M & A Rainmaker

Six Figure Mentor, Chris Windley, is providing advice on Digital Marketing Strategy from the Silicon Crossroads Technopolis in Lichfield, Staffordshire, U.K. serving Lichfield, Tamworth, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall,  Burton on Trent and Derby.

This advice is focused on how to drive traffic ( visitors ) to your blogsite or website, how to convert those visitors into leads and how to turn those leads into actual orders.

The Technopolis has been researching effective internet marketing techniques for the last 8 years and has extensive experience of e.g. Boston, U.S. based HubSpot ( HubSpot are opening a European office in Dublin, Ireland in January 2013 ) whose ” Inbound Marketing” mantra is ” Get Found ( for relevant keywords and phrases ), Convert
( from visitors to leads and leads to orders ) and Analyse ( how you did it ).

The Internet Marketing Ecosystem ( a means of driving web and blogsites to the top of Google search for relevant words and phrases ) was developed at the Technopolis. Work and investment was halted when the Six Figure Mentors ( SFM ) Digital Marketing System was found, a couple of months ago.

The SFM system is a PROVEN system for getting traffic, leads and orders for any business but is particularly suitable for home based entrepreneurs, small and medium sized businesses.

The Six Figure Mentors is a global organisation but Chris is based at the Technopolis near Lichfield, Staffordshire with easy access to Tamworth, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Burton-on-Trent and Derby.

To find out more about the Six Figure Mentors Digital Marketing System go

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> HERE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing system is amazing. Started by ex-Venture Capitalist Brian Halligan and web architect and blogger Dharmesh Shah who basically saw that startups and growth companies needed a new way of marketing, HubSpot is a truly revolutionary concept ( Inbound Marketing ) and system.

As a business angel and sales, marketing and business strategy specialist with startups and growth companies I have recommended HubSpot to a number of my clients. Some have installed HubSpot and I have been privileged to be involved in the installation and operation of the system. One has changed from HubSpot to WordPress. This was a change that I resisted as I was sure that HubSpot style Internet Marketing was the future and would, eventually, lead to great results for my client  but as I debated the pros and cons of HubSpot and WordPress with my client I could see that it just was not going to work for them. It was too expensive and required skills that they and I did not have. Neither did they have the skills required in their partners.

In fact it turned out that HubSpot was moving upmarket -away from S.M.B.’s and towards larger companies and enterprises. I don’t think that it is any mistake that HubSpot’s pricing page’s –   http://www.hubspot.com/pricing/ – highlight a professional package that’s going to cost $600 per month plus, potentially, $1000’s in setup and consulting fees. You would probably be looking at $20,000 per annum as a typical spend. I think HubSpot are being very fair in highlighting that on top of the licensing fee there are other costs aswell. If you don’t have certain skills in house e.g. Landing Page and Call to Action design skills and analytical skills then you will need to find a partner for this and pay them aswell.

Despite all this I am STILL going to recommend that you look at HubSpot and understand what it offers and can achieve before making any decision not to use it. You HAVE to understand what the HubSpot system is trying to achieve ( Visitors, prospects and customers ! ) and you have to understand most of the ways that it achieves this. The HubSpot mantra ” Get Found, Convert and Analyse ” should be burned into your brain in the same way that it is burned into mine.

You must understand that a website is virtually useless if it is not FOUND, if it does not CONVERT visitors into prospects and customers and if you cannot ANALYSE how you managed to get FOUND and CONVERT  visitors to customers.

I can tell you that it is very exciting watching the traffic building to your website which results from the creation of great content and the distribution of that content through social networks.

It is also fantastic to watch how many visitors converted to leads and how many of those converted to orders.

Unfortunately when you are spending around £250 a month ( as my client was doing ) you are not getting the Professional package and you do not get much support so if you can’t do a number of things in house then you are never actually going to achieve the results that you need which means that you will never actually pay for the cost of HubSpot.

This is why I have spent months and months developing the WordPress based Internet Marketing Ecosystem which I believe is more suited to the average SMB and even large business. Of course in the last year or so HubSpot has developed the HubSpot plugin for WordPress and also Dharmesh has emphasized the importance of the WordPress world by investing in WPEngine ( the WordPress focussed Hosting company ).

