INBOUND MARKETING CERTIFICATION

Your Exam Study Guide

The following guide walks through key lessons from each of the nine inbound marketing certification courses. Use this as you prepare for your exam.

Attract
Optimizing Your Website I. What is optimization and why you need it Setting your website up for success
-there are different types of optimization -un-optimized sites do not Attract, Convert, Close or Delight

II.

Who are you optimizing your site for? Optimize for both website visitors & search engines
-focus on buyer personas to get the right website visitors -75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results

III.

How to optimize your website Understand your buyer persona(s) & prioritize them
-who are your most promising/lucrative buyer personas, and what services/products appeal most to them?

Build an experience that speaks to them and search engines

-build a world-class website experience -tell your companys story through content, design and optimization -tackle on-page SEO

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The Fundamentals of Blogging I. Why blogs are essential to inbound marketing

Business blogs are different than personal blogs -companies that blog see 55% more website traffic and 70% more leads Great for SEO -indexed pages, ability to rank for solutions to industry-related issues -blogs convert leads and demonstrate authority, expertise and trust

II.

Business blogging basics

Remarkable content is rewarded -companies that blog have 97% more inbound links -focus on your buyer persona primarily, not on Google Blogging best practices -pick a great title, address one topic per post, be a problem solver -blog consistently and frequently, optimize for humans and search engines -give your readers an opportunity to convert as a lead

III.

Transforming your blog into a money-making machine

What to blog about -long-tail keywords, recent industry/relevant news, customer questions, blog comments, hot industry topics, repackage old content, invite guest bloggers Ways to promote blog content -leverage your website, use social media presence, email marketing, tap into your network, PR releases, etc. What to analyze / does it work? -number of article views, blog subscription growth, most popular articles, inbound links -dont expect overnight success

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Amplifying Your Content with Social Media I. Why inbound marketers need social media Social media is more than just a trend
-Internet users spend 4x more time on Facebook than Google

Goal: social media helps increase visits, leads & customers

-indexed pages, ability to rank for solutions to industry-related issues -share landing pages to direct visitors into your funnel -build relationships, offer great customer service, grow reach, humanize your brand

Social proof
-an extension of search, adding relevance and authority -like votes for your website

II.

Social engagement strategies: why you must have one Finding the right people
-personas are key; content blasts do not work -mindset divide

Choosing the right network for the right content

-each network has its own personality

The big 4
-Twitter, the buzz generator: more informal and need less rapport to establish a connection -Facebook, the humanizer: less frequent but more valuable updates, like a business page to receive their updates -Linkedin, the professional: more formal, share industry and business-focused content -Google+, the search optimizer: GREAT for local search optimization, +1 buttons can improve click-through rates

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III.

How to engage the right people in the right ways Building reach
-follow, friend and connect; share links; set up automatic publishing

The cocktail party rule

-treat your social media like being at a cocktail party; you dont want to be the person in the middle of the room only talking about yourself; meet others, share stories

Leverage a variety of content

-include keywords, always include a link -new content, others content, lead generation content, breaking news, etc.

Convert
Creating Content with a Purpose I. Why inbound marketing cant exist without content Content marketings DNA
-60% of the sales cycle is over before a buyer talks to your salesperson -remarkable content leads to a lower cost per lead

II.

Creating content that your ideal buyers love Solution, not product-based
-buyer personas are the basis of inbound content

Map content to the right lifecycle stage

-the 10:4:1 rule

Content is more than text

-creating visual content for visual platforms

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III.

How to make content that converts Content quality is the most important factor with conversion rates
-conduct content surveys and build clear conversion paths

Social conversion and social proof

The Anatomy of a Landing Page I. What are landing pages/why you need them on your website What are landing pages
-specifically designed to convert visitors to leads -98% of all website visitors never come back to your website

Landing pages are like digital sales reps

-work for you 24/7 -gather information about your buyer personas for marketing and sales

All leads are not created equal

-vast majority of people are not ready to buy from you -understand the buying process to build effective landing pages: perform research, establish buying criteria, evaluate vendors

II. III.

Make landing pages with your ideal buyer in mind How to make landing pages that work for you Landing page infrastructure
-conversion process = call-to-action, landing page and thank you page

Effective landing page framework

-clear, concise, compelling headlines; explain the value & importance of the offer to your persona; use bullet points; select the appropriate number of form fields; remove navigation and links; include a relevant image or video; add testimonials when relevant; leverage industry awards/recognition -measure submission rate to understand landing pages success

Perfecting the Conversion Experience

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I.

