of content types.

• Create a Facebook page for your business.
• Claim a username for your page so customers can easily find you at Facebook.com/YourBusiness instead of Facebook.com/pages/you/203948203957. (Note: Once set, your username cannot be changed — so pick wisely!)
• Upload a profile image that will still be “readable” in a tiny thumbnail form around the site. Logos or brand stamps work well and allow users to easily identify your content throughout the site.
• Upload a cover image that expands beyond a logo to visually represent your brand. This is the largest piece of real estate you will own on the site and your best opportunity to establish a tone for the profile. See Hubspot’s cover photo dos and don’ts for more tips.
• Ensure all applicable contact and “About” information is completed on the profile, and ensure that the most applicable “Category” is chosen.
• Use your page’s “Short Description” (Settings > Page Info > Short Description) to display your tagline or a one-sentence summary of why your business is great. This description can be automatically displayed when other people share the link to your page, so make sure it’s a good description.
• Authorize page administrators at appropriate access levels so multiple people can contribute content to the page.
• If appropriate, upload historical “milestones” for your company, industry or products by backdating posts. Prevent these posts from flooding the news feed of any existing followers by checking the “Hide from news feed” option.

Twitter

Use if: You have frequent updates or content with a “timeliness” factor.

• Create a Twitter account. (There’s no distinction between personal and business accounts here.)
• Claim a username for the account, which will also become part of your profile URL (twitter.com/username).
• Upload a profile image, header image, and background, ideally all with coordinating color schemes and messaging. Remember that your profile image will display sitewide in a tiny thumbnail, so it should be visually concise.

• Include your website URL in your profile content for easy access.
• Familiarize yourself with Twitter 101 (made by Twitter specifically for businesses!) to learn more about hashtags, @ replies and other network best practices.

Google+

Use if: You have a physical location and want to appear in local search results.

• Visit google.com/+/business/ and click “Create a Google+ page” in the top-right corner.
• Sign in with a Google account that you control, and choose the category that best describes your business.
• List your business’s name and website, and confirm whether your content is appropriate for all age groups.
• Under “Settings,” add a phone number to the page, and confirm that number via an immediate text message or phone call.
• Click on the “Profile” item in the left navigation, then the “About” tab at the top. In the “Links” block below, you should see a “Link website” button. Click this to produce a snippet of code that should be placed on your website in order to link your profile and your website.
• Ensure that all location and contact information on this profile stay up-to-date, as Google uses your profile here to provide your address, phone number and more in local search results.
• Once you have established the page, go to plus.google.com/dashboard and click “Manage this page,” then “Verify this business” underneath your address. Confirm the business’s mailing address, and a postcard containing a unique PIN will be mailed to you. When the postcard arrives, follow the verification instructions on it to complete the process.

YouTube

Use if: Your business could benefit from product demos, testimonials, or putting a human face to your brand.

• Go to YouTube.com and click on “Sign In” in the top-right corner.
• Sign in with an existing Google account (make sure you’ll be comfortable sharing these credentials with anyone else who may need to contribute to YouTube work), or click “Create an Account” and follow the prompts.
• Once signed in, click on the user icon in the top-right corner and from the drop-down menu select “My Channel.” In the next pop-up, click the link at the bottom that reads “To use a business or other name, click here.” In the “Name your channel” field, input your business’s name, or a branded username that people can use to find you.
• In the “About” tab of your new Channel, list “custom links” to your website or other online properties, as well as “social links” to other networks.
• Also in the “About” tab, provide a Channel description, and upload channel artwork to brand your page.

LinkedIn

Use if: You are in a B2B space, or you want to speak to a more professionally-oriented audience.

• Log into a personal LinkedIn profile and in the main menu navigate to Interests > Companies. Then, in the top-right corner, click on “Add a Company.”
• Enter your company name and your business email address. (Note: LinkedIn will only allow you to activate a new company name if you have a company email address like me@companyname.com. If your LinkedIn account was set up with a personal email address, you will need to first add a business email to your profile before moving on.)
• Populate the following fields of LinkedIn’s prompts with general company details and products or services.
• Upload a version of your logo as the page’s profile image. You will need three separate versions sized at 100×60 (displayed on the company page) and 50×50 (displayed throughout the network) pixels to complete the profile.
• Upload a page banner (themed similarly to Facebook cover photo) sized at 646×220 pixels.
• Create unique banners and thumbnail images to highlight your top products and services. Feel free to use these labels liberally if your business has less traditional offerings.

Pinterest

Use if: You want to target a female audience and have great visual content.

• Use http://business.pinterest.com/ to sign up as a business page. (If needed, this page also provides a link to convert a formerly “personal” account to a business one.)
• Provide contact information and establish a username for your profile.
• Upload a 165×165 pixel version of your logo or brand stamp.
• Connect other existing social networks to your profile if you want to push out Pinterest activity to those platforms.
• In your profile settings, enter your website’s URL. Verify your ownership of the site by uploading an HTML snippet.

• Review this cheat sheet to optimized Pinterest image sizes in various post types.

Instagram

Use if: You can create interesting visual content on a regular basis.

• Download Instagram from the App Store or from Google Play to a mobile device.
• Sign up to create a new account.
• Upload a 110×110 pixel logo as the profile image.
• Include your site’s URL in the profile settings.
• Use the “bio” area to provide an overview of your value propositions.
• Review the Instagram for Business blog for tips, trends, and examples of successful brands.

Foursquare

Use if: You have a brick-and-mortar location.

