Startup Blog

I am friends with a guy named John Wall, who blogs and podcasts at The M Show and on Marketing Over Coffee.  John is "slightly famous", because he is known in the marketing world.  I am sure that at marketing industry events people come up to him and introduce themselves (I have experienced this sometimes because of HubSpot and HubSpot TV).  But in the real world he is completely anonymous.  However, according to Google he was the most famous John Wall since he usually ranked toward the top of search results for his name.

But, there is another "John Wall".  He is a basketball player.  I found him since he was a trending topic today on Twitter for having decided to go to University of Kentucky.

I wonder how this will affect John's personal brand and SEO.  Today I noticed a lot of news articles and videos ranking above John's blog for a search on "John Wall".  If this new John Wall goes on to the NBA, it will probably be super difficult for the first John to rank on the first page of Google for his name.

Ideas & Thoughts:

• Make sure you have the domain that matches the online moniker you use (like I have http://www.mikevolpe.com/) - though even then spelling matters, there is a Mike Volpi (CEO of Joost the online video company) that sometimes people confuse with me
• If you have a potentially common name (like John Wall) you can start using your middle name, like David Meerman Scott
• Everyone is vulnerable to a potential personal branding issue from someone becoming famous with the same name (remember the movie Office Space and the guy named "Mike Bolton"...ouch!)
• Publish lots of content and build lots of authority on ONE domain for your personal brand
• John should include "John Wall" in the page title of homepage of The M Show website - he now has to optimize for this term because of a new competitor

What other ideas do you have?

Continuing the long week of presentations, I spoke to the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Download the slides or view the full presentation below.

Download PPT slides

Additional useful links related to the NEDMA SEO presentation:

• SEO 101 Webinar
• Blogging for Business Webinar
• Social Media 101 Webinar
• Website Redesign Webinar
• Website Grader SEO Tool
• Press Release Grader Tool
• SEO Browser

I presented at the PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference today on inbound marketing and especially search engine optimization specifically for PR (public relations) in the travel and tourism industry.

Download PPT presentation.

Summary: 

• PR should include creating more content for the company, and not "we won an award" press releases, but interesting stories about the destinations, services and people who travel 
• Optimize your press releases using Press Release Grader
• PR should help generate more links back to the client website since more links help power your SEO

David Moore sent this to me.  I can't decide if it is funny, or lame, or so lame it is funny?  Either way, it made we think, which is more than 99% of videos on YouTube do.

I think it was made for YouTube.  It might have been funnier if it were made for TV and then became cult popular on YouTube because it was so low budget that it is funny?

What do you think?

I got a question on Twitter about how http://Twitter.Grader.com works.  I needed more than 140 characters. So here is a super quick and dirty blog post about how Twitter Grader computes the score.

Basically, Twitter Grader measures the authority of any user on Twitter.  This authority is computed by looking at the following factors from the entire database (over 2 million users today).

1. Power of your network.  This means both the number of followers you have, as well as the power of your followers (the number of followers they have, etc.).
2. Amount of interaction and influence.  How often do you tweet?  How many of your tweets are retweeted?  How often do people send @ replies to you?
3. The basics.  Do you have a bio? Do you have a link in your profile?  Do you have a photo?  Do you update regularly?

The score is a 1-100 rank based on a percentile computation, so if you are in the top 1%, your scores is 99.

I ran 5 different webinars this week, and the last two were on the topic of Website Redesign.  For people attending the last webinar, I promised to post the slides here to my blog.  So, here they are - download website redesign PPT file.

If you want more tips - check out the HubSpot Website Redesign Kit.

I've known folks in and around Long's Jewelers for a while.  They are a HubSpot customer, and I know a couple of people in marketing & management there.  I have also purchased a bunch of things there, including our wedding bands and engagement ring.  I was happy with the price and quality, and my wife loves the friendly service.  She still stops by often to have her ring cleaned.

I recently got an email from a friend there asking if I might have any additional ideas for how to promote their once a year sale.  I thought that maybe I could ask the community to offer up some ideas.

Here's the situation... Their industry is clearly more difficult today than in past years.  With the economy in decline, fewer people are buying jewelry.  There is not much we can do about that.  So far this year, they have promoted the sale like in prior years:

1. They have done some mass promotion through traditional outbound marketing (print, mostly).
2. They have reached out to their community through inbound marketing - communicating with their base of loyal fans and customers through email, mail and phone (per the customer's preference). 

Finally, not specific to the sale:

1. They have been doing some SEO and have first page rankings for terms like "engagement rings Boston", "diamond expert", and "Antonini jewelry" as well as a long list of other medium tail terms.
2. They have created a blog as well, so they are publishing come ongoing new content.
3. They recently launched a Facebook page with some fans and a good amount of content.

Your Help - More Ideas to Promote a Jewelry Sale?

The real challenge here is that it has to be done on short notice... pretty much within the next 24 hours.  But, bigger ideas will influence their planning for next year's sale, so you can share those too.

