We celebrate what the Wall Street Journal is covering with Google Penguin’s latest impact on business. Though the story seeks to sympathize with the outliers whose businesses have been impacted by the search algorithm change, the truth is there are many people seeking to use gimmicks rather than do the hard work of inbound marketing and effective sales process.

Tricking Google with keyword stuffing or aggressive link exchanges is not going to work. They are continually weeding out the cheaters.

Note Matt Cutts, a Google engineer, in the article:

“The Penguin algorithm update was designed to reduce Web spam, which is when websites try to get a higher search ranking than they deserve by deceiving or manipulating search engines. In many cases, the affected sites had been spamming for a long time.”

Google’s goal is not to put you out of business. They want to reward useful and valuable content and get the web spam out of there.

If you play within the rules and do the hard work of creating human content that connects, things take care of themselves pretty well. There are some optimization things which can be done, however, there is a distinct line between manipulation and optimization.

There are bound to be continual algorithm changes. Hiring one of these gimmick SEO companies and publishing web spam can jeopardize a lot of effort you may have built on sand. Why create a bubble for yourself?

Assets built from building true authority with your content and relevance from credible linking to your content is what ultimately will win. The asset cannot easily be swept away.

We like to think of spam in our inbox. It is prevalent on the web and you can engage in such activities to your peril. As for us, we are going to stick with good old fashioned inbound marketing.

Want to do it right?

Software is nothing without talent and strategy. From Jon Montjoy's Flickr photostream.

You might think that being successful with driving inbound marketing leads starts with software. That’s a different pitch from a typical software vendor selling inbound marketing. A good system is part of the overall strategy, but the strategy and talent is the critical piece for an inbound marketing approach to truly work.

Imagine dishing out $10K-$30K per year on software before you even have any content, logic, automation, scripting, or all the other pieces necessary for developing and nurturing leads. The advice you get after this is to hire 1-3 people who will focus on the content development, blogging, social media, systems management, analytics and all the other pieces. The overhead can then go upwards of over $200K on top of your initial expenditure without a lot of traction towards results.

If it is important to work hard for the next couple of years, have perceived control and do it yourself, then this path may seem appealing.

However, there are some drawbacks that focusing on inbound marketing software rather than inbound marketing results has:

• Someone else’s platform. You are putting your content, designs and assets on someone else’s platform. There is convenience, but it is a trade-off. Discontinue the service and see what happens.
• Management. You have to manage any new employees and talent you bring on. There are layers to the operation that go beyond the surface level.
• Ideas and strategy. You might have software, however, it still needs to be driven. You have to develop continual strategies which connect and work towards developing an audience.
• Overhead. There is a lot of overhead as we have mentioned. This is before the results even start to flow through. Furthermore, you are locked into a year-long contract often times without recourse.

Service Not Software

When you go to a restaurant, do you expect to cook and serve your own meal? No, you expect great service and a stellar experience.

What if your money went to results instead of software? What if you were able to:

• Build your own assets. Everything is on your own platform and owned by you?
• Fully serviced. All the management is dealt with via process by a professional partner?
• Connect with your audience. Continual strategies develop your audience and are introduced at a steady cadence?
• Get results. Your money goes towards immediately building your own assets and driving content which is personal, relevant and timely for your audience?

This is the difference between working with a professional partner or a mere software vendor. You get service focused on results with an expert team rather than having to walk through much failure developing and managing your own team internally.

Meanwhile, all the effort is putting out systems, content and leads which become your own assets. The business choice revolves around competencies and return on investment. You have an immediately high level of competency out of the gates. Your ROI starts right away as your assets are being developed and launched immediately.

We talk to people who realize inbound marketing is the strategy which connects with buyers today. However, the confusion around deciding on software versus services is not clear. At AscendWorks, we put it all together and build your own platform, not someone else’s. It helps you drive towards results right away and makes sense for the money you will spend to go to work right away.

If you want to learn more, feel free to schedule a consultation and we can share what this means in further detail. We encourage you to think service, not software.

When Who Moved My Cheese? hit a nerve over a decade ago, Spencer Johnson’s book became the rave of business people. It’s a timeless book that will always be applicable and relevant as long as human beings are so predictable. When the proverbial cheese moves in your industry, you can either change or become complacent. Becoming complacent today ensures you will become irrelevant as the world around you changes.

We talk to businesses every day that experience a shift in their industry or marketplace. The story usually entails how money used to be easy to make. There were loyal customers and predictable leads. They could sense things changing, but they could not necessarily put their finger on it. Someone is making money in their industry or a newer value proposition and they are left out of the game.

