For a long time I was very negative about email marketing. For me it felt utterly outbound – buy a database, fire out a sales message, cross your fingers and hope that shear weight of numbers will see you through. No value. No relationship. No point.

I was wrong on two fronts. For a start, my pious attitude towards traditional outbound marketing was naive. There’s a reason why for decades outbound methods were the dominant form of marketing – when done well, they work. And no matter how fluffy and inbound we might like to think of ourselves nowadays, we all should all have a couple of strong outbound strings to our bow or we’ll be playing half a tune.

My second error was to draw such a distinct separation between the two models. Most comprehensive inbound marketing campaigns have an outbound component and vice versa. Email marketing is a cracking example of such conflation. Purchased databases may feel incredibly outbound but what about preference centres where visitors to your site manually opt in to receive specific information of their choice? If they found your site through your organic presence in the search engines or social media and signed up to a particular set of emails entirely of their own volition, then this all feels rather inbound doesn’t it? And then there’s the execution. Inbound marketing is built upon engagement and relationships. Can this realistically be achieved via such a seemingly uninteractive means of marketing as email? Well let’s consider a few examples of when it’s actually done well:

- Promotional offers – people love deals. Offer a voucher code or a coupon to someone who thinks they may have bought that product/service at full price anyway and they will thank you for it. As a red wine lover if a wine company sends me a brilliant deal for a case of really great red wines, in no way do I consider it spam. Targeting is the key.
- Invitations to free educational events – whether it’s an offline event or an virtual webinar, if somebody invites me to an educational event with considerable relevance to my business, then I’m only too happy to open it. Presumably the event or webinar will itself contain a strong sales message, but the email is asking for nothing. It represents value without cost.
- Referral requests – if I know lots other businesses or consumers that I believe could truly benefit from your products / services and you offer me an iPad to recommend you, then that’s value for all concerned. Value for me in the form of my iPad and value to my contact as I believe they really will benefit from the purchase.

So that’s the key – offer value first, sell second. And the secret to offering value is to truly understand your audience. If I don’t drink wine or if the educational event isn’t relevant to my business or I don’t know anyone that could realistically benefit from your products or services, then the emails are spam. They won’t work, you’ll cheapen your brand and risk getting yourself blacklisted.

What this all tells us is that when done well outbound email marketing is actually very inbound, and with email continuing to be the primary means of communication for the vast majority of businesses as well as a substantial chunk of consumers, surely no inbound strategy can be complete without it.

Dan

At the start of every campaign the question is always raised “What can I expect in the way of traffic and conversions, and by when?” It’s a reasonable question and certainly one I would want an answer to, but is there really a way to accurately generate such forecasts and, if so, what is their practical value?

Below is a process I run through to calculate such estimates. In truth projecting traffic and conversion figures is more of an art than a science, but I find this a useful guide to ensure my colouring stays well within the lines. It is not quick, but then keyword research never should be. This is your chance to explore deep within the search market, learn all about the target audience and uncover a couple of gold mines where opportunity exceeds competition.

Before you begin you’ll first need to decide on the time frames. Clients will naturally tend to be in a bit of a hurry but just keep in mind that the shorter the time frame the lower and less certain the projected figures. Typically I would aim for 12 months. After all, this is a long term vision and if they can’t see past month 3 then the campaign is going to be more about exploiting short term loop holes than developing a sustainable, brand-orientated strategy.

1. First, go to the Google Keyword Tool
   
2. Decide on exact, phrase or broad

   As with the entire process, there is no definitively right option here; just varying degrees of wrongness. You need to pair your natural intuition for the market (assuming you don’t have prior experience of it) with your 12 month content plan for the website. If by the end of the year you know you will have created hundreds if not thousands of pages, each with hundreds if not thousands of words, and more importantly know that the long tail traffic will be of real value (for many websites it isn’t), then you absolutely need to take into account the Broad search volume. You may do this for just one term if you feel it effectively encapsulates everything contained within the website, or if you feel the categories covered are too distinct then you may have to add up the broad searches for each separately.

