HUBSPOT FOR INBOUND MARKETING IN SINGAPORE & ASEAN

I am sure we all appreciate the difference between a nice homecooked meal and something from a restaurant.  The idea that something looks commercially produced may be less appealing especially in our overly commercial world.  The personal touch and a little bit of imperfection may actually add color and flavor.  The same is true when we visit a website.

The "inventor" of Inbound Marketing Automation, HUBSPOT will be establishing an office in Singapore in Q4 this year.  A lead team of HUBSPOT executives will be in Singapore in August to recruit staff and setup its office in the Little Red Dot -- great timing with SG50!  We have had HUBSPOT users from businesses and charities from quite a few years back in Singapore, and we believe that it is set to grow as Inbound and HUBSPOT continues to gain traction.  Newly IPOed last year and yes, have joined the ranks of a $1B public company, HUBSPOT has over 15,000 companies worldwide using its next generation marketing automation software.

[Picture Credit: MindoxSEO.com]

How much of the so-called content put out there for the sole purpose of SEO is truly thought provoking and original, and worth taking the time to read? With so much emphasis on "content marketing", webmasters are pushing content out there at a phenomenal rate.  Is every company trying to out blog the other?  With that we should not be surprised if the quality of content marketing begins to slide.  So how does all of this impact SEO, and more importantly, your digital marketing investments?

Like most businesses that depends on the internet and social media to generate leads and conversion to customers, you should not overlook customers that visit your "brick and mortar" store or business as "walk-in" customers. If you do not get their e-mail and their permission to connect with them, this is really a missed opportunity. Depending on your business, most B2C will have plenty of customers whom you have no way to connect with - and email is still a great way. (Personally, I will not "connect" with a business o

The number one concern about Inbound Marketing from most small business owners are - "Who has time and resources to write the blogs and e-books?".  Most understand the logic of Inbound Marketing, but are really concerned about their ability to commit to delivering the content needed to power the Inbound investment.  Alternatively, the idea of a static website seems more appealing.  Developing a content strategy that is cost effective and works requires marketers to take a hard look at "the funnel" -- and take a more analytical look at the 3 most important steps below:

Recently, I spent a week at Isetan Scotts, Singapore, as a promoter for Healthy Beauty Forum Aojiru for BeauBeau Singapore (www.beaubeau.me). BeauBeau Singapore is the distributor for HBF Aojiru in ASEAN.

In addition to acquiring blisters and feet aches, I also realized that buyer personas are not built in a vacuum.

When BeauBeau Singapore first started, we developed a few versions of Buyer Personas – for example, Jon The Man, and Ying the Young. We wrote stories and imagined how they will use the product, how they will evaluate the product, and ultimately purchase it. And we developed action items and content strategies based on this. Nonetheless, not much was achieved.

What was the missing link?

One word: Reality.

With people talking about your business online, the power of social media cannot be ignored. Wade Halvorson provides some pointers on joining the conversation

The official video clip of Korean singer Psy performing Gangnam Style has been viewed on YouTube 2,070,893,622 times. That’s over two billion and seventy million hits. The population of China is ‘only’ one billion three hundred and sixty-six million. The video went ‘viral’, which means people used social media to recommend it to others. The astonishing number of views grew through electronic word-of-mouth via social media.

As an inbound marketer, if you are only doing one channel such as blogging, life is probably manageable.  What if you are having to juggle multiple platforms -- trying to integrate your website, blogs,e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, and others?