Technology , HubSpot Product Updates
Welcome to a new year...and a new decade! Hopefully, you’ve come back well-rested and ready to hit the ground running - especially if you have big business goals for the year.
In order to achieve those goals, you might need to reassess your marketing systems and processes. Are they helping propel you into 2020 and beyond, or holding you back in 2019?
["content marketing", "agency news"]
When Wilderness Motorhomes reached out to Inbound Marketing agency, Engaging Partners, to work out how to leverage their investment in marketing automation (HubSpot) it lead to a journey of discovery (literally!) with the invention of new way for holiday-planners to evaluate and select the perfect motorhome for their 'trip of a lifetime'. Find out how this multi-award winning solution was created and why it has been so successful.
["marketing automation"]
Engaging Partners and Unitec have joined forces to bring you an Inbound Marketing course that will give you real-life experience using key marketing automation software HubSpot and the latest Inbound Marketing theory.
Marketing as we know it has drastically evolved in the past decade and the movement of Inbound Marketing is at the forefront of this change. With such rapid development in the marketing space, and the dramatic advances coming from automation, many marketers have been caught not having the talent or skills to manage their new platforms. There's a need to arm marketers with digital marketing skills and knowledge but, until now, there hasn’t been a dedicated tertiary course to deliver it.
["#kiwihug events"]
Come to our next KiwiHUG meet-up on Thursday 12th April in Auckland. You’ll hear from Jonathan Williams (HubSpot and ex-Google) on the latest tips, tricks, and tools to get more of the right type of people visiting your digital content and converting to leads.
["content marketing"]
By now you’re sure to have noticed just how important content marketing is when it comes to attracting inbound leads and building strong customer relationships. And one of the keys to the success of content marketing is that it’s dynamic. Instead of just doing the same thing and expecting results, it evolves and keeps things fresh, in line with our ever changing digital world.
This is great, but... to make the most of content marketing you and your business needs to know what these developments are and keep up with trending content types.["agency news"]
Marketing in a world gone digital can be terrifying.
The frightening truth is digital marketing today needs to be a core function - one that connects marketing activity with all aspects of a business and every touch point of a customer relationship, but making the shift can be scary.
So today, in a move designed to better support our clients, Done by Friday has become Done by Friday the 13th – an Inbound Marketing agency that focuses on providing specialist content and inbound marketing services to businesses in need of a marketing transfusion, yet too afraid to leave the house.
["inbound marketing"]
It’s out again, your go-to marketing and sales report! The Hubspot State of Inbound 2017 is packed with useful insights into the ever-changing world of inbound marketing. State of Inbound 2017lets you easily digest the current challenges that marketers and sales reps are facing, as well as keeping you ahead of the coming trends and innovations that will ultimately shape the inbound marketing world.
So, without further ado, here are our five key takeaways from State of Inbound 2017 for you to consider, and include in your inbound marketing strategy.
["inbound marketing"]
Done by Friday has achieved Platinum status with HubSpot, showing again that DBF is New Zealand’s leading inbound marketing agency. This status is only given to agencies who have executed inbound marketing services to the highest standards, and DBF are the first agency in New Zealand to earn it.
Not only are DBF the first agency in New Zealand to gain this status, they’re now also one of only five agencies with Platinum status in Australasia, joining an elite group of inbound agencies around the world.
["#kiwihug events"]
Join us at our next KiwiHUG event on Thursday the 28th of June at Grid Auckland. Guest speakers from Done By Friday and HubSpot will share the latest innovations in marketing technology and how you can utilise these to improve your customer experience.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Don't forget to connect with our online LinkedIn group here, and get involved; contribute to discussions if you have advice or post a question if you need help from our community of leading marketers.
["content marketing", "#kiwihug events"]
It was great to see so many people navigate their way through the unforeseen construction work on Pakenham Street to get to our first event of the year. While we may have missed the beer, we hope you all enjoyed the donut supplements and were able to take at least one Ah-ha! a moment back to the office with you.
And, for those of you who could not make it to our Auckland event, we are sorry to have missed you but our Top 4 Takeaways and presentations from the event (+ bonus HubSpot updates slides) will help fill in some of the blanks when it comes to attracting more of the right type of visitors to your website!
["content marketing", "inbound marketing"]
The Content Marketing team of Sonia Slattery, Boyd Wason, Susanne Johnson and Scott Wheeler have now all achieved relevant individual HubSpot certifications.
