Inbound Marketing: Overview For

Higher EducationAndrea J. Simon, Ph.D.

President and CEOAndrew L. Simon, MBA

Inbound Marketing Partner

Inbound Marketing

The Times They AreA-Changin’An Anthem for the Times

For any college…• Key questions are:

– Does our online content answer someone’s question about…?– Does our website come up on the first page on Google? As the

response to which keywords?– Does it keep the right people coming back for more? Do we “fit”

their needs and do they “fit” ours?– Do we nourish them? Delight them afterwards?– Are we the authority on the topic that we want to “own?”– Can we attract the right students more cost effectively?

From Push It Out To Pull Them

We Know that Marketing is Going Through a Major Transformation

LET ME INTRODUCE HUBSPOTWhy We Love the Platform

• HubSpot was founded in 2006 as a result of a simple observation: people have transformed how they live, work, shop, and buy, but businesses have not adapted.

• HubSpot is on a mission to make the world more inbound, one business transformation after another.

• SAMC is HubSpot certified.

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Funded Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures & Salesforce

Founded by MIT Sloan Graduates

13,000customersworldwide

HubSpotgrowth rate of 6015%

AverageHubSpotcustomer

lead growth: 32%

Over three years

ALL-IN-ONE

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Social MediaContent

Creation

Email &Lead

Nurturing

SEO

MarketingAnalytics

MarketingAutomation

LandingPages

HubSpot simplifies your marketing by pulling

together everything you need to grow your

business

BEGIN WITH COLLEGE STORIESSome Illustrative Case Studies

Does It Work?• Before HubSpot:

• Had trouble identifying who was actually visiting their website

• Extremely long forms limited their ability to convert prospective students to applicants

With HubSpot

• HubSpot Landing Pages made it easy to create short, simple forms that resulted in a big boost in leads and prospects.

• HubSpot Analytics enabled Florida Institute of Technology to see how their website was performing overall, which marketing activities were generating the most traffic and leads, and where to increase or cut marketing investments.

• HubSpot Lead Management helped the marketing team at Florida Institute of Technology more effectively nurture prospective student leads, and boost their conversion rate.

Their Assessment

Who Is Thunderbird?• Thunderbird School of Management has

more than 65 years of experience in developing leaders and they are regarded as the world's leading institution in the education of global managers.

• Thunderbird Online is a professional development division of Thunderbird School of Global Management.

• They provide online courses and executive certificates to busy professionals seeking to continue learning throughout their professional career.

• Thunderbird Online was having trouble driving traffic to their site, and even worse, converting that traffic.

• If they wanted to publish or edit existing landing pages, they had to outsource work to an outside firm. They needed a reliable, in-house system.

The Problem They Were Facing?

442%increase in lead conversion

252%increase in organic traffic

50%decrease in conversion cycle

After they became HubSpot users…

TIME TO THINK INBOUND!!For Any Organization…

1WHAT IS INBOUND MARKETING?

2THE PHILOSOPHY: WHY INBOUND WORKS

3THE METHODOLOGY: HOW INBOUND WORKS

4THE TOOLS: A PLAYBOOK THAT WORKS

Short Overview

WHAT IS INBOUND MARKETING?1

Instead of buying ads, buying email lists or

cold calling, inbound marketing focuses on

creating educational content that

pulls people toward your website where

they can learn more about what you sell on

their own accord.

WHAT IS INBOUND MARKETING?

INBOUND IS AN APPROACH TO MARKETING THAT REACHES TODAY’S CONSUMER.

Understand what content pulls your buyers through the sales funnel, and use that context to personalize your marketing at scale.

Get found by qualified leads online with content (website pages, blog articles, social messages) optimized for search and social media.

Marketing with a magnet, not a sledgehammer.

THE PHILOSOPHY: WHY INBOUND WORKS.2

Inbound marketing is a philosophy

based on the truth that consumers buy

differently today than they did 10 years

ago.

Inbound as a Philosophy

Recognize that people go through

different stages as they interact with

your company, and each stage requires

different marketing actions.

Life Cycle Marketing

As you learn more about your

leads over time, you can better

personalize your messages to

their specific needs.

PERSONALIZATION & CONTEXT.

Inbound marketing is multi-

channel by nature because it

approaches people where they

are, in the channel where they

want to interact with you.

Many Channels, Omni-Channels

Your publishing and analytics tools all

work together like a well-oiled machine,

allowing you to focus on publishing the

right content in the right place

at the right time.

Integrated and Integrative Process

• Building trust, not skepticism among

your prospects.

• Being loved, not ignored by your

customers.

• Outsmarting, not outspending your

competitors.

