Inbound Marketing – You Had Me At Hello?

Those that know me know that one of my favorite movies is the Tom Cruise flick “Jerry Maguire.”

While most people would never be so audacious as to relate this film to corporate marketing, I think that there is some highly relatable material for us to consider. Over the next few days, I will be taking three themes from the movie and asking you to relate them to YOUR current marketing plan.

Today’s theme: “YOU HAD ME AT HELLO.”

During the climactic ending of the film, our hero Jerry stands in front of the woman he loves, bares his soul, and finally professes his love for her. Jerry, ever the salesman, says the magic words that his lady love Dorothy wants to hear, and then attempts to continue his sales pitch to win back her affections. She stops him, tells him to SHUT UP, and then delivers the line of the movie: “You had me at hello.”

I think most of us in the business world have felt the seismic shift that has occurred over the last five years or so. Strategies and sales tactics that worked so well for so long no longer communicate your company’s value proposition.

Today’s buyers are wary of long-winded sales presentations and will gnaw off their right arm to avoid an encounter with a salesperson intent on separating them from their money. Customers are more informed than ever when making a buying decision because of the power of the internet. They invest time in heavy research and feel like they know the companies that they are choosing to work with, long before they ever speak with a company representative.

You can find virtually any information that you are looking for with a simple search engine query and the click of a mouse. This makes your company website crucial as the first impression most people will have of your company.

When prospects for your product or service visit your website, do you have them at hello?

Sadly, for most small and mid-sized businesses, when they click on a company website – IT’S GOODBYE. Your website only has between 3 and 6 seconds to make an impression, and if it’s hard to navigate, looks like a company catalog, or does not inform, you’ve lost them.

Time to get real and keeping with our theme, a little mushy!

Does your current site “Have them at Hello?

If the answer is NO, (Our Google Analytics Bounce Rate for Dummies can help explain how to answer this question) like our movie hero Jerry, this means that you ARE letting your ideal mate (ideal customers) walk right out the door.

It’s NEVER too late to take a stand!

Inbound Marketing has changed the way business is done and allows you to show your customers how much you care about them and their problems. By creating content specifically designed to appeal to your dream customers, inbound marketing attracts qualified prospects to your business, nurtures them, helps turn them into customers and keeps them coming back for more.

Some of the most important tools to attract your ideal customers to your site and show how much you care as businesses are:

• Blogging- A blog is the single best way to attract new visitors to your website. In order to get found by the right prospective customers, you must create educational content that speaks to them and answers their questions.
• Social Media- You must share remarkable content and valuable information on the social web, engage with your prospects, and put a human face on your brand. You need to interact on the networks where your ideal buyers spend their time.
• Keywords- Your customers begin their buying process online, usually by using a search engine to find something they have questions about. So, you need to make sure you are appearing prominently when they search. To get there, you need to carefully and analytically pick keywords, optimize your pages, create content, and build links around the terms your ideal buyers are searching for.
• Pages- You must optimize your website to appeal to and speak with your ideal buyers. Transform your website into a beacon of helpful content to entice the right strangers to visit your pages.

 Did you know that an inbound marketing agency can help you with all of these tools? 

Take a moment today to really look at your current site and ask yourself truthfully, does my current website speak the language my ideal customers want to hear? Or, is my website one giant advertisement for how good we think we are!