STOP PRESS !!! January 2013 – The Internet Marketing Ecosystem ( mentioned below ) has now been incorporated into Centripetal Network Consultings’ Digital Marketing Ecosystem. Watch this video >>>> HERE <<<< to see how a system that provides all of the functionality of a HubSpot system at a much lower cost has evolved over the last couple of years.

When it comes to dominating the search results for Internet Marketing Strategy Lichfield the Internet Marketing Ecosystem ( IME ) is clearly working really well. A search on ” Internet Marketing Strategy Lichfield ” today shows that we have FREE ( natural ) listings for 5 of the results on the first page.

The M&A Rainmaker ( WordPress ) blog – this one – heads the listings. Followed by a Pinterest listing, a Digg listing and a Twylah listing. The Pinterest and Twylah listings mirror their growth in the Alexa rankings ( just read this morning that Pinterest is now the No 3 social network ). Despite Digg’s problems it remains a solid way to get a Google ranking and in my estimation is a key component of the IME.

My IME is now benefiting from years of continuous content updating and posting. Remember that in the IME the WordPress website/blog and the Twylah page are the ” core ” of the IME. Often ( but not always ) content is generated via this WordPress blog and then posted to Facebook, Twitter ( which automatically generates posts to Twylah ) , Linkedin, Google + and Digg. Posts to Twylah can be re-posted to Facebook, Linkedin, Google + and Digg ( to name a few ) if required.

In addition to building our networks on each of these social networking platforms we are also creating links from e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Twylah, Pinterest, Linkedin, Google+ and Digg back to the M&A Rainmaker WordPress blogsite.

Each of these systems are powerful in their own right but when combined in the Internet Marketing Ecosystem they are virtually unbeatable – as the Google search results show.

Remember that some of the keys to a high ranking website ( one that gets found for the searches that you want it to be found for ) is that it has relevant, continuously updated content; that it has on page SEO and that it has authoritative links from websites that are regarded as having authority. All of these criteria have been completely satisfied. Mostly though we have to make sure that our posts talk about the subject that we want to be found for in an appropriate way. Google ALWAYS tries to give searchers the results that they want.

Talking about individual performance on specific networks there have been some wonderful comments on Twitter lately from friends in the U.S.A. ( you will remember that a key part of my success with the IME has been knowledge of systems like Twylah and Pinterest – which eminate from the U.S. ).

Here’s a comment from Mike Martino

LICHFIELD England – Many great philosophers have come from the City of Lichfield yet none have mastered the art of #social like Chris Windley.

who has been very kind and generous in his praise of my activity on Twitter.

Chris Windley is now a Six Figure Mentor. Find out how to get more traffic, visitors, leads, orders and CASH from your website. Turn your Internet presence from a liability into an ASSET !!! Click >>>>>>>>>>>>HERE <<<<<<<<<<<< for more information.

Over the last few months we ( Silicon Crossroads VCT ) have been giving clients and selected friends and business contacts what amounts to an Internet Marketing Masterclass. This graphic here:

which appeared here http://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-marketing-landscape-complicated-2012-5 shows just how complicated social media has become. Actually these are not all the categories or all the companies and products in those categories because I can think of a few more.  If you are trying to keep up with the ever changing world of Internet Marketing and Social Media you have your work cut out.

I always start off my presentations on this topic by saying that our focus on Internet Marketing should NOT be taken to mean that we don’t believe in other forms of marketing ( so called Traditional Marketing ) e.g. Word of Mouth ( WoM ), advertising, mailshots and in particular emailshots. Actually our research has led us to the conclusion that one of the primary objectives of much Internet Marketing is to get someone’s name and email address.  Once a person has ” opted-in ” to your email database you have a friend and a prospect. All you need to do is to send them relevant, interesting, funny etc information so that they STAY on your email list !