INBOUND MARKETING IS ABOUT ...

THE METHODOLOGY: HOW INBOUND WORKS.3

The inbound philosophy is backed by a

methodology that helps brands attract,

convert, close and delight visitors, leads

and customers through a variety of

channels such as social media, blogging,

SEO, landing pages, forms and email.

The Methodology: A System

The methodology facilitates the buyer journey through the sales funnel – from strangers to promoters of your brand.

BlogSocial Media

KeywordsPages

Calls-to-ActionLanding Pages

FormsContacts

EmailWorkflows

Lead ScoringCRM

Integrations

Social MediaSmart-Calls-to-

ActionEmail

Workflows

Attract Convert Close Delight

Strangers Visitors Leads Customers Promoters

LET’S GO THROUGH THE METHODOLOGY STEP-BY-STEP

BlogSocial Media

KeywordsPages

Calls-to-ActionLanding Pages

FormsContacts

EmailWorkflows

Lead ScoringCRM

Integrations

Social MediaSmart-Calls-to-

ActionEmail

Workflows

Attract Convert Close Delight

Strangers Visitors Leads Customers Promoters

STEP 1: ATTRACT STRANGERS AND TURN THEM INTO WEBSITE VISITORS.

• You want to attract people who will potentially become

leads.

• Attract your ideal customer or buyer persona by creating

content that’s valuable and easy for them to find.

• This means that you want your website and all

of your postings to be written for both the

“searcher” and the search engine.

STEP 1: ATTRACT STRANGERS AND TURN THEM INTO WEBSITE VISITORS.

BlogSocial Media

KeywordsPages

Calls-to-ActionLanding Pages

FormsContacts

EmailWorkflows

Lead ScoringCRM

Integrations

Social MediaSmart-Calls-to-

ActionEmail

Workflows

Attract Convert Close Delight

Strangers Visitors Leads Customers Promoters

STEP 2: CONVERT WEBSITE VISITORS INTO LEADS.

• Once you’ve got visitors to your site, the next

step is to convert those visitors into leads by

gathering their contact information.

• In order to get this valuable information,

you need to offer something up in return

(ex: white paper or an e-book).

STEP 2: CONVERT WEBSITE VISITORS INTO LEADS.

BlogSocial Media

KeywordsPages

Calls-to-ActionLanding Pages

FormsContacts

EmailWorkflows

Lead ScoringCRM

Integrations

Social MediaSmart-Calls-to-

ActionEmail

Workflows

Attract Convert Close Delight

Strangers Visitors Leads Customers Promoters

STEP 3: CLOSE LEADS INTO CUSTOMERS THROUGH LEAD NURTURING.

• Ok, so you’ve attracted the right visitors and

converted the right leads. Now what?• You need to transform those leads into

customers with targeted, automated email

nurturing and social media interaction.

STEP 3: CLOSE LEADS INTO CUSTOMERS THROUGH LEAD NURTURING.

BlogSocial Media

KeywordsPages

Calls-to-ActionLanding Pages

FormsContacts

EmailWorkflows

Lead ScoringCRM

Integrations

Social MediaSmart-Calls-to-

ActionEmail

Workflows

Attract Convert Close Delight

Strangers Visitors Leads Customers Promoters

STEP 4: DELIGHT CUSTOMERS TO TURN THEM INTO PROMOTERS OF YOUR BRAND.

• Using context and personalization to deliver tailored

messages, you need to continue to engage with,

delight them into happy promoters of your college.

• Very important: You don’t stop when you have that

customer, or even that student. You keep engaging

with them.

STEP 4: DELIGHT CUSTOMERS TO TURN THEM INTO PROMOTERS OF YOUR BRAND.

Now that we’ve covered the methodology, we’re ready to dig deeper into the tools you need to get visitors (traffic), leads and customers.

THE TOOLS: A PLAYBOOK THAT WORKS.

4

Tools to attract strangers to your

site include:

• Blogging

• Social Media

• Keyword Optimization

• Site Pages

ATTRACT STRANGERS AND TURN THEM INTO WEBSITE VISITORS.

BlogSocial Media

KeywordsPages

Attract

Strangers Visitors

I want to pause here to emphasize the importance of blogging because it’s that important...

Companies blog because it’s one of the most effective ways to attract potential customers to your site.

The average company that blogs

generates:

• 55% more website visitors.

• 97% more inbound links.

• 434% more indexed pages.

• But they blog—not once in awhile

but every week.

SERIOUSLY, BLOGGING WORKS.

COMPANIES THAT BLOG GENERATE 126% MORE LEADS THAN THOSE THAT DON’T.

