Tag Archives: social media

Getting Found – the difference between inbound and outbound marketing

Marketing, , , , , ,

Since the 1950s big brands got big by bombarding us with adverts. Most advertising was, and still is, a form of interruption. They interrupt the film you are watching or the article you are reading and try and divert your attention to their product. The point being to create a desire in you that grabs your interest and, they hope, a purchase.

It can get quite annoying can’t it? There you are watching a great film or drama. Just as you get to a tense part of the story the bloody Go Compare Opera Singer interrupts the kiss or the battle. Or you are reading a great article in a magazine and when you turn the page it is a double page spread for a product you don’t want rather the rest of what you wanted to read.

Email marketing is similarly intrusive especially of you haven’t subscribed to a list. It is electronic cold calling. I get about 15 emails a day from companies telling me I can claim compensation for being ripped off by PPI insurance. I’ve never had it and yet I am pestered by companies that are surely just as despicable as the sellers of PPI. In case you don’t know, if you were sold PPI you can get a refund for free. You don’t need one of these horrible claims companies. And you definitely don’t have to pay them a fee.

Difference between inbound and outbound marketing

The world has changed for the marketer. Thanks to the digital world outbound (interruption) marketing is much tougher. People can use a remote control to fast forward through the Go Compare Opera singer or whichever brand is making a play for this year’s most annoying advert award. Spam filters can snare and discard a whole heap of PPI claims companies, manhood enlarging devices and links to illicit dating sites. The customer is more in control then ever. They can shut the marketers out.

Does this brave new world worry me? No because it means that finally we marketers have to produce stuff that people actually want to consume. Articles, videos, podcasts, ebooks, info-graphics that answer their questions. This is inbound marketing. Instead of interrupting and annoying our customers we need stuff they come looking for. Stuff that answers their questions. If your stuff answers the questions that your customers are asking, and you make sure it ranks in the search engines then people will come and find you. Because 90% of all transactions start with a Google search these days.

difference between inbound and outbound marketing

Now Grandnat’s blog is mainly about my passion for fitness, Yoga and travel. But it also let’s me explore my fascination with new marketing techniques. Some of which I have taken back into my day job.

Inbound marketing works. I get found. Here’s an example. I did a bit of research that suggested that one of the most common questions people ask about Yoga is, “How long will it take to get flexible by doing yoga?” I wrote a blog post answering this question and optimised it for search.

And do you know what? My daily site stats tell me that people do indeed type in this question and now they come to my blog to get the answer. It works. And I didn’t spend millions on an annoying fat guy pretending to sing opera to get found.

Over to you: I’d love to hear your experiences of promoting your business with inbound or content marketing. There are many people I admire already doing it – I love their videos and blogs and podcasts. Others are finding their way. Get in touch or leave a comment and tell me more.

Why do some HR and IT departments hate social media marketing?

Marketing, , , , , , , ,

It’s a great time to be a marketer. The Internet and social media have changed the game completely in less than a decade. TV advertising, although still restricted to those with big budgets, is no longer as effective as it was when there were only two commercial channels. Now there are hundreds, and in addition the web offers other types of entertainment. So grabbing people’s attention is much harder.

Back before video and TiVo/Sky+ the only way to escape an advert was to mute, or turn off, or go and make a cup of tea. Now you can flash through it. Consumers are no longer interrupted by marketing communications. They can ignore us. They are in control.

IT departments hate social media marketing

But whilst they can shut the adverts out, consumers still have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. If they want to buy a new pair of shoes they’ll most likely Google the brand. Looking for a hotel in Spain, they’ll go online and look for reviews on TripAdviser. And they’ll ask specific questions like, “What’s the best Indian Restaurant in Preston?” Or, “Where can I find a Personal Trainer in Luton?”

