Lights, Camera, Inbound Marketing Action

Preface: Okay this review is seriously past due. Last September, I published a post about a book entitled Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs which was to be released in October.

Not only was I excited that the book was coming out within my prime time as a web designer taking on more inbound marketing responsibilities, but I was one of the chosen people to receive a free copy in return for my ‘blogging review’! Thank you HubSpot!! And a super thank you goes to Rebecca Corliss! (Not only did she help hook me up with my free copy, but due to Amazon having technical difficulties with my email address and the hassle from it, she helped hook me up with 3 additional copies of the book. I passed those copies to my co-workers so we can all be on the same inbound wavelength.)

As I just mentioned this review is long over due, but there is a reason for that. My day job teammates and I have been super busy taking all of the wonderful knowledge found in the Inbound Marketing book and applying it to our company’s websites and soon to be social media portals.

Now with no more introduction needed, my review of the Inbound Marketing book:

Wow! Amazing! Wonderful! Holy Cow! Enlightening! (Insert any and all additional similar expressions.) Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah pulled a lot of can-be-intimidating information together and created an excellent resource for today’s marketing department. I was immediately drawn into the book and was able to plow through the book in a matter of a few days (in between all of the great ideas I was manifesting from the book).

Brian & Dharmesh guide you from how to unlearn what you might have learned in an offline MBA program to “break through the noise and connect” with your target audience.

By describing how to turn your website into a large dot on the map with many smaller sites connected to it (a.k.a. a hub) and give it a pulse (RSS distribution and/or social media site connections), Brian & Dharmesh make you analyze the value of the content you have to offer. They also teach you how to create your own remarkable strategy in ‘getting found’ along with suggestions of tracking your progress/reach.

The book is broken into four major sections:

Inbound Marketing: Overview of what this inbound marketing thing is all about.

Get Found by Prospects: Full of suggestions of how to create that remarkable content that your audience will find and wants. It’s done by moving away from fat wallets overpriced traditional marketing to never ending possibilities only you can dream up. There’s even a small section about “How Google’s Brain Works” which is very enlightening of how you may never make that #1 spot, and why that’s okay.

Converting Customer: The art and science of drawing in more visitors to your site and converting those very people into business prospects (leads). Brian and Dharmesh explains which marketing mistakes to avoid and how to nurture your leads through email or other communication channels. This section also teaches how to place a value on/grade a lead.

Make Better Decisions: Take away #1, Run! Don’t walk. Great educational tips of how to choose or become a team member who falls into the framework known as D(igital Citizen) + A(nalytical chops) + (web) R(each) + C(ontent creators).

It also includes “Tips from the Trenches for Startups” section at the back of the book.

Overall this book has the You Can Do It! attitude. After reading it you’ll be inspired to get outbound of your comfort zone and on top of the inbound marketing wave of the future. I know I was and still am inspired every time I skim back through the book.

I look forward to reading your own review of this book when you find that quiet moment within your exciting newly created inbound marketing plan.