   If, alternatively, we are talking about a small brochure site that has a limited number of landing pages each targeting a small number of specific short tail terms, then you’re more likely to add up the Exact or Phrase search volumes (the difference being that Phrase also includes search terms that add words onto the beginning or the end, such as “best widescreen tv’s uk” rather than just “widescreen tv’s”) for each of those terms.

   You now have your monthly potential search market audience for the website.

3. Estimate the proportion that is relevant

   You may feel that every last drop of the audience you’ve just calculated is relevant, but from my experience this is rarely the case, particularly if you’ve used Broad. We’re currently developing a website all about planets and Google’s Broad search volume may take into account all searches of the word “Mars” when calculating the broad figure, but what about all the people who were actually searching for Mars the company?

   Even with Exact and Phrase search volumes at least a small proportion is likely to be irrelevant. The best thing to do is search for the term and see what appears. If you find anything unrelated to your website on the first page then that’s probably a sign that a proportion of your audience may be looking for something different.

   Multiply the total potential audience (from point 2) by the average % you feel will be relevant. You now have your monthly potential relevant search market audience for the website.

4. Estimate your ability to hit page 1

   Realistically, what percentage of your content is going to hit page 1 within the 12 month time frame (I limit it to page 1 results for simplicity as the click through rates on page 2 onwards are typically very small)? If it’s just a few short tail terms then you may think they all will. If, on the other hand, it’s a big information site and you’re more about the long tail, then there is no way they will all hit page one. You need to use your best judgement for this but ultimately it will come down to the competition in the market and aggression with which you intend to hit your link building.

   Multiply the total relevant audience (from point 3) by the % of them that you believe will hit front page within the 12 months. You now have your monthly potential relevant and achievable front page audience.

5. Estimate click throughs

   From my experience you are probably going to average around an 8% click through rate for being on page one (up to around 25% if you’re in position 1 and down to a couple of percent if you’re in position 8-10. Note these figures may be higher if there are no paid results). If you are just targeting a small number of terms and you have absolute confidence in your ability to smash the SEO, then you may go with the top end of the scale. However, if you’re going broad or basing the figures on exact or phrase match across lots of different landing pages, then maybe you assume an average of a mid-position on the page, hence why I generally suggest around 8%.

   Multiply the total realistic front page audience (from point 4) by the percentage that you believe will be clicked on. You now have your monthly potential visitor volume after 12 months.

6. Estimate conversion rates

   First of all you must decide exactly what a conversion is; a purchase? An email Enquiry? A number of page views? An online quote? Once you have decided on what the primary conversion goal should be, you then need to work out a realistic rate for which to aim. Needless to say this will vary enormously based on the nature of the conversion and the market in which you or your client operates. You will need to take any experience you have of the market or the target demographic and make a judgement call about what is likely, for example:
   i. Email enquiries – 2%
   ii. Ecommerce purchases – 1%
   iii. Online quotes – 6%

   Once you’ve decided on a probably conversion rate (I would definitely encourage erring on the side of caution here as clients have long memories) then multiply it by your visitor volume (from point 5). You now have your monthly potential conversion figure after 12 months.

So from your initial entry into the Google Keyword Tool, you now have a meaningful figure to present to your client. Ultimately, however, whatever findings you end up with, there is only one thing you know for certain – you still know nothing for certain. This has been a series of best guesses and judgement calls designed to give an approximate indication of what could be achieved should the data you’ve based it on be accurate (which it won’t be) and should your market remain the same (which they never do). So what’s the point?

The point is you now know 3% more than you did when you started. You’ve researched the market, doubtless uncovering opportunities and dead ends in the process, and presented your findings in a way that gives your client confidence you’re a knowledgeable, diligent and honest provider. And while you still don’t know where the campaign will take you, you at least now have some idea of where to begin….

Dan

Having worked with James Macfarlane for the last couple of years, the topic of brand is always just around the corner during any conversation on long term strategy. For a while I resisted his arguments (largely because they were littered with his ridiculous Macisms and trademark bad grammar) but since Panda my defences have weakened, and now I have to concede that I am a full convert – long term inbound marketing begins and ends with the brand.