• Search for your business’s name on Foursquare.com to see if a profile already exists. In the likely chance that it does, you can follow Foursquare’s prompts to claim the listing. If your business is not already in their system, opt to create a new location.
• Enter a phone number for Foursquare’s validation system to contact. You will immediately receive a call at that number with an automated system asking you to state your name and the name of your business. A code will then appear on  your computer screen, and you’ll be prompted to enter this code on  your phone.
• Following phone verification, a “final verification” is required, via either a one-time payment or a free postcard mailed to you at the listed business address.
• Once verified, ensure that your business’s address, phone number, operating hours and other details are accurate on the profile.
• Link other social media networks as applicable.
• Post available specials for customers to unlock.

Anything I forgot? Let me know in the comments!

Contributed by Ben Hunt 

Most businesses can benefit from free online promotion. We round up a handful of the best free resources for promoting your business on the web.

While there are hundreds of free services out there, these are our pick of 10 of the essential resources that will help drive traffic to your site.

While we've tried to include sites with worldwide reach, we recommend doing a local search for services in your locality as well as industry-specific listings sites and directories.

People’s GuideGoogle LocalHotFrogWindows LiveYahoo LocalYellowPages.comBOTW.orgFree Classified Advertising And PromotionSquidooeBay

1. People’s Guide

One of the newest sites, but notable for being the cleanest and simplest way to add a free business listing. As these 100+ cities have just gone live, our advice is to get in early to pick up the most traffic.

Choose your city (there are over 100 worldwide, in the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, China etc.), select your category from the pretty wide list: Restaurants & Cafés, Bars & Pubs, Entertainment, Shopping, Sports, Health & Beauty, Places to Stay.



2. Google Local

Any land-based business should be on Google Local.

Tightly integrating with Google Maps, Google Local is a great way to get your business to show up on Google searches.

Takes longer to add your business, partly depending on the confirmation method used (phone call is clever, postal is slower), after which you need to wait another couple of weeks typically, but worth doing today.



3. HotFrog

Another strong & multi-national business-listing site.

HotFrog is a nice simple business listing site (no reviews), active in several countries round the world, including the UK and Australia.



4. Windows Live

The Windows Live Local Listing Center is also free with reasonable reach.

Launched in October 2007, Microsoft’s Windows Live Local Listing Center service allows business owners to add their business information within Live search and Virtual Earth.



5. Yahoo! Local

Like the People’s Guide, Yahoo Local is a combined business listing and community review site, organised by location and category.

Pretty clean and well laid-out site that’s certainly worth adding your bricks & mortar business to, if your city is featured. Wide range of categories too.

Note that, if you get reviews via Yahoo! Local, businesses with higher ratings get higher listings.



6. Yellow Pages.com

Needs no introduction for most people. Strong brand recognition.

Yellow Pages is certainly big in the US and UK. The big US site does offer a free listing.



7. Best of the Web.com

Offers free advertising for the first 60 days only.

Basically premium search results ad placement, similar to AdWords, the free 60-day trial is worth taking advantage of.



8. Adland Pro

AdlandPro has apparently been offering free and paid advertising services to small businesses since 1996.

Allows you to place free ads in classifieds and community pages, and also in a “Free Traffic Exchange” system, which looks a little riskier.



9. Squidoo

A good number of lenses on the Squidoo network offer the opportunity to add a link to your site, free.

Squidoo gives you simple tools to build your own web pages, and get a share of ad revenue, so it’s also a route to a budget web site where you can promote your products or services. (Also have a useful page about free advertising.)



10. eBay

OK, maybe not free, but don’t overlook finding advertising bargains on eBay

Don’t forget that a lot of people auction promotions on eBay. It’s possible to pick up really cheap mailouts or ad runs, without investing too much time either.

Well, lets say you could cut costs, increase customer communication and increase customer satisfaction using social media, would you agree that it could be?These are three key commercial objectives that could be affected by successfully adding a social dimension to your business activities.

Social Media is not a magic bullet for business. It is part of a new marketing mix that puts people at it’s heart.

Be warned: Most businesses do social media badly and therefore waste time and money.

Business needs people to interact with their social media engagement activities and people need to be happy to engage. Spam leaves an unpleasant taste, businesses who don’t understand the new tone of social media marketing communication risk failure.

A quick look online shows that the major players in the industry all court business. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + and now Twitter offer “Company” or “brand” pages.

Their purpose is clear – to provide business with the opportunity to reach anyone with Internet access. But with so much choice, how do you choose which platforms best suit your business needs.

Here are six Great reasons for business to use social media1. Social media is a vital element of SEO

Links from authoritative websites are still an important signal to search engines, but social media links now play an increasing and essential role in these calculations as well – especially for business.

With more than 80% of consumer purchases and 90% of b2b buying cycles now starting with search, this may be reason enough to embrace social media.

2. Your customers use social media and they expect you to be there as well

It’s important for business to recognise how important social media is to consumers.

A quarter of all online time is spent with social media – allow your customers to find you by building a social presence in all of the networks where your customers hang out. It’s not easy to do but a little guidance goes a long way, call us for support.

3. Social media produces high-quality leads
Engage with your community and generate high-quality leads, the kind of leads that convert and buy at a higher rate. Those who follow your brand using social media are much more likely to buy from you company when you present a solution to them.

4. Social media is a cost-effective tool for gathering market and competitive intelligence

Gone are the days if conducting expensive surveys and focus groups to find out what your prospects are thinking. The buyers in your market are telling you all of this now, through social media.They are talking about their challenges and looking for answers on LinkedIn, in blog posts and comments, on Twitter, Facebook, and dozens of industry-specific social media forums.

5. Social media an excellent way to find business partners.

Increasingly, business gets done on social networks. Think about social media in terms of relationship building, as opposed to an opportunity to sell to many.

6. Social media is the new PR.

Today, journalists rely less on wire services and more on social media. Effective PR has always been about building relationships with reporters and editors, and social media is how these relationships are now built.

The bottom line is this: > Is social media for business? > Hell yes because that’s where the customers are.