Attempting to tackle your entire content marketing to-do list in one day could be overwhelming. Actually, it would be VERY overwhelming. But if you can commit to doing one thing each day over the next 12 days leading up to Christmas, you'll be on the road to improving your overall content marketing efforts that will have you ringing in the New Year on the right foot!

For many businesses, the primary person that is focused on in both marketing and sales efforts is the key decision maker at a company (or even in a household). It’s easy for us to think about the person who has the most power to say “yes” because that’s what we’re looking for in the first place. However, if we are not also keeping in mind the people who can say “no,” then we could be missing opportunities and hurting our overall efforts.

The Difference Between Decision Makers and Decision Influencers

Let’s start with defining the difference between these two: 

It's Thanksgiving week, which is a time to reflect on all of the things that make you happy, contribute to your success, and help you to grow. So in true Thanksgiving week fashion, we're reflecting on why we're thankful for inbound marketing. 

We believe that a solid inbound marketing strategy paired with sales performance is the key to results, and inbound marketing is the ideal approach to quality lead generation that aligns with a sales team's strategy to deliver the results a company needs for success. Below are just three reasons we're thankful for inbound marketing, and why we believe in, and stand behind, this methodology and the work that we do with our clients. 

I could probably write a blog post on a thousand reasons we love our clients, but I wanted to be a bit more succinct here and share some of the key characteristics that make for an effective and successful business partnership. We’ve worked with all kinds of businesses in many different industries and stages, and yet there are some clear reasons why some have incredible success with their inbound marketing, and some experience subpar results. This is actually a question I get asked often: “What do we need to do to be successful in this partnership?” So, this article will aim to answer that question while also showcasing the clients that make our days enjoyable day in and day out.

Recently, I shared a post explaining how to send videos via email. Due to spam, security, and email hosting features, many email clients do not allow video embeds directly into emails, so with a few easy steps, marketers and salespeople can send video via email, just not with an actual embed. If you are a Hubspot Sales user at the Professional or Enterprise level, I have good news! Not long ago, Hubspot announced a feature that enables salespeople (or any Hubspot user communicating with a contact through the CRM) to embed videos directly into their 1:1 emails! 

This question is asked a lot. And you'd think with it being almost 2019, the technology would allow for this to be a normal practice. But it's not. Due to security, spam, and varying features across email clients, most email clients do not support this feature, so it's recommended that you insert a thumbnail or gif of your video and link to a landing page that the video is hosted on. 

How To Send a Video Via Email:

1. Save the video to a video hosting site.
2. Optimize the video on the hosting site.
3. Save an image or screenshot as the custom thumbnail.
4. Insert an image or gif that matches the custom thumbnail into your email body.
5. Link the image in the email body to the video. 

Below, are some details and further explanation on how to send a video via email.

Alright, it's time. Video is important to marketing and sales. I know, I know... but have I done much with it? Not until this year. After attending INBOUND 2018, Hubspot's annual conference, I decided that it's time. Time to jump feet first into the world of video to enhance our company's marketing and sales efforts and achieve bigger and better results. 

Video is often cited as a tool that helps drive marketing and sales performance, and the numbers shared in a Hubspot blog back up those claims:

• 97% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
• 76% say it helped them increase sales.
• 47% say it helped them reduce support queries.
• 76% say it helped them increase traffic.
• 80% of marketers say video has increased dwell time on their website.
• 95% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
• 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand's video.

We often wear a lot of hats, juggle a lot of duties, and report to a lot of people. It can be challenging to gracefully and successfully achieve everything you want to (and need to) while also adopting a new marketing or sales tactic. I network with a lot of marketing, sales, and public relations professionals, and these are the most popular reasons people share that they avoid getting started with video, and ways to overcome these excuses to achieve results with video in marketing and sales strategies.

Competition for your prospects’ business is fierce. It’s likely that your competition’s sales team is just as hungry as yours. However, it’s not always the best salesperson that wins the business. According to HubSpot, only 19% of decision-makers want to connect with a salesperson when they are the Awareness stage of their buying journey. The Awareness stage is when the prospect is beginning to explore and first learning about their options and potential solutions. Since they’re not talking to your salespeople, it’s critical that your marketing provides your team with the winning edge. 

You can’t think of your marketing database as just a list of names and contact information. It’s so much more than that. This data represents what’s possible for your business. It’s your future customers and referral sources. It’s next month’s closed deals and next year’s revenue. A company’s marketing database can be the lifeblood of its revenue growth strategy. Consequently, it should be regarded as a key intellectual asset of the business. As with any corporate asset, there should be a plan to protect it, enhance, grow it and leverage it.

"I have no idea how to get Millennials to _______________"
-Every client that I've spoken to in the last 16 years.

Ever since 2002, business owners have struggled to attract the Millennial generation, those born between 1981 and 1996. Millennials are quite different than the Boomers and Gen X who I worked with during my tenure at my advertising agency in the 2000's. And it has taken the marketing world, especially the small- and medium-sized businesses a long time to figure them out (if they have at all).

But to be honest, that's not important right now.