BLOGGING IS REGULARLY LINKED TO HIGHER ROI.

Blogging isn’t the only tool that effectively attracts customers to you, though.

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 BE ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES, TOO.

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.

YOU SHOULD CREATE CONTENT AROUND TARGETED KEYWORDS AS WELL.

Search engines and users like

frequently updated websites, so you

need to transform your site into a

beacon of helpful, fresh and optimized

pages to appeal to your ideal buyers

without having to rely on IT.

KEEP YOUR WEBSITE FRESH WITH EASY-TO-DEPLOY SITE PAGES.

So what tools do you use to turn traffic into leads?

Tools to convert visitors into leads

include:

• Calls-to-Action

• Landing Pages

• Forms

• Contacts Database

CONVERT WEBSITE VISITORS INTO LEADS.

Calls-to-ActionLanding Pages

FormsContacts

Convert

Visitors Leads

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are buttons or links

that encourage your visitors to take action,

like “Download a Whitepaper” or “Attend a

Webinar.” If you don’t have CTAs, or if they

aren’t enticing enough, you won’t generate

leads.

ENTICE YOUR VISITORS TO CLAIM AN OFFER WITH CALLS-TO-ACTION.

When a website visitor clicks on a CTA,

they should then be sent to a landing page

where the offer in the call-to-action is

fulfilled, and where the prospect submits

information that your team can use to begin

a conversation with them.

DRIVE VISITORS TO LANDING PAGES WHERE THEY CAN BECOME LEADS.

In order for visitors to become leads,

they must fill out a form and submit

their contact information. Optimize

your form to make this step of the

conversion process as easy as

possible.

USE FORMS TO GET THE INFORMATION YOU NEED ABOUT YOUR PROSPECTS.

Keep track of the leads you're

converting in a centralized marketing

database so you can make sense out

of every interaction you’ve had with

your contacts—whether through

email, a landing page or social media.

HOUSE ALL YOUR CONTACTS IN ONE PLACE.

What tools do you use to turn leads into customers?

Tools to close leads into customers

include:

• Email

• Marketing Automation

• CRM Integration

CLOSE LEADS INTO CUSTOMERS THROUGH LEAD NURTURING.

EmailWorkflows

Lead ScoringCRM

Integrations

Close

Leads Customers

What if a visitor clicks on your CTA and fills

out a form on a landing page to download

a whitepaper, but still isn’t ready to

become a customer? Nurture them with a

series of emails focused on useful,

relevant content until they’re ready.

SEND TARGETED EMAILS TO LEADS TO PULL THEM THROUGH THE SALES FUNNEL.

Know which marketing efforts are

bringing in the best leads and whether

your sales team is focused on the most

qualified leads by integrating with your

Customer Relationship Management

(CRM) system.

CLOSE THE LOOP BY INTEGRATING YOUR MARKETING TOOLS WITH YOUR CRM.

What tools do you use to turn customers into repeat, happy customers?

Tools to delight your customers

include:

• Smart Calls-to-Action

• Social Media

• Email and Marketing

Automation

DELIGHT CUSTOMERS TO TURN THEM INTO PROMOTERS OF YOUR BRAND.

Social MediaSmart-Calls-to-

ActionEmail

Workflows

Delight

Customers Promoters

Here’s how the inbound methodology and tools all come together.

1) ATTRACT: GET TRAFFIC

2) CONVERT: GET LEADS

3) CLOSE: GET CUSTOMERS

4) DELIGHT: ANALYZE & OPTIMIZE

Create blog content, search engine optimize (SEO)

that content, and promote it on social media sites.

Place calls-to-action throughout your website, blog, social

accounts, and email to drive visitors to landing pages with

forms.

Send leads targeted, automated emails to drive them through your

buying cycle. Provide your Team with lead intelligence for more

effective calls.

Analyze the success of your marketing campaigns, and determine which

areas need further optimization or personalization for future success.

You have seen the results. Ready to learn more?

How We Work With Clients• Education is a good starting point: We host an online or in-person

seminar/webinar about the key trends in Inbound Marketing for Higher Education.

• We offer a consultative audit reviewing their current online experience.

• Often clients need to educate a wider audience so we conduct a series of webinars.

• We the serve as an agency. Or if you prefer, as a trainer and coach educating and guiding your own staff.

Andrea J. Simon PhD, President and CEOAndrew L. Simon, MBA, PartnerSimon Associates Management Consultants

914-261-1631 Cellasimon@simonassociates.netals@simonassociates.netwww.simonassociats.netwww.simonassociates.net@andisamc@als_simonwww.simonassociates.net

72Inbound Marketing

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