Businesses who provide content that answers these specific questions will find their customers coming to them. Actually seeking them out. Social media and the web means that marketers can create a fine mesh of links from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIin, Pinterest to their own content of web pages, blogs, Q&As, videos, podcasts, white papers, and info-graphics. Interruption marketing (TV adverts, Billboards, posters) is giving way to content marketing. And whilst the former will never disappear, the advertisers have to work harder to successfully interrupt their customers and get them to react.

IT departments hate social media marketing

The great thing about this is that really powerful marketing is now much more accessible to smaller businesses with tighter budgets. And another advantage a small company is that they won’t be constrained by their own departments. In some places there is so much resistance to social media and online content that they create their own barriers to taking advantage of technology.

Social media is often blocked from employees. The HR department don’t want their staff on Facebook when they should be working now do they? But here’s the thing. This is no different to when individual phones started to appear on people’s desks. In those days, HR’s argument was that staff would spend all their time on the phone talking to friends. It didn’t happen.

It’s never been about the technology? It wasn’t back then and it isn’t now. It’s always been about managing the staff. Don’t block social media, because in reality your staff might be able to help promote the company or create good content for you.

Then there is the IT departments. Why do some IT departments hate social media marketing?

Why to they never phone you up and say, “Listen we’ve just seen this new App, and the marketing opportunities for you are amazing”? No, it’s me that phones them and says, “I’ve just seen this new App and the marketing opportunities are amazing?”

IT departments hate social media marketing

And they say, “We can’t let you use that we haven’t the bandwidth.”

Or, “We’ll leave ourselves open to infection with nasty viruses.”

Or, “We can’t take the risk of data leakage.”

You can’t fight against innovation you need to embrace it. No doubt some people resisted in introduction of mobile phones and of the Internet itself. But now it’s impossible to imagine life without these. But HR and IT resistance can hinder big businesses and give smaller players the advantage.

Social media and content are changing the way we engage with consumers, and unlike traditional marketing communications channels they are not restricted to those with huge advertising budgets.

The smallest business can take advantage of these wonderful innovations and make themselves visible. And when you are visible and you give people answers they want, they will want to do business with you.

Over to you: Have you experienced resistance to using social media from your own HR and IT departments? How have you addressed their concerns. Have you got them on board? Please leave a comment by clicking on “leave a reply” below here.

“Is Yoga Safe?” – This dilemma puts off the uncertain and provides an excuse for the procrastinators

Fitness and Yoga, , , , , ,

I spend quite a bit time convincing people to try yoga. I want to convince those that think it is some wacky religion that, in fact, it is a great form of exercise. And if they want to take it further, a healthy way of life. For those, especially men, who think it is too easy, I tell them about power yoga. To people who think it might be too hard I talk to them about less arduous forms of hatha yoga.

is yoga safe?

The fact is that there is a form of yoga to suit everyone’s individual needs. But whichever you choose, your strength and flexibility will improve. You’ll find your posture gets better, and you will feel you have higher energy levels. If you explore the meditative aspects of yoga you might feel calmer and more relaxed.

Despite the obvious positive benefits people often ask, “Is yoga safe?”. In fact Google those three words and you will find it is a question asked frequently all over the world. I think this has been prompted by some alarmist articles published in the media over the last year claiming that people have been hurt doing yoga. There was a particularly doom and gloom piece in the New York Times which was quoted all across the globe in many more newspapers.

We really need to read such articles in context. Everything we do in life carries a risk. You don’t stop boiling a kettle because there is a possibility you might get scalded. You just keep your hands clear of the spout when the steam comes out. Crossing the road might not be the safest thing to do, but we look right, look left and look right again before we cross in order to be avoid being hit by a car.

Thousands of people are hurt or killed in car accidents each year but we don’t stop driving, we just buckle up and take care.

is yoga safe?

The newspaper article in question quotes a very small number of yoga injuries. Hundreds of people actually also get hurt running, weight training and cycling but the journalist did not offer this comparison. Yoga is no more or less unsafe than any other form of exercise as long as you take care as you would with anything else you do in your daily life.

