Episode #173 - November 4th, 2011 Intro How to interact on Twtter: Include #HubSpotTV in your tweet! On the show today is Mike Volpe (@mvolpe), Karen Rubin (@KarenRubin) and special guests Jill Konrath (@jillknorath) As always, all the old episodes are in iTunes. If you like the show, please leave a 5-star review! Anyone is welcome to come by the show to watch as part of the live studio audience - 4pm Friday Special Guest: Jill Knorath Author of SNAP Selling (#1 Amazon sales book) & Selling to Big Companies. The economy is bouncing all over the place right now. How is affecting businesses and salespeople? What strategies are you seeing companies & salespeople take to address this challenge? So what does it take to be successful driving new business in this volatile economy? Good insights. Now, about this Being Provocative – what exactly are you talking about? I know for us, we're a bit risk averse during these days. We don't want to part with our money unless we're really sure that it's a good decision. Got any thoughts on that? What about websites – and inbound marketing? Any final words of wisdom for our viewers today? Doing It Right and Wrong http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/27935/Marketing-Automation-Emails-We-Love-to-Hate.aspx Doing It Wrong First Line Fails - "It was great to meet you last week at Event 1 and/or Event 2." Forced Sincerity - "Hello Mike, I trust you are doing great." Irrelevant Offers - "If you’re in the market for an enterprise telephone system, this comparison guide will make your job much easier." Wrong Name - Hi, Mike when your are Rebecca Doing it Right A direct response from the CEO with a way to contact him Humor and genuine personality: This email manages to be personal and endearing without ever saying things like: "I trust you're doing great." Behavior-based emails: This email was clearly a response to an action that Kirsten took. It was tied to her history as a customer (or non-customer). And it worked. Slow-clap, Rue La La, slow-clap. Headlines Coca Cola Jumps on the Bandwagon http://www.warc.com/Content/News/CocaCola_in_content_drive.content?ID=18b36443-4684-4ae6-98fa-480682a6cf3f Coca-Cola, the soft drinks giant, is planning to boost its investment in delivering original content, reflecting a broader shift in the company's approach to creativity. "We want to double the size of the business in ten years, so we need to disrupt everything about the business," Jonathan Mildenhall, Coca-Cola's VP, global advertising strategy and excellence The objective behind its activity in the content arena, Mildenhall added, will be to "move from creative excellence to content excellence" and lay hold of a "disproportione share of popular culture". All advertisers need a lot more content so that they can keep the engagement with consumers fresh and relevant, because of the 24/7 connectivity, We need to evolve from one-way story telling to dynamic story telling… that creates a coordinated brand experience," added Mildenhall. "The responsibility of the client is to mange the collaboration and integration process." More broadly, the owner of Sprite and Fanta will utilise insights and suggestions provided by users of sites such as Facebook and Twitter to ensure its marketing resonates in the market. Marketing Takeaway: If Coke can do it, you can do it too! Google Algorithm Update http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/28480/Google-Updates-Algorithm-to-Provide-Fresher-Results-for-35-of-Searches.aspx Anum Hussain Google announced on its blog today that it will be providing fresher, newer results for certain searches. The company wrote that its ranking algorithm, which impacts about 35% of searches, has been ameliorated to provide more up-to-date relevant results for "varying degrees of freshness." The new algorithm appeals to the idea that different searches require different needs for freshness. The updated algorithm will provide fresher results for three types of searches: recent events or hot topics, regularly recurring events, and frequent updates. The importance of that content has exponentially increased. If you published a post about a certain industry-related trend a few months, or even a year ago, don't cross it off the list of blog ideas for the present or future. Change happens, updates can always be made, and new insights can always be revealed about a certain topic. Revisiting old post ideas and updating content will give you a better chance of remaining relevant in searches pertaining to that subject. Marketing Takeaway: We have told you this before - keep it fresh! Marketing Tip of the Week What does Jill want most from her marketing team? Less