Here is what is typical in the story:

• Commoditization. Because choice is now available to everyone and your competitors are a mouse-click away, price becomes more of an issue. It’s easy to compare. It’s easy to get another option. That’s what happens with choice and low value. The scarcity of choice may have been protection in the past, but its not a covering for today’s connected buyer.
• Character. Having flawed systems for doing business may have been acceptable previously. However, buyers are used to a high level of service. It may not be in  your industry. No matter. They are comparing you with everyone they experience – Nordstrom, BMW, American Express, etc. How you do business today is compared to the world. Upgrade or become marginalized.
• Connection. The party has moved. Where and how you used to meet and connect with potential buyers has moved. Those trade shows have become a ghost town. Who wants to travel and inconvenience themselves as they did before? You can’t interrupt and call people. Noone wants to be sold. Your old marketing doesn’t work. People are buying differently and you are not at the party.

I know people who desire to turn back the clock. They want the old days. It was easier. They did not have to change and could count on business.

That’s not a conversation we care about being involved in. It is much better to get tuned into what is truly happening and learning how to connect in the constantly changing way your market is working. It’s hard work. It’s inbound. It’s a journey.

What are your options otherwise?

When the pain is high you have to change your approach.

There are two pains we see a lot of:

1. Too many leads and can’t work with them
2. Little or no leads

This is happening to industry after industry. The old rules have continually been eroding. I think everyone knows this, but fear and comfort keep everyone selling the old way. That is, until it doesn’t work anymore.

Some people fold up shop and consider it a good run. Others are seeking a new strategy for how to connect with buyers.

Often, the money opportunity has not changed. Quite the opposite is true. Most markets are growing with the enhanced distribution of social, search and mobile technologies. Learning how to tap into how people buy and augmenting a selling process with a buying process is the gap between those that are able to play in the new game.

If the pain is high in your industry, here are some things we suggest doing:

• Positioning. Assess how you are positioned in the mind of the buyer. Are you a salesperson or an expert? Expert takes a lot of work. A salesperson is someone we like to avoid.
• Attention. How are you attracting and growing attention? If your only strategy today is interruption, you will be tuned out.
• Systems. We don’t like inconvenience. We are used to doing business with world-class companies all the time. You are being compared to them. Why present your offering and method of doing business in a deficient way? Automate where you can. Make buying and servicing easy and convenient.
• Pipeline. Your pipeline has moved. It is not based on your sales conversation. It is based on what people are doing right now interacting with your value proposition, content, systems and process. You have to have systems to see this and track what is happening in your sales funnel. Pipeline management is in the cloud now.
• Referrals. It’s easy to find out your reputation now. It is a click away. It used to be inconvenient. Is it easy to learn about what people think? Are you embedded in the social media conversation so an outsider can perceive and grow trust?

It’s not easy to reinvent yourself, however, when the pain is high and you need to figure out how to sell again, consider the questions. If you are open, you will realize that noone is going to wave a magic wand to take you back a decade to have things the old ways. You have to move into the new way of selling and marketing yourself that connects.

It’s an inbound world today and your audience is waiting for you to show up.

What needs to change in your business?

Here’s our exhortation to our clients and all the people out there that jump at the next trend – THINK! Think about where your customer is at. If you are in defense and aerospace, is your customer really hanging out on Pinterest?

If your audience is around youth, do they read long newsletters on their email?

Every market works differently. Just because we have a overwhelming numbers of media to use doesn’t mean it’s worth it.

When you see an ill-maintained Twitter or abandoned blog, it is both a turn-off and damage to a brand. It shows a lifelessness and a lack of commitment.

Think about where your customer is at. In fact, pick three things only. It is better to commit to a few things than create a bunch of noise.

It is prioritizing your efforts and you will find a better result. It is about a return on attention and time. Part of the various audiences in the different venues and platforms out there is that they can sniff out who is committed and who is just marketing.

The world craves more value and meaning. Your customer will connect if you can ensure consistency and commitment in your message.

What things can you cut out to focus your efforts?

The salesperson plays a role which augments inbound marketing today.

Inbound marketing at its core is about providing convenience and meeting the needs of buyers in their buying process. It used to be the job of a salesperson to work with buyers early. They worked hard to get attention, provide education and orient the buyer to their value proposition.

However, the internet changes this. People are extremely busy. They are inattentive. They ignore noise and have done a great job in filtering it out from advertising, cold calls and do not mail mechanisms.

