Inbound Marketing Blog

It is no longer an option for businesses to ignore social media platforms. Each platform has a unique audience of users, and with each audience you may get different levels of engagement - so don't assume that failing to reach one audience means you'll fail to reach any audience on social. We use several social media platforms at Tribute Media. They are all used for different reasons and they all have their own culture while still maintaining our brand. The trick to using it successfully is to know who your target audience is and how they are using each platform. 

Pinterest is a stand-alone visual social network built around engaging visual content. Users share images from the web by “pinning” them on to a series of virtual boards. These images then (when clicked on) lead to a web page away from Pinterest. That's where it becomes beneficial for your company. If you can catch a lead from Pinterest through an image, title, and short description - you've got the opportunity to direct them to your website. 

It's unfortunate that we continue to see common misconceptions about the merits of blogging. Blogging may have gotten a bad reputation over the years, with (it seems) everyone who has an opinion having a blog, sharing their educated (and sometimes uneducated) opinions to the “blogosphere.”

Although that particular kind of blogging can be unprofessional and (many times) unimportant clutter, company blogs are actually a great way to upload fresh, relevant content to your website.

Getting in front of potential customers and existing customers is getting harder and harder. From the consumers perspective, it seems no matter where they turn, there is an advertising message front and center. Shopping carts and bathroom stalls are proof that nothing is off limits for advertising.

If you have had experience running a Pay Per Click campaign using Google’s platform AdWords, then you know how important it is to organize your campaign properly and allocate the right amount of your ad spend budget to each campaign. The execution and overall success of your advertising campaign will depend on each campaign's targeted locations, demographics, keywords, landing pages, and how all of those relate to each ad group and overall campaign.

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Confession: I am obsessed with research. I will spend hours poring over information to ensure that I have all the facts and angles figured out.

I also happen to be very skeptical when doing research, wondering: Who’s credible? Is what I’m reading just a ploy to convince me of something or are there others who agree?

That said, I am a huge believer in reading reviews, Googling additional information, and… checking the comments section.

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Would you believe me if I told you that the first page of search results for "SEO Services" is different for John Doe in downtown Seattle using a laptop as opposed to someone sitting three miles away searching the same term using a phone? It's true.

That's why I want to smack some sense into any web marketing agency that claims they can get any website on the first page of search engine results. It's a very misleading statement, and simply too vague to be credible.

In 2015, when we started planning our first  Web Marketing Checkup Clinic, I wrote the original version of this blog post. Now that we've hosted a few of these checkup clinics, as well as conducted countless one-on-one checkups for clients and non-clients alike, I thought I would revisit how it all began and why this exercise is so important to us.

Hopefully, you've had the opportunity to have a web marketing checkup or have joined us for another workshop or event, here at the Tribute Media office. If you have, you know two things:

1) They are always fun and educational

2) Corey cooks some mean BBQ

But other than food and fun, why do we do it? Why do we lend our time and expertise to businesses... FOR FREE?

In short: Because we love building businesses.

If your company has been blogging for years, you have likely had many campaigns that have inspired blogs posts. But now that those campaigns have ended, you may be wondering: “What purpose do these posts serve now that my campaigns are over?”

Besides the obvious SEO benefit of blog posts, there is another benefit to keeping them in your repertoire: You can recycle them.

Here are a few ways to repurpose your old content to drive user engagement and traffic to new campaigns.

We talk a lot about Buyer Personas at Tribute Media because they're a critical factor in effective Inbound Marketing. But many of you may be asking: "How do I start researching and creating these personas from scratch?"

It all begins with asking the right questions. From there, you create your buyer personas, then you ask more questions and refine your personas.

Read on for the questions we recommend you ask in your initial interviews, as well as additional questions to refine your personas later, and finally, tips on how to utilize your personas.

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When I first started hearing about this idea of sales and marketing being a strained relationship, I didn't really understand. At that point, I think I had just been very lucky that all my experiences with marketing and sales alignment were positive. It was just a big ol' love fest over here at Tribute Media.

But I've seen the data. I've watched some of our clients struggle. And ultimately, the proof is in the numbers.

For those looking to improve the relationship, alignment, and general understanding between these two departments, here are a few super simple ideas to get you started.