As a HubSpot Certified Agency Partner the DBF team is regularly tested to ensure a qualified content marketing approach based on the highly successful HubSpot Inbound Methodology. The Inbound Certification Programme covers social media marketing, email marketing, content management, website analytics and search engine optimization.
["#kiwihug events", "sales enablement"]
It's the most wonderful time of year again. No, not the holidays... our November #KiwiHUG! We're gearing up for another exciting update in the world of inbound.
Here's what you can expect at the upcoming event...
["content marketing", "inbound marketing"]
For the past seven years, HubSpot has undertaken its State of Inbound research and this year, for the first time, APAC will be included.
HubSpot's State of Inbound Reports are comprehensive annual overviews on how the Content Marketing (or 'Inbound' as HubSpot defines it) industry is evolving and how companies around the globe are shifting the way they are marketing.
The reports always include great insights and takeaways, and you'll often find us referring to State of Inbound research in our blogs, like last year's Top 7 Content Marketing Trends.
["content marketing", "inbound marketing"]
Done by Friday has received HubSpot Certification.
HubSpot Certification requires partners to undergo an extensive 17 module training course, sit a 90 minute written exam and pass a practicum covering all areas of inbound marketing best practise on the HubSpot platform.
HubSpot is the world’s leading inbound marketing and sales platform and works hand-in-hand with Agency Partners, like Done by Friday, to provide inbound software, services and support.
["content marketing", "digital marketing"]
I'm sure you appreciate that Social Media is for more than just liking funny cat pictures or tweeting what someone said on TV. Recently we’ve come across a number of businesses that are struggling to see how they can harness the power of Social Media, that is until we’ve shown them how it use it to generate leads as part of a Content Marketing programme.
["content marketing"]
Done by Friday has joined the Marketing Association’s panel of industry experts to help progress Content Marketing best practice in New Zealand.
“Content Marketing is just taking off in New Zealand and a key challenge is a lack of local resources and information. So it’s great to be able to support the Marketing Association to provide thought leadership and help guide the development of local resources.” says Boyd Wason, Done by Friday’s Managing Director.
["content marketing", "inbound marketing"]
The statistic that stood out the most for me was that 91% of B2B marketers in the US are now using content marketing - up from 60% only a year ago. I think he's correct when he puts some of this down to marketers bringing disparate elements already in use in their marketing activity (such as sales generation and social media), together under a content marketing plan or strategy. I also think he's on the money with his comments, in particular the quote from HubSpot about marketing automation not being a 'once and done' proposition.
["content marketing"]
Here's a great article from Marc Cowlin writing for This Moment about how Spotify took advantage of the less than positive news that Taylor had withdrawn from not just Spofity, but a number of other streaming music services.
I did a little further digging of my own and found that Pandora have negotiated an agreement with Swift's record label to play her music - look forward to seeing how Pandora shake up Social Media with some newsjacketing of their own.["content marketing", "how-tos", "how to..."]
A quality blog helps your business get found online, builds relationships with prospective customer who are interested in your products and improves your ranking in search engines. The only problem?
...Writing good blogs that actually perform is actually quite challenging. In fact, there is a science behind blog writing that ensures the blogs you write hit the mark with your target readers and deliver results for your business.
To help you get into blog-writer-extraordinaire mode, we've outlined key steps to creating great content. Follow these steps and you'll be writing quality blog content that really performs for your business in no time.
["sales enablement", "how to..."]
Every day the average salesperson juggles a hundred and one urgent tasks while facing constant pressure to deliver results. It can feel like there just isn't enough time in the week to deliver excellence.
As a marketer, your goal should be to assist the sales team to help them optimise their time and get results. Luckily HubSpot is absolutely packed with features that make this possible.
Here's everything you need to know about one of our favourite HubSpot features - snippets.
["sales enablement"]
Sales enablement describes the technologies, processes and strategies that allow sales teams to sell faster, better and more efficiently. In many organisations (larger corporations in particular) sales enablement strategies and technologies are the keys to unlocking the business's full potential and resolving frustrations between sales and marketing departments.
The problem is so many big businesses are stuck using legacy sales systems and old strategies and are reluctant to update due to the time and cost involved with doing so. Updating may take considerable time and effort - but if you can prove ROI in the long term it's all worth it.
["content marketing", "how to..."]
