Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs

The Inbound Marketing book has this quote: "The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer - Peter F. Ducker". If you as a business owner has not embraced the new culture that is driven by community and social media, then it's time for you to do so if you are really serious about creating and keeping customers and many thanks to Brian and Dharmesh that now you can gain their wisdom by reading Inbound Marketing book. The book rightly states that "The true power of inbound marketing lies in its ability to not only stretch the top of your sales funnel (pull more people in), but also stretch the middle (get more to convert). The authors have done such an awesome job that this book can be used by business owners specifically small business owners to educate themselves about the new culture and take immediate actions following the To Do list given at the end of every chapter. Being working on a product focused around User Generated Content (UGC) I have read many books, articles and blogs on marketing, specifically internet marketing and social media and for me this book is an outstanding reader's digest summary of the following must-read books: The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly (New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs,) , Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site (2nd Edition) , Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day , and Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn: An Unofficial, Step-by-Step Guide to Creating & Implementing Your LinkedIn Brand - Social Networking in a Web 2.0 World . On top of that, this book adds more value with 'To Do' lists and Inbound in action case studies. And guess what, it's only 200 pages. I wish I had this book few years ago. This book is divided in 4 parts. The first part is more like a warm-up session. It introduces you to the Inbound Marketing concepts and power of it. I appreciated the authors for using the Wellesley vs. New York analogy to convey the power of hub. The second part is on get found by prospects. This section revolves around remarkable content. The word "remarkable" itself was made popular by none other than Seth Godin in his book "The Purple Cow" where he talks about remarkable marketing. Before you start, a word of caution: The ideas, tips and tools presented by Brian and Dharmesh are secondary meaning that you have to have a remarkable product or service in the fist place. This book is not about making your business rank first on Google or Y! or Bing overnight. In fact Brain and Dharmesh advocate trying out these tools and finding what works or not for your business and have a chapter entirely on commitment, patience and learning. This second part has chapters on how to get found in Blogosphere, Google and Social Media. Now do not get any false presumptions that it's just one chapter on each. The authors have done a remarkable job of covering all the vital details. For example, in the get found in Google Chapter, you will find nitty gritty details like earlier words in the page title carry more weight than later words, optimizing URLs, factors that affect link value etc., and in the get found in Social Media, they describe in detail the differences between Digg and StumbleUpon. The third part is on converting customers (from visitors to leads, prospects to leads and leads to customers). Authors use the acronym VEPA to walk you through the process. You gotta read the book to understand what it is. This section helps the small business owners by providing solid information on creating functional forms, grading and nurturing leads, broadening your reach and tracking progress. The last part - making better decisions- talks about making better marketing decisions, hiring the right people, picking up and measuring PR and watching your competition. I really liked the chapter on picking and measuring your people (Digital Citizens vs Digital Visitors, Web reach etc.). If you are a business owner, this section helps you hiring the right people, what to look into PR when selecting one, how to watch and track your competitors' web reach. Overall, this book is a required reading for any business owner, but is particularly very well suited for small business owners who do not have budget to hire SEO or SEM consultants and who would like to try themselves. It covers not only the technology (to the extent required), but also the practical aspects of how to implement. Another interesting thing I noticed is that this book is not overwhelmed with tens or hundreds of references to white-papers, articles and other URLs. It does refer to a handful resources such as Blue Ocean Strategy (book), [...] (web tool) and [...] (blog aggregation web site). I understand that it is sometimes useful to have plenty of references, but in reality, business owners hardly have time to read books, let alone go through the references. So that means once you have finished reading 200 pages, you will be all ready! go! action! in fact, as the authors suggest, you can take one step at a time like starting with Blogosphere then Google or then Social Media. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading every page of the book and learned many new things. I really appreciate and applaud the authors for sharing the secret recipes of their business (HubSpot). In the end, I would say that if you want to quickly get up to speed on the latest and great internet marketing and social media aspects or you are a small business owner who is planning to embrace the new culture then you gotta read this book. Awesome Job Brian and Dharmesh!