Why the conversion process is so critical Think about bookends

-CTA to landing page to thank you page

II.

How to convert the right visitors into leads Lead volume is irrelevant
-your goal is to attract the right kind of traffic by focusing on buyer personas -what can you offer that person when they visit your website?

III.

Mastering the CTA and thank you page Calls-to-action guide people through your marketing process
-action oriented copy, consistent keywords with landing page, attention-grabbing, appropriate on-page placement, and A/B testing -use CTAs on every page of your website (except a landing page) to direct people to your landing pages

The thank you page

-where a prospect goes after having submitted your landing page form -deliver the offer, provide direction and next steps, send a follow-up email, include social networking options -test your calls-to-action and thank you pages to get the most value

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Close
Sending the Right Email to the Right Lead I. Why email marketing is important Email marketing as a profitable marketing channel How to use email to build and to nurture relationships
-Each email you send should offer some component of value -Build relationships: brand awareness & trust, lead generation, boost social interaction -Nurture relationships: drive sales, build customer loyalty, educate or upsell, track marketing ROI

II.

Segmenting your contact database Target different buyer personas and people at different stages of the buying process Segment by geography, industry, content interest and more

III.

How to create world-class emails 12 email marketing best practices

-Identify a specific goal, segment your list, personalize when possible, create consistency between from name & from email address, use actionable language, create clear & compelling subject lines and email copy, write mostly in the second person, focus on benefits (not features), be brief, have a concise signature and footer, test your email, analyze your email

9 of the most popular email marketing metrics

-Bounce rate, deliverability rate, list growth, click-through rate, email sharing, conversion rate, revenue per email, open rate, unsubscribe rate -Most important metric = conversion rate

5 different types of emails that you can send leads and customers
-Email newsletter: summary of content, news, sent out regularly -Email digest: tend to have a more simple design than a newsletter -Stand-alone email: email blast to highlight a new marketing offer -Lead nurturing email: great way to engage with targeted automation -Transactional email: tend to have high click-through rate

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The Power of Smarketing I. What is smarketing and why is it critical Two halves of the same team
-companies with strong sales & marketing alignment get 20% more annual revenue growth

II.

Smarketing = Alignment Alignment around goal

-marketing pipeline = sales quota

Alignment around personas

-communicating across company, educating each other

III.

5 steps to integrate smarketing into your organization Speak the same language
-it all comes down to revenue; work backwards to identify leads needed -define your funnel stages, the hand-off process, your sales-ready lead definition and your persona

Set up closed-loop reporting Implement a service level agreement (SLA)

-defines what each team commits to accomplishing -how many leads of a certain quality does a sales rep need to make quota? -how many call/email attempts should a sales rep make to every lead to not waste leads?

Maintain open communication

-weekly smarketing meetings, monthly management meetings -campaign and product/service communication

Rely on data

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Delight
Cultivating Happy Customers I. Why delighting your customers is so important Its everyones job to delight customers.
-Delightful customer service produces advocates

Benefits of delighting your customers

-upsells, retention, customer success, word of mouth referrals and happy customers -people more likely to talk about a negative experience than a positive one

The customers perception of your company is formed by every interaction.

II.

Know your audience What do customers value?

-quality, price, results and convenience -customers arent loyal to the business, theyre loyal to what it stands for

Aligning around persona

-everyone in your company should be able to identify a customer by persona -solve the right problem for the right persona, match tone and body language, make it about them.

III.

How to delight your customers 3 Pillars of Delight

-Importance of developing guiding principles and guidelines

8 Customer Delight Guidelines

-delight employees, educate employees, empower employees, listen to customers, ask customers, help customers, follow up with customers, take action -under-promise, over-deliver.

Measure and analyze results Execution & consistency of small interactions creates the larger experience

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Sample Exam Questions

Which of the following elements are important to test in a call-to-action? A. Color B. Text C. Marketing Offer D. All are important for testing

All visitors who download a given whitepaper or eBook are qualified leads. A. True B. False

When you evaluate an email campaigns overall effectiveness, the number that best reveals whether or not that email worked is the: A. Deliverability rate B. The click-through (or conversion) rate C. Open rate D. Bounce rate According to both surveyed marketers and an official study by the Direct Marketing Association, what is considered to be the most profitable marketing channel? A. Social media B. Email marketing C. Blogging D. Website Optimization
Answers: D,B,B,B