When I originally started learning about Internet Marketing it was because I had seen some research that said that about 50% of the people who were researching and buying telephone systems did their initial research online. Today we all use Google and other search engines to research and buy the things that we are interested in or want to buy.

In the Masterclass I ask people to think about something they have researched into and perhaps bought online. You can do this too. Think about ” the process ” that you went through. ( This is the simple version ) You wanted to buy something. You Googled it. Some search results were presented. You clicked on a few. Explored the websites that you were taken to.  Compared the offerings. Made a decision. Bought. OR maybe you found a couple of suppliers you liked but wanted to wait to make the decision to buy so you just bookmarked the site or signed up for emails from the company.

I always like to understand what the ” young people’s ” process is because I think it is often different to the way we use Google. e.g. my son ( age 22 ) is always working on cars and if he doesn’t understand something or wants something he will type the exact question into Google e.g. ” how do you fit a light bulb to the rear quarter light of a Peugeot 105 “. As they say – you can tell someone’s age by the way they type things into a mobile phone – one finger is OLD, one thumb YOUNGER, two thumbs YOUNGER STILL. So different age groups Google ( Internet search ) in different ways.

Some people do not understand ( or believe ) that a website is a waste of time and money if it is not being FOUND ( for relevant search terms – words and phrases ). The objective is not only to be found for the company name ( hopefully that is a given ) but for the PRODUCTS and SERVICES that you provide.

This begs the question ( which not many people ask themselves !! ) – What ARE the products and services that YOU want to be found for ?? This is actually a fundamental question and a cornerstone of everything that you do from Search Engine Optimising ( SEOing ) to putting the correct CONTENT into your website and to your blogging strategy.

You may be surprised at how few companies do this and how difficult it seems to be for them. If I was being cruel ( which I sometimes feel like being ) you would think that they don’t actually know what it is that they are trying to sell and therefore be found for.

For other people it is a relatively easy question. They know what they are trying to sell and therefore promote and therefore be found for.

Once understood ( and played with a little bit because some will be easier to rank for than others ) these are the “terms” that will be woven into ALL new content. ( You may want to go back and review what you have already done on the basis of this review aswell !! ).

N.B. This is an interesting time to be talking about what Google ( and other search engines ) want to see in order to rank your web/blogsite high because Google has recently changed it’s “algorithms” penalising some SEO practices. If you read some of the books about Google you will find that it was originally based upon the practice of ” referencing ” research papers i.e. a paper written on a particular subject ( the topic of interest ) would ” reference ” ( provide links to ) other worthy papers. Google ALWAYS ( and in my mind always will ) tries to provide people with the information or answer they seek – to it’s best ability. Therefore, put simply, if you provide ( good, relevant, interesting, nice to read and look at ) CONTENT you will be FOUND over the long term without any risks of being penalised. I guess some people might call this a ” Content Marketing Strategy “.

Once you have been FOUND the next task is to CONVERT visitors ( to your web or blogsite ) into Prospects and then Customers and then ANALYSE how/why/with what you achieved this success and then REPEAT IT !!!

N.B. I borrowed this Get FOUND, CONVERT,ANALYSE mantra from HubSpot ( http://www.hubspot.com/ ) who came up with a new
” meme ” ( means a completely new area, in this case, Marketing Strategy ) called Inbound Marketing.

So, you get FOUND ( because you have built your web/blogsite to be found for the things that you want to be found for ) then you CONVERT ( via the fact that you had the right ” Landing Pages “ ( more on this another time ) and ” Calls to Action ” then you track who found you, who they are, what they did when they went onto your web/blogsite and where they came from. e.g. Was it a Twitter/Twylah post that you made that led someone to your website who then emailed/phoned you or subscribed to your email database ?

For those familear with the term we are talking ” Sales Funnels ” here like :

from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/16759/3-Tips-For-Better-Lead-Management.aspx

It is probably useful to remind ourselves of ” How to create a high ranking web/blogsite ” ( in simple terms ). A web/blog/domain will rank high on Google ( and other Search Engines )  IF:

• The CONTENT is relevant to the search ( and regularly updated with “rich” new content )
• The ON PAGE SEO has been done ( Titles, tags etc ) and it is ” easy to be seen and spidered “.
• There are LINKS back to your your website/domain from other ” high ranking ” websites/domains
• It is based on a ” powerful platform ” ( like WordPress or HubSpot )
• The website itself and the hosting environment are ” High Performance “

Once we understand all of this this we can understand why we must create what I call an ” Internet Marketing Ecosystem “.