As Hubspot customers, Hubspot partners and fellow travelers on the inbound marketing journey for 10 months now, we heartily recommend "Inbound Marketing", by Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan, as this book represents a very readable and do-able playbook for implementing inbound marketing methodology. Packed with concise guidance, case studies, and practical to-do's that you can implement today, this book is really a text-book on the subject and is one of the most important books for Internet era marketers published to date. HubSpot founders Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan have created, proven and are rapidly ramping a business [...], that embodies this "Inbound Marketing" methodology. Their nearly 2000 customers, including our consulting business and several of our clients; Vico Software and Magic Software, are using the Hubspot Inbound Marketing platform and you can't argue with the results...if you actively use the inbound marketing methods espoused in this book, you will be successful in creating inbound leads and you will transform your business. It doesn't matter if you are a Bed & Breakfast proprietor; a mid sized high technology firm selling B2B; an old-line business like grocer, Whole Foods; or a golf pro selling lessons like Charlie King at Reynolds plantation. The principles in "Inbound Marketing" are universal and if you follow this link you can view Inbound Marketing success stories.[...]. The proven theory behind this methodology which is documented and well illustrated in the numerous case studies in this book is that if you create great content and publish it on the Internet; and connect with buyers who may be interested in what you do through the social media, then you will get found. If you do it on a consistent basis and analyze and tune your content, you will build traffic and inbound links and the inbound links will move your content to the top of the Google (and other search engine) rankings. This book dispels the myth that you need highly paid SEO rocket-scientists to move you onto the front page of Google and also begs the question as to why you would use pay-per-click for anything other than short-term results. Inbound Marketing is a new way of doing things; it is still in the early adopter phase and this book will accelerate adoption. Every day we speak with clients who could benefit from reading this book. * When we talk to VP's of Sales and learn that their sales teams are still making cold calls, we will recommend this book. * When we visit Websites that are packed with "product-speak" and "gobbledygook", we will recommend this book to the VP of Marketing, (along with David Meerman Scott's, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly (New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs,) ). * From now on, we will use this book as a calling card to the CEO's we want to meet, because they will ultimately have to endorse a new way of doing things. A word of advice; "Inbound Marketing" offers a methodology which is a transformational approach to marketing and it's not a one off event. It takes diligence, focus and an ongoing commitment to a new way of marketing, but it works and there is no going back. Buy the book and welcome to the journey. Highly recommended

This book is a great read for someone looking to tap into the power of inbound marketing and social media. The text is easy to read and the book is full of illustrative cartoons. Halligan and Shah make a business out of breaking down this information so that even the smallest, most old fashioned business owner can understand it. This book is a true call to arms for inbound marketing. Numerous case studies demonstrate the power of inbound marketing and how it can translate into real-wrold monetary success. The writers believe in putting an entire leg into the waters of inbound marketing instead of just a toe. Reading the book, I found it difficult to argue with them. This book is useful in that it takes many elements of social media and the internet and explains how they function in detail. Have you ever wondered how Google catalogues webpages? You'll find that information in this book. Not sure whether your website is effective or not? They explain how to analyze web traffic in detail. The authors go through several different forums for inbound marketing and tell the reader in a very straightforward manner why they should care or not. In the section on Twitter, the authors anticipate the reader's potential lack of interest in what Twitterers "had for lunch" that day. Shah and Halligan explain that Twitter can actually be a powerful tool for businesses to connect to the people who are already talking about them online. As they go through different methods of getting noticed on the web, the authors make a point of emphasizing what NOT to do as well as communicating best practices. They caution against using any tricks in order to gather more followers or to be ranked higher on Google or Digg. Producing "remarkable" content and being smart about communicating it is the one path to success. Shah and Halligan caution that if you try too hard to trick the system you can actually be barred from many sites. There is an entire chapter devoted to hiring the right people. They lay out their own framework for hiring people at Hubspot. There is also a useful index that lists some resources and tricks of the trade. This book is both informational and inspiring. I'm looking forward to doing some more in-depth research on the subject.

