The Innovative Marketer's Blog

Pinterest is really popping.  It has quickly become one of the fastest growing social networks.  According to a recent Pew study, 15% of American internet users are on now Pinterest—just barely trailing Twitter at 16%.  Pinterest recently launched pages for business—allowing commercial use of the network.  With its aim to “connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting,” it could be a great addition to your content and social media marketing.  

Oreo’s real-time marketing during the 35-minute blackout at the Super Bowl created a whirlwind of social media activity—casting a spotlight on the brand.  At 8:48 pm that night, Oreo tweeted a clever photo ad highlighting its famous cookie with the caption: “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark.”  The ad has been retweeted over 15,000 times, and the same photo also generated over 20,000 likes on Facebook.  The term “Oreo” even trended on Twitter during the big game.  What does it take to produce such effective real-time newsjacking?  Sarah Hofstetter, President of 360i, Oreo’s advertising agency, gave the following statement to Buzzfeed: “We had a mission control set up at our office with the brand and 360i, and when the blackout happened, the team looked at it as an opportunity…You need a brave brand to approve content that quickly.  When all of the stakeholders come together so quickly, you’ve got magic.”  Oreo and 360i did indeed act quickly—springing into action as soon as the blackout occurred to winningly ride the early wave of newsjacking related to the Super Bowl blackout. 

LinkedIn is the gold standard for online professional networking.  The social network is a great place for individuals, companies and organizations to network with industry contacts, make new connections, stay up-to-date on relevant news and trends, share content, create a following and increase brand awareness and lead conversions.  One of the most impressive facts about LinkedIn is that it has a visitor-to-lead conversion rate of 2.74% —almost three times higher than the conversion rates of Facebook and Twitter.  As the world’s largest and most influential professional network and a rich avenue for lead generation and conversion, you and your company should certainly start taking full advantage of all LinkedIn has to offer.  Sharing high-quality content, actively participating in industry discourse and building a following via LinkedIn could win you a reputation as a thought leader and increased publicity and reach for your company. 

This week, I am attending HubSpot’s Inbound 2012, the world’s largest gathering of inbound marketers.  The conference has featured great keynote speakers, including Hubpot CEO Brian Halligan, HubSpot CTO Darmesh Shah, David Meerman Scott, Rand Fishkin, Susan Cain and Gary Vaynerchuk.  Today, I will focus on a seminar given by David Carpenter of Connection Model, Cut the Geek Speak and Triple Your Earnings.  In order to win long contracts with high value and high margin, you need to learn how to craft custom-tailored language and positions and ask the right questions to position your agency for C-level marketing success.  Engaging business principals about business growth through analysis and targeted online marketing is the key to achieving inbound marketing success at the enterprise level.  David Carpenter outlined a 15-point plan for high-level inbound marketing, which I will share with you now.    

Back before Hubspot formalized the principles of inbound marketing on its marketing software platform, our inbound marketing agency got a lot of business inquiries from companies that didn’t want to be bothered creating a brand. They just wanted results and didn’t see the need to create a brand to send out postcard solicitations, email campaigns, engage in social media networking or build a website. Brands were for big companies with big marketing budgets and time to spend on non-revenue generating activities they reasoned. Afterall, branding is one of those marketing black arts!