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Hiring an Inbound Marketing Agency is a big investment. The upfront costs can be intimidating for many business owners, especially for those unfamiliar with the term 'Inbound Marketing' to begin with. To squash any irrational fears, let's first see what exactly an Inbound Marketing Agency will do for you company.

If you've read any business oriented content on the web these days, you've probably run into the term 'inbound marketing' more than a few times. If you know what this term means, then skip ahead. If you don't, listen up.

As a CT Web design company for over 14 years, we have run into performance issues on the Web too many times to count. And, although I hate to point it out 99% of the time it's user error, or more specifcially, old software. 

What is Web marketing?

While website visitors are great, business leads are better. Create targeted landing pages and lead-capture forms to convert more visitors into sales leads. We recommend following these best practices to get the most marketing traction.

Video has progressed quickly from a "nice-to-have" feature on a Web site to an essential, competitive differentiator that drives SEO and increases brand identification. What has been SEO implications make it too appealing to ignore.

Ever since Google integrated video into its universal search offering in 2007, websites featuring video have gained a significant SEO advantage. When a company integrates relevant videos that match the content of its website, search engines find and index the video within the site’s context. This improves your overall website and video search ranking as it relates to your business’ keywords, and also allows search results to be presented with matching videos, making them more appealing, thereby increasing search-based traffic.

And, because YouTube is now owned by Google, almost 40 percent of users who search Google see video options in their results.

Would you be inclined to click on a video in a list of search engine results?

Would your clients?

Getting right to the point: When is the last time you updated your site?

Regardless of your website's purpose, (information, support, samples of your work, e-commerce, etc., ) it is important to make sure that your site is fresh, and has accurate and meaningful and TIMELY information posted.

Have you reviwed your site lately? Common mistakes among even the most diverse client base include outdated contact information, outdated product information, and no new information in your news section, BLOG, case studies, client spotlights, and portfolios.

Keeping you information up-to-date says so much about who you are as a company. The information you provide will be more valuable to your exisitng clients and the PROSPECTIVE cliients who may be visiting your site. To those anonymous sets of eyes, viewing out of date or "stale" information can be a huge tip off to the fact that your compnay may have issues in other areas. Think about your own web site surfing experience. How do you view a company that has outdated marketing materials?

I realize we are ALL very busy working IN our businesses, but now it may be prudent to put some time aside to work ON your business.

Have you updated your site lately?

Have you taken a look at your Web site statistics lately?

Have you taken a look at your Web site statistics lately? As Web users get increasingly surfing-savvy, they are spending less and less time perusing sites they come across. Their initial visit may last as little as 10 seconds. If your site doesn't immediately rivet a visitor's interest, he or she is gone -- possibly never to return.

You have as little time to lock-in interest as does a highway billboard. And, once you gain that interest, you need mechanisms to guide a visitor to action: purchase your product, generate a lead, inquire about your services -- whatever you deem a successful outcome of a Web visit.

Statistics show that it is not uncommon for only one Web visitor in 500 to take action on a Web site. For some reason, most Web site owners find this an acceptable ratio. As a comparison, say you operated a traditional retail store on Main Street U.S.A. If 499 persons out of every 500 who walked into your store immediately left -- without even a glance at your merchandise -- would you find that acceptable? Of course not. You'd go out of business rather quickly.

So how do you halt the "revolving door" on the Web?

A critical step is to give your Web visitors an alluring and easy way to interact with you. And we're not talking about your site's "Contact Us" link.

The vast majority of Web sites rely on their site's "Contact Us" page for inbound inquiries. This is one of the biggest mistakes a company can make.

Statistically, the "Contact Us" page is one of the least visited pages on a Web site. Why? When a person is making an initial evaluation of a company's products or services, the last thing he or she will do is pick up the phone or send an e-mail. Consciously or unconsciously, he or she doesn't want to be bombarded with a sales pitch or get on another "spam" e-mail list.

So, if not via the "Contact Us" page, how do you encourage someone to engage your services? It's easier than you might think...

Even in today's high-tech interconnected world, still the most powerful word in all of marketing is "free". Give your Web visitors a taste of your services. An easy way is to create a couple-page PDF with some tips or insights about your industry -- and offer it as a free download on your Web site.

One of our clients is a company called Hayward Turnstiles, Inc. Visit www.haywardturnstiles.com and notice the small button in the upper right that says "Download our FREE Turnstile Guide". Simple techniques like this can be hugely successful at bringing the "revolving door" to a rapid stop. They jump-start the interaction, generate leads, create fertile and fresh databases for permission marketing e-mails and e-newsletters -- you name it.

Instead of a 1-in-500 interaction ratio, maybe it becomes 200-in-500. Now isn't that much more reasonable?

This is just one of many business-building techniques we offer our clients. ImageWorks specializes in making sites work for companies -- not just be pretty pictures on the screen.

So stop the revolving door. Lock in business. With a few small techniques, it's easy.

From Seth's Blog: "A meatball sundae is the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas. The meatballs are the foundation, the things we need (and sometimes want). These are the commodities that so many businesses are built on. The sundae toppings (hot fudge and the like) are the New Marketing, the social networks, Google, blogs and fancy stuff that make people all excited. The challenge most organizations face: they try to mix them. They attempt to slap new marketing onto old and end up with nothing but a failed website. This classic book explores the 14 trends that are changing our world and how organizations can either embrace them or be punished by them." For anybody who has ANYTHING at all to do with marketing, this is a must read. After you've read it, you won't have any more excuses about not understanding new media! Now shut up and sell. Jeffrey

Jeffrey Cohen is the director of New Business Development at ImageWorks, LLC in Vernon, CT. ImageWorks has been providing state of the art web development solutions for 10 years. ImageWorks can provide web solutions for both large and small companies. Visit our portfolio on our website. If you have any web design, development, hosting or internet marketing needs including myspace design, marketing and BLOG design, we can assist. For help with web issues or to leave a reply to this blog post, contact Jeffrey at JCohen@ImageWorksLLC.com.