As an in-house marketing manager, you've got a tough job to do. You need to be a marketing Swiss Army Knife, organising everything from social media marketing to website design and copywriting, and you probably do it with a small, under-resourced team.
To help make one part of your job easier we've provided a quick guide to choosing the right platform to share your content. There are countless platforms available, and choosing the right one is the key to successfully engaging your target audience.
["inbound marketing", "marketing automation", "how to..."]
Whether you realise it or not, if you’re a Marketer using digital platforms today, chances are you're using marketing automation in some shape or form.
Simple tasks like scheduling a website page in your CMS to be published on a future date; more complex tasks like creating sophisticated email nurture workflows or creating online chat functionality - all these channels use the power of marketing automation technology to publish content efficiently and intelligently.
However, if you’ve ever been a victim of automated messaging ‘spam’ you’ll know there’s a big difference between well crafted automated communications that are relevant and helpful, and content that is just simply annoying.
["content marketing", "how to..."]
The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to revise your content marketing strategy - and the best place to start is with a full audit of your company blog. After all, your blog posts are usually the most common entry point to your website (and your brand).
Today most blogs exist as 'evergreen' content - meaning they stay there forever to be discovered by your prospects, leads and customers as they research their problems and your business offers. As we all know - a lot can happen in a year - so it's important to conduct a regular audit of your blog so you know what posts are there, which are working well, which are not working and which need updating to be more relevant to your business and target personas.
["sales enablement"]
Sales and marketing are meant to work together to reach the achieve the same goals but they usually don't. This means that neither can reach their potential - sales won't get the quality leads they need from marketing and marketing don't get feedback so that they can fine-tune their approach.
These maddening inefficiencies make life harder for businesses all over New Zealand.The good news is that there's a solution.
["inbound marketing"]
It can be hard juggling the day to day demands of business while still paying close attention to your inbound marketing strategy - especially when it comes to analysing your ROI. If you feel this way, you’re not alone.
HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2017 reported that 40% of marketers found proving marketing ROI as their primary challenge. When it comes to ROI — and it always does — it’s about quality versus quantity, which can often mean getting more out of less. But the sheer volume and variety of data available these days, often at the click of a mouse, can be more of a curse than a blessing.
["digital marketing"]
We’ve talked before on our blog about how the rise in video technology should be a key focus in your 2017 marketing strategy. And now with Apple enabling video playback within Apple Mail, it’s more important than ever that you ensure your business is ready for this growing trend and its impact on your marketing strategy.
As ever, we’re here to give you the skinny on the latest innovations in digital marketing, and show you the best way to take it in your stride and get the full benefits.
["marketing automation"]
Marketing Automation is much more than just a trendy buzzword — it’s here to stay and is destined to become the status quo for any successful inbound marketing strategy. We’re so impressed with the potential of Marketing Automation that we’ve written an eBook to showcase its bounty of benefits. Here’s a little insight from The Modern Marketer’s Guide to Marketing Automation.
["marketing automation"]
Recently, Inbound legends Hubspot surveyed a bevy of marketers to reveal their biggest marketing challenges. Check out the top three across respondents below:
["digital marketing"]
Tribes and Permission Marketing left a huge impression on me and helped me shape the service offering we developed in the early days at Tango. I've been looking back at one of his early books, The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better, and its amazing to see to the problems he identified back then are still alive and kicking today. A lot of digital is developed for either form or function, and not enough is created with clear objectives and consumers in mind.
Seth recently commented about this on his blog...I also really like the statement on his website - "go make something happen".
["inbound marketing", "marketing automation", "how to..."]
Many of our clients use events and conferences to promote their products and services locally and internationally.
Did you know you can leverage your HubSpot platform (or other marketing automation platform), to capture interest from leads who visit you at events? And, did you know that by capturing these leads, you can then nurture them with relevant content just like you do with any other Inbound Marketing activity?
And even better, this approach can be replicated for every event you attend.
["content marketing", "inbound marketing", "marketing automation", "how to..."]
It’s month end. You’re looking at your GA results. Your website stats are looking healthy – but for some reason, they just don’t seem to be converting into leads and sales for your business.
If this sounds familiar then it’s time to look at nurturing – your leads, that is!
With the smarts of todays marketing automation platforms, it’s entirely achievable to design and implement highly sophisticated lead nurture programmes that close this gap, gently encouraging your website visitors and leads towards purchase.
