M & A Rainmaker

Following the last blog

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2010/12/21/driving-internet-leads-for-uk-smb-using-hubspot-inbound-marketing-part-2/

we got the 2 landing pages done as discussed earlier.

The visit/lead tracking system is working and we can see recent visitors details. These can be transferred to a CRM system and Salesforce.com is probably the easiest one to do this with although other are possible. We will address this shortly but for now the visit and lead records will be held within HubSpot ( they are always held in both places anyway ).

We had done some work around keywords/phrases – looking for words/phrases that were relevant but not too competitive – and we input these to the HubSpot system. We also had the HubSpot system look at the keywords/phrases being used by typical competitors. The HubSpot system identified which keywords/phrases were ” stronger ” than others.

The HubSpot system will show where the visits/leads are coming from in terms whether they are direct ( someone types in the FutureLine url ) via a Google search or from e.g. The FutureLine Blog, Social Media or Press Releases.

Typical Social Media sources would include:

– Delicious

– Digg

– LinkedIn

– Reddit

– Sphin

– Twitter

– Yahoo Answers

– Yahoo Buzz

– YouTube

We set up the FutureLine Blog and discussed the type and composition of beneficial blogs. It was noted that there should be ” Call to Action ” pieces at the end of each blog. HubSpot gets many of its leads via the HubSpot blog.

We also discussed what defined ” strong ” links and noted examples of these. They include e.g. links from high ranking blog sites; links from Press Release sites.

We also discussed the fact that we could ” buy ” traffic using Pay Per Click or Media buying ( CPM ).

We determined to get the ” Call to Actions ” set up on the website together with the landing pages that we had built.

We would also do more work on keywords and phrases and when we had arrived at the best words and phrases give consideration to including these words and phrases on the website and in blogs.

We would also do more research on the ” Top 10 questions ” asked by FutureLine’s customers and prospects.

following the blog post

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2010/12/19/driving-internet-leads-for-uk-smb-using-hubspot-inbound-marketing/

We decided that we needed to create some ” Call to actions ” on the website and that these might include the completion of the sign-up form

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This blog describes an effort to drive Internet leads for U.K. S.M.B. FutureLine using HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing process.

FutureLine ( http://www.futureline.net.uk/index.html ) is a U.K. based Hosted Voice solution being promoted to SMB’s and SMB resellers in conjunction with Cisco Systems. FutureLine addresses a particular demand from small SMB’s ( say 1-50 telephone users ) for a Cisco based hosted voice solution. The FutureLine solution allows small SMB’s to adopt Cisco solutions at a very low initial cost and then to upgrade seamlessly and inexpensively and grow as the business grows.

As a Hosted or SaaS ( Software as a Service ) solution it is believed to be best practise and important that the FutureLine website and FutureLine marketing messages be found by interested SMB buyers via Internet search.

It is believed that FutureLine’s target market will find FutureLine via Internet search to a very large degree and indeed the Internet Marketing efforts carried out so far bear this out as there have been a number of leads and indeed sales that came from Google searches.

I have been aware of HubSpot for some time ( see earlier blog posts on them ) and there are a number of interesting parallels here. For example:

• HubSpot’s founder, Brian Halligan, founded HubSpot when investing in and mentoring SMB’s. He realised that a different marketing approach was required to really drive sales.
• HubSpot has a dual focus on the SMB end user and the SMB reseller as with FutureLine.
• HubSpot has a very sales orientated approach which fits with the sales philosophy that we and FutureLine believe in. We all believe in tracking visits, leads and actual sales.

Those involved in this effort are already aware of some of the main principles of on Internet marketing e.g. the importance of relevant content, on and off page optimisation and good, powerful links.

We are also aware of the main components of the HubSpot solution e.g. website usage tracking, content management, SEO, CRM etc etc

We also have a network of experienced and potentially suitable contacts and resources, including website designers, SEO specialists, Social Media Marketing experts, CRM consultants, HubSpot qualified resource, Sales and Marketing specialists, P.R. Experts and Business Strategy and Business Value Creation specialists.

We decided that, in this instance, whilst it was obviously very important to generate leads for FutureLine it was also important to work through and prove the HubSpot process thoroughly.

It was decided that the first tasks included a thorough review of FutureLine’s target markets ( even though this has been done before ) which are broadly SMB end users and SMB ICT ( voice,data, PC/Server/Application ) resellers and a review of the message to each of these target markets.

It was also important to install HubSpot tracking and content management code on the FutureLine website so that we can gat a clear picture of the situation regarding visits, leads and sales , now and in the future.

Further posts will follow as we work through the effort.

There are more and more options for acquiring a hosted Cisco voice and unified communications ( UC )  solution but Cisco FutureLine is one of the most viable for SMB’s to start with. The SMB is able to start with a very low cost, but flexible and upgradeable Cisco Futureline Hosted Voice/VoiP solution and then add to this as and when required.

The whole point of the Cisco FutureLine solution is that the SMB does not have to do all the thinking ( about the future and the requirements ) up front. A system can be acquired that meets most of the obvious telephony requirements and can then be upgraded in a seamless and inexpensive way as more features and facilities come to mind or are experienced during the course of business.

FutureLine maintains a regular dialogue with it’s partners and clients to ascertain if additional features or facilities are required.

Some clients may require full unified communications at the outset but this is typically not the case.

Contact Cisco FutureLine here

http://www.futureline.net.uk/

The Cisco FutureLine Hosted Voice solution proved popular at the Cisco Small Business Workshop held at the Heritage Motor Museum on Tuesday.

FutureLine ( http://www.futureline.net.uk/ ) appears to be a timely addition to the Cisco portfolio addressing quite neatly the lower end of the SMB market. A Cisco spokesperson said :

“We are seeing an increasing demand for managed and hosted solutions in the voice space and this is especially the case for smaller businesses with less than 20 employees. FutureLine have a refreshingly new approach by addressing the key fundamentals of quality, security and ease of use and deployment. This is all underpinned by partnering with Cisco who fully understand how to manage different media provided by the various consumption models.”

Andy Brocklehurst
RSM Cisco Small Busines

Supplied via existing and new Cisco resellers FutureLine enables them to provide customers with a low cost voice solution that grows and changes as the SMB grows and changes without there being any costly re-investments in voice infrastructure.

Previously Cisco small SMB prospects would have only been offered a UC500 based premises solution which was often too costly for the smaller customer.

Globally, solutions that combine Cisco end points with a Hosted Voice platform have been extremely popular.

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I was reading something the other day about how this year’s volcanic eruption in Iceland had boosted video conferencing sales e.g.

http://www.i-cio.com/blog/july-2010/volcanic-cloud-boosts-videoconferencing

and thinking back to the snow that we had early in 2010 which I posted about here

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2010/01/08/dorsets-global-production-defies-snow-with-asterisk-phone-system-and-microsoft-sbs/

which was of course prompted by the current weather conditions which I am sure you all know about and are suffering from.

The objective is to be able to continue working and communicating when traffic, weather, terrorists or volcano’s try to stop you !!

Fortunately as traffic has increased, weather conditions seemingly worsened, terrorist’s become more active and imaginative and volcano’s got more volatile, technology has improved and become easier to use and more affordable.

The Cisco FutureLine Hosted Voip and Video solution ( http://www.futureline.net.uk/ ) may be combined with various Microsoft products to give a comprehensive communications solution that allows people to continue to communicate even when they cannot get to work or to thier customer appointments.

There is no need to risk dangerous travel conditions or to stop communicating in a catastrophe.