Similar to

which was created by http://davefleet.com/2010/01/2010-social-media-marketing-ecosystem/

In my Internet Marketing Ecosystem I typically advise to have :

• A web/blogsite based on something like WordPress or HubSpot. ( You are on Mine )
• A Twylah page. Here’s mine  http://www.twylah.com/cwindley
• Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Linkedin accounts ( as a base ) N.B. I have all of these and more but not all in M&A Rainmaker.
• Other accounts where you can post url’s on high ranking websites e.g. digg.com

and then you can establish an ecosystem that grows in power with every blog post and Twitter Tweet !!

Key components of the ” Internet Marketing Ecosystem ” by Chris Windley are a WordPress based web or blogsite; the Twylah page ( derived automatically from Tweets on Twitter ) and the use of Digg.com. ( Alongside Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter itself, Linkedin and Google +.)

WordPress currently ranks as 18th in the worlds most ” powerful ” websites. Digg ranks 186. Twylah ranks 10,935. ( http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/twylah.com ).

Google is the top website, Facebook the 2nd, Twitter the 9th and Linkedin the 12th. So, when you post something on a WordPress web/blogsite
( like this one ) then re-post on Digg, Twylah and all four Social Networks mentioned it is not particularly surprising that a search on ”  Internet Marketing Strategy Lichfield ”  reveals that the WordPress post itself is at search position  3, the Digg post at position 4 and the Twylah position 8 on the first page of a search that has some 244,000 results.

As we know getting Found for a particular search term or phrase is a function of a web or blogsite having relevant content, on page SEO, high quality links and a powerful platform. All of these ingredients are present in the ” Internet Marketing Ecosystem ”  that I have created.

The core or epicentre of the Ecosystem is the web/blogsite and the Twylah page the other websites mentioned are supporting players to the content posted on the web/blogsite. The Ecosystem is extraordinarily powerful when it comes to achieving a high ranking position for a particular word or phrase.

This is a content driven strategy – it is not an SEO driven strategy and therefore it is complimentary to Googles recent announcement that it will penalise over-SEO’d websites.

N.B. Chris Windley’s Brandyourself profile can be found >>>>>>>> HERE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<

When I researched what advice and guidance was being offered in Birmingham in respect of Internet Marketing Strategy I realised that it was sadly lacking in all respects. It was massively outdated when compared with the views of the worlds leading Internet Marketers who I spoke to on a regular basis. My experience in the high technology world over the last 20 odd years has taught me that to be up to date you HAVE to be aware of what is going on in the U.S. ( Note that most of the major influencers in the Internet and High Technology world – Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, eBay etc etc – have come from the U.S. ).

However not only was it outdated but it was over complicated ( probably because those people who were talking about Internet Marketing Strategies did not actually understand what was going on ) and not put in terms that could easily be understood by the senior management of Birmingham based business’s.

How difficult can it be to understand that building a website that cannot be found on the Internet ( for the things that you want it to be found for ) is a total waste of time and money ??

Is it really that hard to come to the conclusion that you need to understand what is happening to your existing website ( how often it is found; what people do when they find it etc etc ) so that you can judge whether the time, effort and money spent on Internet Marketing is actually producing a return ??

Whilst there are a lot of technical elements involved you don’t want to talk ” technically ” as a senior manager of a Birmingham based business you want to talk in simple, strategic terms about how you can drive the business forward.

I produced a series of  ” Letters from Marketing ” for some of the senior management of the companies that I was helping

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2011/06/22/letter-from-marketing-no-1/

but have become convinced that Birmingham based businesses need more, up to date information and guidance on this topic of Internet Marketing Strategy and so I will be looking at additional ways of getting the message across in the near future.