I thought about it for a while and I think my best idea is to reach out to people using social media with a special offer.  So, while it might not be the most creative thing in the world, Long's is running a new experiment this year - if you become a fan of their Facebook page and mention "Facebook" at the sale you'll receive an EXTRA 10% off the once-a-year sale prices.  This gives you an even more special deal, and it allows Long's to track how effective social media can be to promote their only sale.

Do you have any other creative ideas for this year or future years?  Or what about ideas on getting more people to become a fan on Facebook and spread the special discount this year?

I am judging a fun elevator pitch contest run by the folks at The Bridge Group.  I am helping to choose the winner from the 4 finalists.  (I have already sent in my votes, but they are secret for now.)

What do you think?  Who should be ranked #1 to #4?  WHY? (leave a comment below)

The Robert Scoble part is my favorite.

There are really just two basic things you need to do to most LinkedIn profiles to get the most out of them from an SEO standpoint.

1. Customize your URL.  My LinkedIn profile URL is http://linkedin.com/in/mikevolpe - and you can have one just like it with your name in the URL making it more likely for your profile to rank for searches for your name. 
2. Add Custom Anchor Text to Links.  You can have up to 3 links on your profile to other websites, and these links pass SEO authority.  If you customize the anchor text on the links, you can get the most out of them.

Download video for iPod.

I was in an airport recently and noticed that they had taken down the pay phones.  I guess that makes sense, pretty much everyone has a cell phone now.  What surprised me was that the old structure that used to hold a bunch of pay phones had become a de facto trash receptacle, since it was not being used for anything else.

Rather than just taking their ball and going home, the phone company (or airport or whoever controls the space) could have done something cool.  There must be power running there, they could have made a cell phone charging station, and sold advertising to cell phone companies (hardware makers or service providers).

Is there any way you can take advantage of changes in your market?  Rather than canceling or stopping something, can you change it to be new and different?

As a B2B marketer looking to generate leads through your website, you need to think about a few of the key factors driving your conversion rates.  If you understand these key factors, you can try to implement ways to improve each of them, and therefore increase your overall conversion rate, driving more leads.

1. Traffic Quality- If you are selling business software, traffic from MySpace is just not going to convert for you at a high rate.  But, traffic from the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch or CNet might convert really well.  Look at all the sources of traffic to your website and the conversion rates of each source.  Try to drive more traffic like the sources that convert well for you.  Don't waste your time working on sources like the ones that don't convert.
2. Calls to Action - A landing page with a conversion form should be no more than one click away from every page of your website.  Make sure you have a great call to action on each page of your website.
3. Landing Page Quality - Once your visitors are directed to a landing page with a conversion form, make sure that page is performing well.  Do some testing and optimization to improve the conversion rate of all of your landing pages.
4. Industry- Certain industries just experience higher conversion rates.  If you are selling to IT people, they are usually really sensitive to spam and often know a bunch of tricks to avoid giving you their contact info.  Your conversion rate will just be lower than companies in other industries.  There is not much you can do about this (besides change jobs) so don't worry about it.
5. Brand - As you become more well know, people will trust you more and typically your conversion rate will increase as your brand grows over time.  This is a long term effect, so there is not much you can do about this in the short term so don't worry about it.

Want more info? Read this article about how to draw attention to your calls to action.

Download video for iPod.

I am always surprised when B2B marketers worry so much about "bounce rates" (the % of people who leave your website after the first page view).

• You don't care if someone views 1 page or 10 pages on your site - if they didn't convert into a lead, it was not that valuable to you.  In fact, fewer page views might indicate a visitor who is ready to purchase and just trying to contact you - lots of page views might be someone just in the research phase.
• You should measure the overall website conversion rate - how many leads you get for each 100 visitors to your website.  This is a core metric to focus on and try to improve.  Look for my next article on how to think about improving your conversion rates.

Now... if you have banner ads on your website and monetize through advertising, or if you are an ecommerce website, you should worry about bounce rates, time spent on site and page views per visit - engagement metrics.  Your goals are different from a B2B lead generation marketer.

Download video for iPod.

The top Inbound Marketing Book is, of course, "Inbound Marketing" by Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan.  The book is based off of all of our experience doing inbound marketing at HubSpot.  I highly recommend you spend the $17 to buy it on Amazon.com.

My friends at the Bridge Group are having a cool contest this month - a business pitch contest - where 16 pitches will be selected and then face-off 1-1 until a winner is selcted for the grand prize.

It's free to enter, so if you have a "pitch" to submit, check it out.

Today I am speaking at the PRSSA (PR Student Society of America) conference at Boston University.

Download my slides (PPT)

One of the slides is about the future of PR.  Here were my thoughts.

• More content creation
• More in-house
• More integration
• More measurement

I just had a chat with a very sharp reporter from the New York Times.  I do an OK job of things like this, but I don't do it often enough or practice enough to be an expert.  But, from some media training, experience and talking to a couple experts, here are a few things I think most people get wrong when talking to the media.