Check with your Doctor first if you have any issues or injuries, or you are pregnant (and yes yoga is safe for pregnancies). And then as long as you have a good qualified teacher who can give you options to suit your own range of motion, and you don’t seek to exceed your abilities, or be pressured into exceeding them, then yoga is safe. This simple checklist is the yoga equivalent of buckling up.

Sadly articles like that one in the New York Times just give uncertain people another reason not to give yoga a try. And for those genuinely looking to procrastinate, they can provide the perfect excuse to stay on the sofa.

Over to you: If you are a participant how have you found your yoga classes? Were you put off by worries about safety? If you are a yoga teacher what do you do to over come these fears? Please leave a comment and let’s have a debate about it.

If you liked this blog here are some other yoga topics:

Content marketing for fitness professionals – how to get customers to come to you

Marketing, , , , , , ,

Content marketing is a hot topic at the moment. But if you are looking for a cost effective method of promoting your business then it is worth looking into. It differs from traditional marketing techniques in one important way. The customer is in control.

Most of what we marketing people have been doing for years is a form of interruption marketing. We send out stuff that we want people to watch, or to open and read and then follow our call to action. Letters. Emails. TV adverts. Bill board adverts. Magazine adverts. They “interrupt” you from what you are doing and try and make you do something else.

TV is a form interruption marketing. 20 years ago when there were only 4 TV channels you had to sit through the adverts (or at least go away and make a cup of tea). Now many people use Sky+ or TiVo. They record programmes, or pause them live, to watch them later. And the beauty of this is that you can zip through the adverts. And most people do. And let’s be honest. How many of us dive for the mute button when the Go Compare Opera singer comes on? I have to restrain myself from sticking my foot through the TV screen.

For these and other reasons interruption marketing is no longer as successful as it once was.

The modern internet world allowed a whole new approach to develop – inbound marketing – and it is based upon the premise that people search for information and content.

In some markets 90% of all buying decisions start with an on-line search using Google or another search engine. Arguments in pubs and bars and between co-workers are quite often settled with a Google search

content marketing for fitness professionals

This is the key to inbound or content marketing. People want answers to the questions they have. They want answers in the content they can find on the internet. If you provide the answers then your customers will find you.

Imagine someone in Liverpool wants to buy a really good barbeque chicken. They are not going to type the word “chicken” into Google. They would get billions of results. Neither will they type “barbecue chicken” because it would still create too many results. “Best barbecue chicken”  is still no good if the best is in New York. “Best barbecue chicken in Liverpool” – might narrow it down to a few local outlets.

In this new world we need to be there when people come looking. And that means your website or blog becomes your inbound marketing hub.

To get people to find you when they come looking,  you need to provide accessible and useful content that will pop up on Google. The centre piece of your inbound marketing hub is a series of relevant articles (i.e. a blog) about your niche.

Going back to the chicken example. If you had a blog which answered the question, “who provides the best barbecue chicken in Liverpool”,  then this would show up in Google and low and behold you would have a visitor to your website who is now a potential customer.

Obviously you need to make sure that your site is fully optimised for search engines – but again this is not as hard as it seems. Neither is it as expensive as you would think, especially with great software like WordPress.

What are the top 25 questions that your clients ask you, about their fitness regimes and their fitness goals? What do they ask you about different exercises, classes and equipment? What questions do they have about food and nutrition?

You know the answers to those questions. Indeed you could probably recite them in your sleep. There you have, already, 25 topics for articles that could be up on your website and optimised so that when people search for answers to those questions – you are the one providing them.

People aren’t going to type just “Personal Trainers” into a search engine just as they aren’t going to type in just “chicken”. They might type, “Best personal trainers in Liverpool?”

If they did would your website show up on the front page of Google?

Over to you: Would you like to learn more about content marketing for fitness professionals? Have you already had some success setting up your own blog and are using inbound marketing. I’d like to hear your stories. Please leave a comment.

Other marketing blogs:

3 Fitness Marketing Tips inspired by a Dragon from the Den