[...] I just finished reading a great book on social media and I strongly recommend that anyone interested in social media and market. In fact, I would go so far to say that "if you only read one book on Social Media this year, read Inbound Marketing!" The book is "Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media)" by HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. I am not the only one who is praising this book. Of the 67 reviews on Amazon since the book came out in October, 61 people rated the book as 5 stars out of five, 5 rated it as as 4 out of five and there's just 1 contrarian moron. Wikipedia describes inbound marketing as a style of marketing that focuses on getting found by the customer. According to the HubSpot website, Brian Halligan originally coined the term inbound marketing and which others have described as relationship marketing or permission marketing. On the other hand, traditional marketing or outbound marketing is the process by which companies find customers by advertising. The two types of marketing could not be further apart. One analogy in the book refers to the divide as "spending with your brain" (inbound) or "spending with your wallet" (outbound). The book presents the all information in a very clear and concise manner - and each chapter includes real life examples and tips, and ends with a checklist of relevant to do items. There are 4 main parts of the book: Part 1 - Inbound Marketing: discusses how shopping has changed, asks whether your website is a marketing hub and whether you are worthy. Part 2 - Get Found by Prospects: focuses on creating remarkable content, and getting found in the blogosphere, Google and social media. There is a very simple description of SEO (search engine optimization) along with hints for using pay-per-click and organic means to drive traffic to your website. Part 3 - Converting Customers: talks about how to convert visitors into prospects, prospects into leads and leads into customers. Part 4 - Make Better Decisions: describes how to make better marketing decisions, how to pick better marketing people and measure them, picking and measuring a PR agency and watching your competition Not only did Brian and Dharmesh write a compelling book, their company lives what they preach. In addition to their corporate website and blog, they provide several great (and free) tools such as Website Grader and Twitter Grader. These tools provide a numerical score of how your website or Twitter account is performing along with suggestions on how to make improvements. They also have a related website called Inbound Marketing University. Inbound Marketing University is self-described as a "a free marketing retraining program for marketing professionals--as well as marketers between jobs--looking to gain new skills to get ahead in the competitive workforce." The site provides marketing resources, webinars, news and a community forum. along with a series of 15 online/downloadable courses that will prepare you to take the Certified Inbound Marketing exam. A free chapter from the book titled "Hiring in the DARC Ages" is available on the site. This is one of my most favorite chapters as it talks about the 4 key types of people you should be hiring - digital citizens with analytical chops, marketing reach and content creators. From my experience, many marketing teams need some serious overhauls to get people who understand and contribute in an age of inbound marketing and social media. The authors conclude with a very strong call to action: "You have in your hands the playbook for getting found by your prospective customers and have no reason not to get started...now, today, this minute." In the meantime, I found this Inbound Marketing 101 presentation provided by HubSpot Marketing on SlideShare and it presents a good overview of what is covered in the book. This should be enough to whet your appetite until you get a chance to run over to the book store and get your own copy (or read it on your Kindle/iPhone like I'm doing).

This book is about HOW TO GET FOUND on the Internet. It teaches you how to utilize the following online tools to achieve this purpose: 1. Google - with VERY basic principles on SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You will need to get other books written specifically on SEO. 2. Company Website. It introduces website best practices such as how to use landing page, including a call-to-action (details see below) in EVERY page of your website. 3. Social Networking and Bookmarking Sites e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, Youtube. It teaches you what you should do with your sites e.g. Search for groups relevant to your industry and estabish a group of your own, make sure your group is more focused and is more relevant to your business (e.g. create an "inbound marketing group" instead of "online marketing group"). I particularly like the part on how to use StumbleUpon to attract audience (Spend time reading and voting articles, befriend with people who post articles that intrigue you, and slowly, ONLY AFTER you have done all those steps, you can submit your own articles) 4. The best part of the book is what I would call "Funnel Management" - how to turn website visitors to engaged visitors (leads) and then to customers. For visitors to become leads, you need to engage them with call-to-action offers e.g. "GET A FREE TRIAL!", the whole purpose of these call-to-action offers is to get visitors to fill out a form so that you can get building a CRM database. 5. Tracking your "online footprint" using tools like [...]. The most important thing is to track the source of your visitors of your website and measure how many of them finally become your customer. This is important since it helps you decide how to allocate your marketing budget. All in all, this is THE BOOK for beginners of online + non-interruptive marketing. Since this is meant for beginners, it tries to touch on EVERY ASPECT of inbound marketing and to give you a BRIEF OVERVIEW on how to can use the tools to boost your company's populatiry. To enrich understanding on the topic, I suggest you read: 1. Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000: Running a Business in Today's Consumer-Driven World (some overlapping is inevitable, but this book focuses on how to improve business by tracking what is said about your company, using different online tools) 2. Get Content Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing Inbound marketing starts with creating remarkable content. This book tells you what makes remarkable content. 3. A MUST-READ marketing book on non-interruptive marketing (though not specifically on online marketing): The Next Evolution of Marketing: Connect with Your Customers by Marketing with Meaning Will post reviews on the above three books soon.

