Inbound Marketing, Revised and Updated: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online

This fully updated and revised edition of Inbound Marketing builds on the enormous international success of the book that launched the inbound marketing movement. It provides the new playbook you need to get more free traffic from Google, build a business blog, create a social media following and analyze which of your marketing efforts are working. With coverage of updated Search Engine Optimization tactics and the latest tools to build a social media following, marketing experts and HubSpot founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah provide detailed advice on how to get found online and convert visitors to leads and customers. This fully updated edition includes new material??on the impact social media has on search and also provides a high–level overview of what viral marketing actually is. Inside you’ll find: New sections on visual content, tools as content, and Google+ A new chapter on viral marketing for mere mortals A bonus section on startup/entrepreneurial marketing With Inbound Marketing , you'll gain access to insights from thousands of companies that have seen the power of this new model work for their own companies. “If you’ve been looking for a trustworthy primer on getting found online, here’s a great place to start. Buy one for your clueless colleague too.” —SETH GODIN, author of Meatball Sundae BRIAN HALLIGAN is cofounder & CEO of HubSpot, an inbound marketing and sales software company that helps businesses transform how they get found and grow online. Brian also teaches Entrepreneurial Product Development and Marketing as a Senior Lecturer at MIT. Connect with Brian on Twitter @bhalligan. DHARMESH SHAH is cofounder & CTO of HubSpot and an angel investor in over 50 technology startups. Dharmesh also authors OnStartups.com, a popular startup blog with over 400,000 members in its community, and is a frequent speaker on the topic of startups and marketing. Connect with Dharmesh on Twitter @dharmesh.

Foreword xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction xvii PART I INBOUND MARKETING 1 Chapter 1 Shopping Has Changed . . . Has Your Marketing? 3 Who Moved My Customers? 6 Inbound in Action: Barack Obama for President 6 To Do 8 Chapter 2 Is Your Website a Marketing Hub? 9 Megaphone versus Hub 9 It’s Not What You Say—It’s What Others Say About You 10 Does Your Website Have a Pulse? 10 Your Mother’s Impressed, But . . . 11 Tracking Your Progress 13 Inbound in Action: 37Signals 14 To Do 15 Chapter 3 Are You Worthy? 17 Creating a Remarkable Strategy 17 Tracking Your Progress 19 Inbound in Action: The Grateful Dead 19 To Do 20 PART II GET FOUND BY PROSPECTS 21 Chapter 4 Create Remarkable Content 23 Building a Content Machine 23 Variety Is the Spice of Life 24 You Gotta Give to Get 24 Moving Beyond the Width of Your Wallet 25 Tracking Your Progress 25 Inbound in Action: Wikipedia 26 To Do 27 Chapter 5 Get Found in the Blogosphere 29 Getting Your Blog Started Right 30 Authoring Effective Articles 30 Help Google Help You 32 Making Your Articles Infectious 33 Give Your Articles a Push 34 Starting Conversations with Comments 35 Why Blogs Sometimes Fail 36 The Gift That Keeps on Giving 36 Consuming Content with RSS 37 Subscribe to Relevant Industry Blogs 37 Contribute to the Conversation 38 Tracking Your Progress 39 Inbound in Action: Whole Foods 40 To Do 43 Chapter 6 Get Found in Google 45 Paid versus Free 45 A (Brief) Introduction to How Google Works 48 Picking the Perfect Keywords 50 On–Page SEO: Doing the Easy Stuff First 53 Off–Page SEO: The Power of Inbound Links 58 Black Hat SEO: How to Get Your Site Banned by Google 61 The Dangers of PPC 63 Tracking Your Progress 64 Inbound in Action: LinkedIn “Elite” 65 To Do 66 Chapter 7 Get Found in Social Media 67 Creating an Effective Online Profile 67 Getting Fans on Facebook 69 Creating Connections on LinkedIn 73 Gathering Followers on Twitter 77 Gaining Reach from Google+ 80 Being Discovered with StumbleUpon 82 Getting Found on YouTube 84 Tracking Your Progress 86 Inbound in Action: FreshBooks 87 To Do 89 Chapter 8 Visual Content 91 SlideShare 92 Visual.ly 92 Pinterest 93 Instagram 94 Snapchat 95 Vine 96 Chapter 9 Software and Tools as Content 99 Writing Code Instead of Text 100 Replace Humans with Machines 101 Provide a Next Step 102 Kill Bad Tools Quickly 102 Tools Don’t Market Themselves 103 Inbound in Action: Wealthfront 104 To Do 105 PART III CONVERTING CUSTOMERS 107 Chapter 10 Convert Visitors into Leads 109 Compelling Calls–to–Action 110 Mistakes to Avoid 113 Optimizing Through Experimentation 113 Tracking Your Progress 113 Inbound in Action: Google 114 To Do 114 Chapter 11 Convert Prospects into Leads 115 Landing Page Best Practices 115 Creating Functional Forms 119 Going Beyond the Form 122 A Word of Caution 122 Tracking Your Progress 123 Inbound in Action: Zappos 123 To Do 124 Chapter 12 Convert Leads to Customers 125 Grading and Scoring Your Leads 125 Nurturing Your Leads 128 Broadening Your Reach 129 Tracking Your Progress 131 Inbound in Action: Kiva 131 To Do 134 PART IV MAKE BETTER DECISIONS 135 Chapter 13 Make Better Marketing Decisions 137 Levels and Definitions 138 Campaign Yield 138 Tracking Your Progress 140 To Do 140 Chapter 14 Picking and Measuring Your People 141 Hire Digital Citizens 142 Hire for Analytical Chops 142 Hire for Their Web Reach 143 Hire Content Creators 145 Developing Existing Marketers 145 Tracking Your Progress 146 Inbound in Action: Jack Welch and GE 148 To Do 149 Chapter 15 Picking and Measuring a PR Agency 151 Picking a PR Agency 152 Tracking Your Progress 153 Inbound in Action: Solis, Weber, Defren & Roetzer 154 To Do 155 Chapter 16 Watching Your Competition 157 Tools to Keep Tabs on Competitors 157 Tracking Your Progress 158 Inbound in Action: TechTarget 159 To Do 161 Chapter 17 On Commitment, Patience, and Learning 163 Tracking Your Progress 164 Inbound in Action: Tom Brady 164 To Do 165 Chapter 18 Why Now? 167 Tools and Resources 171 Inbound.org 171 Advanced Google Search 171 Tracking with Site Alerts 173 BONUS: Entrepreneur’s Guide to Startup Marketing 175 Startup Marketing Checklist 175 18 Simple Tips for Naming a New Company 180 Insider Tips on Buying the Domain Name You Love 184 Index 187