There has been a LOT of talk about SEO, search and how website design (responsive, brochure, mobile) can impact your marketing strategy in 2014, 2015 and beyond...
What we really need to do first, is clear up what is right and what is wrong, in the words of Thrive and in conjunction with inbound marketing methodology.
Even if you don't want to integrate inbound marketing into your 2015 strategies, you MUST take on board which marketing methods actually have an impact and how they can impact...
What this blog aims to do is sort out the fact from the fiction and help you understand the true benefits of "going inbound".
SEO
"SEO is dead. SEO doesn't help. SEO is bad for business."
There are two sides to the SEO argument and we're on the fence, in all honesty.
SEO has had to be overhauled and how marketers use SEO - good marketers, that is - has had to change.
We at Thrive believe in Keyword Marketing and we believe it's different to SEO of yesteryear.
Our knowledge and experience has taught us that SEO is not the be all and end all of a marketing campaign and a website still can be found without getting technical with SEO software.
BUT! You can only make it work by producing quality content, filled with relevant, up-to-date, original copy, infographics, URLs.
Check out our full index of SEO-related blog posts here.
Web Design
"A/B testing is ineffective and too difficult for us to do."
We have a two-part answer: Yes, it isn't easy to A/B test, but it isn't ineffective at all.
The 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report revealed that: "Marketers who conducted A/B tests were more likely to prove inbound ROI."
Equally speaking, a small business will find it hard to conduct A/B testing as it is time-consuming to set up and look at the metrics of your test, however it does help improve key metrics, such as the above example.
"Landing pages only work if there are a few fields to complete."
No. It depends on your goals, do you want lots of leads (people filling out the form) or lots of qualified leads (worthwhile people filling out the form)?
If you want the second, then it's best to put off those less worthwhile people and instead, get enough information from the people that you want to really get in touch with.
Thrive says...
Each of these elements fall under full inbound campaigns, but they can also be used separately as individual segments of a traditional marketing plan.