I highly recommend this book! I have waited for this book to get published for many months, and finally it got published last week with much excitement and anticipation on my part, which I am sure others who have been following Hubspot's mission to educate and create the new generation of Inbound Marketers felt the same way. It took me only three days to finish reading this book (and I probably could have finished reading it sooner, but I still had to go to work), but not because it was easy to read, but rather because it was very informative and captivating with plenty of invaluable inbound marketing information, strategies, examples, and To Do lists from Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan. These are 4 reasons why you should buy the book today: 1) This is the only book you will ever need: If you are new to Inbound Marketing, this book is definitely for you. If you have spent some time as an Inbound Marketer, but feel you need to put all this knowledge together, this book is for you. Either way, this is probably the only book you will need to get around the Inbound Marketsphere. 2)You "owe" it to Hubspot: If you are one of over 800 Certified Inbound Marketers, you "owe" it to Hubspot to buy this book. I know I know, Inbound Marketing University was free, but wouldn't it be nice to give something back to Hubspot for its effort pulling IMU together? This is your chance to show your appreciation. 3)The best two guys in the Field: Let's face it, Dharmesh and Halligan changed the way we think about Marketing. With their great devoted team at Hubspot they launched some of the greatest Inbound Marketing tools around, and always kept us ahead of the game with free webinars, blog posts, IMU classes, Hubspot TV, and much more. This is a lot of valuable content that is now turned into a book. It will only make sense to read it. 4)It is not just `A' book: It is not just a book; it is a dictionary that explains Inbound Marketing. When you decide to learn a new language, the first thing you buy is a dictionary. Inbound Marketing is a new language, and the Inbound Marketing Book is your new dictionary teaching you how to "speak" Inbound Marketing. I neither work for Hubspot, not am I related in any shape or form (I only wish). Having said this, I feel Hubspot, and this book specifically, has helped me discover the Inbound Marketer that was hiding inside me all these years. I am sure most of you feel the same way, which is why I chose to write this review. Highly recommended!!

This excellent book is aimed at the 99% of the business world who are faintly befuddled by the strange world of youtube and delicious that they find themselves living in. It's aimed at plumbers, hairdressers, lawyers and oil company executives; at people in large corporations and small businesses alike who are dimly aware that their working lives are about to change - indeed, have already started to change in disconcerting ways - and who don't know what to do. The premise of the book is that the old marketing is dead or dying. Gone are the days where simply throwing money at print or radio advertising guaranteed succees. Instead, you need to engage your customers. Give them reasons to come to visit your web site, and once they are there give them reasons to come back again and again. Turn your web site into a hub, stuffed with remarkable blog posts, videos and interviews. As the authors put it (they have a pleasing way with words) "ten years ago, your marketing effectiveness was a function of the width of your wallet. Today, your marketing effectiveness is a function of the width of your brain." "Inbound marketing" is clearly - and explicitly - inspired by authors such as Seth Godin and David Meerman Scott. But where this book differs is in its emphasis on hands-on advice. Not only is it inspirational, but it's also brimming with practical wisdom. Sure, it talks about the power of Twitter. But then it gives you advice on how to choose a twitter handle. Sure, it talks about the rise of the superstar blogger and the death of the press release. But then it talks about how to decide whether you need a PR agency and, if you do, then how you should hire one. Sure, it stresses that your employees will need to learn new skills if they are to survive in this new world. But then it talks about what those skills are, what steps your employees need to take to get them and how you can track how they're doing. Each chapter contains a checklist of things you should do, right now, to start improving your inbound marketing. This is no dry textbook. It's full of anecdotes, some from the usual suspects (Whole Foods, Zappos and Barack Obama) but from others too: accounting software, a shutter manufacturer and a PR firm among others. It's well written, and there are cartoons too. Inbound marketing - get found using Google, social media and blogs is an excellent, mainstream introduction to new marketing. If you want to dip your toes into the cold water of social media then buy a copy. If you know all about social media then you almost certainly know people who need this book. Buy them a copy from Amazon. They'll love you for it.

Although I initially found this book simple and questioned my purchase, wanting something that really dived into social media strategies and techniques I found only after a few pages I was really interested and impressed with just how effective the author delivered social media and the benefits it can afford you. Surprisingly simple! I was particularly impressed with the 'Inbound Action' case studies at the end of each chapter as I found this tied together the theory and concepts presented during the chapter. The case studies, being real world practical examples are really great additions. I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of discussion surrounding how to measure social networking from a ROI/dollars point of view. The book certainly discusses other aspects which may determine success, but having some way of approaching the measurement side would have assisted greatly, especially when you have to justify why we should spend $ on social networking. Despite this the book met my expectations and provided a good overall picture of inbound marketing and how to approach it with 'To Do's' at the end of each chapter. I bought this book to learn more about Internet Marketing, in particular social media and this book did just that. Simple, easy to read and understand and with the addition of the tools and tips at the end this book will no doubt continue to be useful for me in the years to come.