The salesperson is not necessarily obsolete. However, their role has shifted to become part of a different process. Instead of a singular selling process which spanned the entire sequence of steps a buyer takes, the salesperson’s role and entrance happens when the buyer is ready. We cannot force readiness, however, we can influence it with inbound marketing.

The fact is you are one of millions of voices in the marketplace clamoring for attention. When people want something, they search for it or ask a trusted friend. At their fingertips and on their mobile device, there is access to infinite information via search, apps and social media.

Your inbound marketing systems should meet this demand. Every day and in every moment there are millions of people behaving this way. They are looking for something. You have to get found. Your systems have to provide valuable information in an inviting way and process. You have to build trust.

At some point, the buyer has a few more questions or is wanting to do business. Salespeople are valuable in this part of the process, the selling process. There is now dialogue around common knowledge. The buyer feels comfortable and has information along with questions.

Typically, in a B2B environment, selling starts with a meeting online or face-to-face. There has been buying far before this meeting. The role of the salesperson is to move the conversation to what it means to do business together and sign an agreement or buy a product or service. This is personal and emotional.

Ten years ago, we had different advice and worked with sales organizations differently. The world was different then. Buying was different.

Today, a lot of organizations have a smaller sales footprint and a larger inbound marketing process. This maps to today’s reality. When we work with organizations on sales process we are helping to align their team and management to the inbound marketing process. This often entails having the right metrics and mastery of tools and process for the salesperson to understand what is coming through the funnel. The pipeline looks differently. The teams are often smaller and the systems are more sophisticated.

Yes, we need salespeople. It is how deals get done and the buyer commences their journey with your brand and company, especially if your value proposition is sophisticated rather than purely transactional.

What is your sales process like compared to times past?

There is a lot going on daily. In the old days, the phone would ring or mail would arrive to help us feel like something was going on. It was analog. We could touch and feel it.

Today, the digital world provides information on what is happening. If your inbound marketing systems are set up right, then you should be able to see:

• who is interested in you
• how they found you
• what content matters
• what action steps visitors take
• what is holding them back

All this is real-time information that has to be looked at daily. The process of continually refining the content, systems and process a buyer experiences can be revealed from their digital body language. You can’t just call them anymore. You have to provide value and clear steps. Your inbound marketing metrics is the flashlight in the dark for you.

It is rigorous, but there’s not much choice if you are committed to making your marketing funnel work and bring value to your customers. People are looking for answers and solutions. Make it easy for them to get it and you become a greater part of everyone’s pathway.

One of the key metrics to ensure success of your system is lead conversion. These are people who move from anonymity to raising their hand from a call-to-action. You should be striving to get lead conversions every day. If not, then something is not working within your process. Perhaps your content is not interesting or the steps are confusing. You can look at your metrics and see where people are dropping off. This provides great intelligence in fixing the design, automation or content.

If you are committed to continual refinement you will see improvement in the way leads flow through your system. Your metrics help you see the right levers to pull.

What metrics are you tuned into?

How many times have you reiterated how your industry, product or service works? Your familiarity with your own message may be a handicap rather than an asset in that it can cause you to oversell rather than position with thought leadership in your inbound marketing efforts.

One of the greatest assets you have is your knowledge. It only becomes a great asset if you can distribute it effectively. There are ways businesses do this every day:

• One-on-one sales conversations
• Packaging
• Advertising
• Advertorials
• Brochures

These are just a few ways that are traditional. The problem with many of the approaches today is that they either demand our attention or are too tactical to have great leverage. Selling typically happens sequentially and is often limited by the number of meetings or calls you can have. Advertising is largely ignored.

When a new buyer is trying to solve a problem, they are looking for information that helps them with trying to merely understand the jargon, parameters and concepts of your industry. You think about what you do thousands of hours a year. Your buyer typically thinks very little about your industry. They have their own market and problems to think about.

It is a great opportunity to bring value in this deficit situation. The buyer is seeking education. If you can educate with authority without pressuring sales, then your knowledge becomes an asset for building trust.

You know your industry well. You know how to help the buyer think about the choices that are available. You understand how to frame the choices to make a decision. You understand what is the best and worst in various categories.

The hard work is to deliver all this wealth of information in a personal, relevant and timely fashion. It has to be personal to connect with the specific world your buyer is in. It has to be relevant to their pain. It has to be timely in delivery and systematic via automation.

How can you fill the gaps in your marketing today?