To dismiss the brand and focus on manipulative tactics may achieve great short term results, but Google’s march towards an algorithm that successfully closes all loopholes is an unstoppable one. So now, whatever method of inbound marketing I happen to be exploring, I always try to keep the brand implications at the front of my mind. Here are a few examples:

Building your brand through the domain

I’m not talking about exact match brand domains (although there is a huge advantage to them that I’ll come onto later) but about trust and credibility. If your company name is not reflected in the cleanest and most appropriate way within the domain, then you’ve immediately got problems. Users know that, given the choice, most companies would rather have the .com, .co.uk, etc, and certainly the non-hyphenated version. As soon as they see .orgs, .info’s, lots of hyphens or strangely bastardised versions of the true company name, it tells them that the domain the company really wanted wasn’t available and that they weren’t able to purchase it off the current owner. If you’re hoping to make a powerful first impression, this isn’t a good start.

Building your brand through design

This one’s so obvious yet still neglected by a staggering number of businesses. People will reach instant conclusions based on the information your website contains and the way that information is presented. Do you want to be seen as strong, unique, memorable and professional, or would you rather come across as shambolic, confusing, boring and amateur? When you operate online, perception is reality.

Building your brand through link building

This one’s a little less obvious but if SEO is an important route to market then it’s just as vital. Google’s no mug; it knows that naturally people tend to link with brand or URL anchor text (so The SME Marketing Company or www.smemarketing.com, for example) so if these don’t account for a significant chunk of your link portfolio then your SEO campaign is going to stand out like a huge, spammy thumb. Of course, this is where exact match domains are at a huge advantage, as the name of the brand is also a primary key phrase so you can be extremely aggressive with your link building for that key phrase and still look nice and natural!

Building your brand through social media

For a start there’s brand awareness; if you’re not active where your target audience is active then you don’t exist. Even then, simply being active isn’t necessarily enough. You need to offer something beyond the norm that enhances their experience on the social media site in question. For example, does your client base have a passion that you can embrace while having a bit of fun? If you own a gym then you could run a competition via Facebook where members compete to get in the best shape of their lives over a twelve week period. Then everyone could vote by liking photos on the Fan Page with the winner receiving 6 months free membership. It would be so simple, hugely effective and completely aligned with the core values of the brand. Furthermore, from an SEO point of view Google would see you had a vibrant social community which would instantly separate your brand from the countless spammy web pages competing for the same search terms.

Building your brand through email marketing

Brand development is not achieved in one hit. I can land on the best website in a market but if it’s a onetime only encounter then the brand has failed. You’ve got to find a way to cling on to that relationship and this is where inbound email marketing comes into its own. What key phrase was entered to lead the user to the landing page? Are there resources relating to that search term that you could provide free of charge via email? This instantly establishes a connection and one through which you can nurture their perception of your brand over the months and years to come.

Building your brand through content and functionality

This is the real substance behind building your brand online. Get it right and the links, likes and lasting relationships will follow. Start by asking yourself what one piece of content/functionality would be of exceptional value to your target audience. Could it be a useful tool? Instructional videos perhaps? What about a great news section that provides outstanding information on current events in your industry? Just pick one thing and focus all your efforts on getting it right. It’ll demonstrate to both perspective clients and Google that you’re a serious authority in your market as it attracts both links and positive social and engagement signals. James did a cracking post on branding via functionality just a few weeks ago.

I’m not suggesting that short term tactics that bypass the brand don’t have their place. They often achieve the fastest results and there is no long term strategy without short term progress. What I’m saying is that when we use these easy tactics, we must recognise their inherent fragility and never view them as a basis for a long term, resilient business.

It’s not so very different to traditional marketing really. The days of quick wins online through the exploitation of loopholes are (thankfully) coming to an end. If you want to be the most successful business in your market for a sustained period of time then you have to possess the best brand in your market. It’s the way it’s always been in the offline world and I’m pleased to say we’ve gone full circle.

Dan