We join forces with Lindsay Kelley and John Shea from the sales/marketing podcast The Funnel to discuss some old-school sales tactics that actually work well with inbound marketing. You might be surprised at what you hear.

Video can sound "hard" or "scary" to some people but it's not difficult as it might seem. All you need are some clear goals and some basic planning. Kristen Craft from Wistia joins us to talk about how to plan out your video strategy, how to set goals that actually point to sales and how to implement video with minimal effort.

Inbound marketing is full of tactics like landing pages, social media content, email campaigns, SEO and other nerdy methodologies. But what about public speaking? Can you integrate this "old fashioned" strategy into your inbound marketing program?

Public speaking opens a lot of doors. It's one of the best ways to grow your company and get leads.

Develop your own speaking site with yourname.com
Always charge for speaking, but start low and gradually go higher
If an organization pushes back, you can choose to lower your price if the audience is right
Practice makes progress
You don't have to be famous to be a good presenter. It is within your reach. You can deliver good knowledge and be a good presenter in your space.
Focus your presentations on what your company delivers
Be specific with your titles
Have someone proactively reach out and sell you
Have calls to action in the presentation

Read more: http://blog.spinweb.net/how-to-use-public-speaking-in-your-inbound-marketing-program-spinradio-e68
Follow us: @SpinWeb on Twitter

We go over all the problems with the typical website RFP process and how to fix it. This is a must-listen for marketing directors who are planning a new website. Don't start writing that RFP until you hear this episode!

Make it an RFI (Request for Information)
Talk about Goals over Features
Be Up Front about your Budget Range
Separate SEO/Marketing from your Website Foundation
Replace Presentations with Conversations
Make a Decision based on Qualifications not Price
Consider Paying for a Consulting Project First

Read more: http://blog.spinweb.net/spinradio-e67-how-to-write-a-better-website-rfp
Follow us: @SpinWeb on Twitter

Abby and Michael just got back from HubSpot's Partner Day and have some interesting advice and predictions for marketing and sales pros to keep current today and also some predictions to watch out for in the future.

2016

Cold calling = a waste of time.
Email is getting less effective. Email does work if it’s contextualized with stuff about your prospect.
Like it or not, you have to figure out AdWords.
Website content is still king
Social & Blog work when done well (still rare)
Don’t bother building mobile apps
Figure out a way to give buyers a taste
Customer = Marketing = Sales

2026

Get good at fat head SEO (be “the answer”)
Invest in Facebook
Can’t buy a “list” or “advertise” on private networks
Diversity content from written to video
Don’t fight the bot/ai revolution - it’s coming
Automate as much as possible, including sales & marketing


Read more: http://blog.spinweb.net/spinradio-e66-advice-for-marketing-and-sales-pros-in-2016-and-2026
Follow us: @SpinWeb on Twitter

We are talking with Mike Donnelly from The Seventh Senth about the role of "account-based marketing."

Look at the leads you have as far back as 6 months, send them a simple email.

When prospect has received proposal and hasn’t responded:

Subject: Haven’t heard from you OR Cleaning out my pipeline OR Did zombies attack?

Body: I haven’t heard back from you so I’m going to assume either you’ve gone in a different direction or your priorities have changed. Let me know if we can be of assistance in the future.

When prospect is in early communication stages (no proposal, but after about a month):

Subject: Haven’t heard from you OR Cleaning out my pipeline OR Did zombies attack?

Body: I’m cleaning out my inbox and I realized I hadn’t heard back from you about X. I’m going to assume either you’ve gone in a different direction or your priorities have changed. Let me know if we can be of assistance in the future.

Read more: http://blog.spinweb.net/spinradio-episode-64-what-to-do-when-leads-go-stale
Follow us: @SpinWeb on Twitter

In today's episode, we're discussing how to handle stale leads and prospects and how to potentially revive them (or let them go).

In today's episode, we invite Douglas Karr, Chad Pollitt and George B. Thomas to the show to discuss 'Disrupted' by Dan Lyons. The book is very controversial and is making waves in the industry. We'll discuss what it means for HubSpot, for inbound marketing in general and talk about some of the issues it raises for marketing and tech professionals.

We are discussing how marketing programs can succeed or fail based on how involved executive leadership is in the decision. Should your CEO be involved in things like agency selection, marketing strategy and website projects?

Projects can be delayed without executive involvement if they come in later in the process.
Sometimes business goals could get lost because the Marketing Manager doesn’t know about them.
You can unintentionally tell the Marketing Manager that you don’t trust them when you insert yourself into his/her process/decisions.

Commit to being involved in the entire process or commit to trusting your Marketing Manager to handle it.

Read more: http://blog.spinweb.net/spinradio-episode-62-how-executive-involvement-leads-to-better-marketing-outcomes
Follow us: @SpinWeb on Twitter

Enterprise website projects take time and money and with a project this complex, it's not always going to go smoothly. How do you keep your project on time and on budget?

Keep your team small
The larger the team, the longer the project will take. No more than 2-3 people who will be focused and who really know the brand.

Know why you are redesigning
Know and understand where you want to go with it and what the plan should be.

Be aware it’s not a redesign, it’s a restructuring
When you redesign, you have to think about restructuring your content as well.

Commit to a content plan before starting
Know who will be owning the content before you get started.
Content is not always just copy/paste. It’s very time-consuming.

Consider paying for planning
If you leave the agency with many unknowns, they’ll most likely charge you more to account for those unknowns.

Commit to a photography plan
It’s good to be fun and yourself, but also understand who your audience - get professional photos.
Make a decision beforehand so you’re not scrambling

If rebranding, give yourself 6 months before redesigning your website

Take deadlines seriously if you want your project to hit the original deadline

Read more: http://blog.spinweb.net/spinradio-episode-61-how-to-keep-your-enterprise-website-project-from-going-over-budget-and-over-deadline
Follow us: @SpinWeb on Twitter