["marketing automation"]
In many of our recent blogs we’ve discussed the benefits of marketing automation and how to choose a marketing automation platform. But let’s back up the truck a little...all this is great stuff, but what if you’re unsure about exactly what marketing tasks you can even expect to automate?
In this blog we share an excerpt from our latest eBook: A Modern Marketers Guide to Marketing Automation that covers our TOP 6 marketing tasks to automate.
Enjoy!
["digital marketing"]
As a business owner, chances are you’re interested in effective ways to get quality leads at a low cost. You’ve probably also heard of Facebook lead ads, a growing way of generating leads that could be a worthwhile investment of your advertising dollars. So what are Facebook lead ads, and are they the way to go for you?
["digital marketing"]
We all know how important it is to turn every possible lead into a customer – it’s at the heart of every business. But the reality is that after the sale, with this focus it’s easy for your customers to be overlooked while you’re on the never-ending search for fresh leads. So how does this look for your business?
Research has shown that while 82% of marketer’s state that retaining customers is cheaper than finding new ones, only 15% of companies place a strong focus on retention. And with the average cost of attracting a new customer being widely accepted as five times the amount of keeping an existing one, a focus on retaining customers could mean some serious savings for many companies.
["content marketing", "inbound marketing"]
The offers you provide to web users can make a huge difference; the more engaged customers you have, the more likely you are to build a loyal fan base, drive sales, and grow revenue.
The art of creating an irresistible offer may take some practice to master, but with the right approach, you can take your business in a whole new direction. Looking for tips and tricks to move your company forward? With our free "32 Proven Content Marketing Tips, Tricks and Ideas" eBook, you'll have everything you need to make this your best year for content marketing yet.
["content marketing", "how to..."]
Although it's compelling to spend days on end analysing every facet of your marketing strategy to find the missing link, the answer is probably simpler than you think – your calls to action.
Simply put, if your prospective customers don't know what you want from them, they won't be motivated to act. When your CTAs are weak, site users are likely to move on without engaging, leaving the time and energy you poured into your digital marketing strategies all for naught. With our free "32 Proven Content Marketing Tips, Tricks and Ideas" eBook, you can explore the ins and outs of what it takes to craft a great CTA.
["content marketing", "inbound marketing"]
If you’re tasked with growing your website traffic, increasing the quality and quantity of leads that you pass to your sales team and driving your sales revenue targets, then the upcoming Auckland Grow With HubSpot event is for you!The Event is set to teach you how to implement an inbound strategy that will help you achieve these goals and introduce you to a panel of local HubSpot customers who are growing their businesses with inbound marketing today.
There’s no doubt that you have ambitious growth plans for your business this year, but is your digital marketing strategy set up to propel you towards meeting (and hopefully exceeding) those goals?
["content marketing"]
From resolutions to change for the better to a fresh, blank slate for your business and marketing objectives, 2016 brings with it a new series of content marketing predictions for the future, forcing a change in perspective from what 2015 had to offer.
Ranging from continued growth of mobile to new episodic content trends, content marketing in 2016 is predicted to put your existing strategy well out of date. Get on top of the trend wave with the help of our free “32 Proven Content Marketing Tips, Tricks and Ideas” eBook which is packed full of professional advice and solutions that can help you design new strategies to keep up with our following predictions for 2016.
["inbound marketing"]
Everyone wants their website content at the top of the Google search results page, and with good reason when the first result, on average, captures 33% of search traffic. As a savvy marketer, you know that competition for this space is fierce and can be expensive if you're boosting your organic results with Google Adwords or Bing Ads.
Any marketer worth their 2c today knows that if you want to organically shimmy your way up the search result ladder, then search engine optimisation (SEO) is a must. Although SEO is a constantly changing discipline and can quickly become very sophisticated, we've written this article to give you a quick recap on three key things you should know about SEO today, to ensure your company website is keeping up...
["content marketing", "inbound marketing", "digital marketing"]
You’re bound to have heard numberous strategies and theories about how to build a social media following for brands - content is king, it’s a two-way conversation, don’t be salesy - maybe you’ve even read chapter 29 in our eBook – 32 Proven Content Marketing Tips, Tricks and Ideas!
These strategies are all correct, but how do you turn these ideas into practise? Here are a few tactics you can start implementing today to build upon these fundamental strategies.
