Inbound Marketing For Australian SMBs

I recently discovered the Social Media Marketing Industry Report by Michael A Stelzer. 880 business owners, employees and sole proprietors were surveyed in an attempt to uncover the who, what, where, when and why of Social Media Marketing. There are a lot of interesting findings in this report, however, I've pulled out just a few results that I believe would be the most valuable to SMBs. If you're interested in reading the entire report you can download it for FREE at: Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

The business results you have today are based on what you did in the past. Consequently, what you do today to market your business, will impact your business tomorrow. So the question is... 

The Inbound Marketing University #IMU kicked off today with a great session on Blogging for Business: What you need to know to get started. Presented by: MarketingProfs' Anne Handley and Mack Collier.

Blogging is a key component of SEO and Social Media Marketing to that should be implemented in every inbound marketing plan. Below are my quick takeaways from today's session that may help other small business owners to write effective blogs for their business.

Take the time to evaluate your business goals before jumping into search engine optimization (SEO) for your business.

A friend of mine sent me an email that she had received from an SEO firm seeking her business, several months ago. The email started with something like, "we tried to search for your business on line and couldn't find it, which means your prospects can't find you either."  It went on to say that they could guarantee top search rankings (for a monthly fee). It was quite a lengthy sales pitch but basically what they were promising was top search rankings for my friend's company, for what they (the SEO firm) perceived where the relevant keywords.  My friend thought this sounded great, so she presented it to her management team. After all isn't that what we all want, to be at the top of the search results and drive more traffic to our site?

The business world is no different from the wild, in the wild it's all about survival! Those that survive are strong, fit or clever. The clever species adapt (evolve, change) to their surroundings to survive.  In order for small business to survive the recession they must be clever. They must be prepared to adapt and evolve to their surroundings, the change in market conditions and the changing consumer.