3 Biggest Mistakes When Talking to the Media

1. Try to be their best friend.  Everyone wants to be a useful resource to an influential reporter.  Most of the time people in the media are super time pressured.  While they might be the only New York Times reporter you are talking to this month, they are talking to another 5 people just like you today.  They don't need a friend, they need information and quotes.  Keep the chit chat to a minimum.
2. Talk in long, detailed thoughts.  We all think we are really smart, and each of our thoughts need to have an introduction, body and conclusion.  The reality is that anything you say needs to be in bite size format to make it into an article.  Talk in soundbites, prepare a list of them if you have to.  Decide what 1-2 quotes you want in the article, write them out so that they look short enough to actually make it into the article, then repeat them each 2-3 times in the conversation.  Stick to your script, and you might have a shot at getting quoted.
3. Send too much follow-up information.  Once the conversation was over, you probably mentioned 1-2 things that you should email to the reporter as a link.  But keep it just to that.  It is SO TEMPTING to send a laundry list of reasons why your company deserves to be on the home page, or other quotes for other potential future stories.  But, doing that is like calling someone 2 hours after your first date and planning your next 5 dates.  Scary... Too much, too soon.  Keep it on topic, and then re-approach in a couple months once you have something new to talk about.

What mistakes do you think people make when talking to reporters?

I am speaking today at the Social Media Roadshow in Boston put together by SMEI.  Here are my slides for you to view and download if you like.

Download PPT file - you can re-use the slides, but you must attribute them to Mike Volpe at HubSpot with a link to http://www.hubspot.com/.

I am almost at the end of the month.  I have to admit it has been difficult to blog every single day, and I fear I have become pretty uninteresting.  But I hate to fail.  So here I am writing a blog article at 10pm after a long day where I have even more work to do before I get some sleep before an early morning. 

What do you do when you have a project that is 80% complete, but you have trouble making time for the last 20%?

Today, I had a project just like that, and I had to lock myself in a room at the office - for two reasons.  First, for some peace and quiet.  I sit near our sales team, out in the open - the way it should be - but sometimes it makes it hard to concentrate since they are always on the phone.  The second reason was so it was hard for people to find me - having been around at the company for a long time means you get a lot of questions from newer folks.  Again, I love it, but I needed my space today to finish something.

Have you used the "Isolation Chamber" at work?  How often?  For what purpose?

Photo credit: P M M

Karen Rubin and I have talked about this on HubSpot TV before, but I think this is a cool example of a company adding a lot of personality to a brand and products at a low cost.  In this video the company owner/designer tells you about the shoes you want to buy and how they make her feel when she wears them.  Very cool way to build an emotional connection, just using a short video on the web - at a very low cost.

Now... onto what Tracy Porter is doing wrong...

1. I can't share the video! It was a real pain in the ass for me to grab a screenshot and link to it, and there was no way to easily embed the video directly in my blog.  There should be.  More people would spread the videos if it were easier.
2. The videos are not spread throughout the web!  Don't just lock your videos up on your website, put them on as many sites as you can - YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, Facebook, Blip.tv, etc.  Use a service like Vidmetrix or TubeMogul to cross post automatically.  They should put these videos anyplace they can.

Posting the product videos to YouTube or another service and then embedding those on your own website would solve both of these problems.  Tracy Porter actually has a YouTube channel, but they only have 23 videos and they do not post the product videos from their website on YouTube.  They should.

Have you used video to add personality to you brand?  How?

How do you lauch a book called World Wide Rave?

With a video that shows people around the world talking about your book.

Learn more about this and download the free ebook that tells you how David Meerman Scott did this.

World Wide Rave is an awesome book for three reasons:

1) It is very timely since creating a World Wide Rave is part of the new trend of inbound marketing

2) The book uses some great examples of smalll businesses and entreprenerus creating thier own World Wide Rave

3) It is very easy to read and approachable, so you don't need to be a viral marketing expert to learn something from the book

Download file for iTunes / iPod / iPhone (.m4v)

We got very lucky and MC Hammer stopped by www.HubSpot.tv yesterday.  Cool!

See all episodes in iTunes (http://itunes.hubspot.tv) or on the web (www.HubSpot.tv).

The Wall Street Journal predicts an uncertain future for the display ad market (basically banner ads).  Why?

• More inventory/content - People (both big media companies and people like you) are creating more and more content online, so there are lots more places to put ads
• Low performance - most banner ads get a click throgh rate of 0.2%, meaning that most people don't look at the ads much, they are there for the content
• Inbound marketing transformation - It is now cheaper to publish your own content (blog) and promote it (social media) than it is to buy ads (that people ignore) next to someone else's content

Because of these trends, ad prices fell 54% last quarter (according to the WSJ article).

Every Friday Karen Rubin and I live stream www.HubSpot.tv at 4pm EST.

Today we will be live streaming the HubSpot 1,000 Customer Party at 7pm EST on both www.HubSpot.com and www.HubSpot.tv and chatting it up on twitter using the hashtag #hubspot1k.

In preparation for doing about 4 hours of live streaming in the next 2 days, I thought I would share this video (a recorded live stream) that has a few live streaming tips.  To be honest, it wasn't fantastic, but it was the only reasonable video I could find about live streaming...