Recently by Timothy Lorang

Guy Kawasaki is quoted as saying, "If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing."

It often seems many large, traditional companies have continued to spend heavily on traditional or outbound marketing while smaller, leaner companies have embraced inbound marketing or as it is sometimes called, content marketing.

Many smaller, cash strapped businesses are often hesitant to try inbound marketing because the "big boys" are not doing it.

Well, according to Brandon Gutman in Forbes online blog, MarketShare, that is all changing.

Check out 5 Big Brands Confirm That Content Marketing Is The Key To Your Consumer. Read the article for all the details and links, but I'll summarize it here. (I have blogged a bit about Inbound Marketing and you can learn more about our Inbound Marketing Services here.)

Gutman profiles five national and international brands and shows how they are embracing what he is calling content marketing to engage with their customers, increase brand awareness and provide value to their customers.

The first thing you may notice is that big companies still spend big money, even when they are doing inbound marketing. This does not mean that you need to spend big money and there are many things you can learn and do from these examples.

The other thing that you will notice is that most of these efforts are not directly selling or promoting their brand or product. They are finding content that is interesting or valuable to their customers and providing them access to that content. Here are some of my thoughts and possible alternatives for smaller companies.

1. Virgin Mobile

Virgin Mobile Live is a social newsroom with up to date links to music, humor, video, technology and a number of other topics of interest to their customers.

This would be a big effort for a small business but posting content from other sources so that your customers and prospects considered you as a resource and clearing house for valuable content can easily be done.

But be careful, I'm not advocating stealing content, but you can link to news and important information or embed videos or infographics with proper link-backs and citations. You will also notice that Virgin makes it very easy to share content on social media with preformatted messages and branding in the tweets, likes and pins.

2. American Express

For American Express Unstaged American Express is creating original video content of some pretty big name musical acts. The videos are of course branded and it exposes fans to the American Express brand. This type of effort will be out of range for even bigger companies but try to image how something similar could work for your company.

The music has nothing to do with American Express but a lot to do with their prospective customers. What kind of entertainment or information do your customers want and you can provide?

A much more modest version of this concept could be the coffee house with an open mic night. Simply recorded videos of some of the better performances could be posted to the coffee house's YouTube channel benefiting both the business and the performer.

3. Marriott

Of all the examples in the article I think Marriott's Renaissance Hotels' Navigators platform and RLife Live program add the most value for their customers. Positioning the Renaissance Hotels as a "lifestyle" brand these online tools help travelers find interesting attractions, food and music near the hotel destination.

For the life of me I cannot figure out why any business involved in travel, hospitality and beverage industries are not doing inbound or content marketing in a big way. There are so many opportunities and topics where they can help their customers. Travelers not only want to find a nice hotel room they want to know where to eat and where to have fun.

There is an interconnected web of benefits for all involved and I think Marriott does a good job.

4. L'Oréal

L'Oréal, like American Express and Virgin Mobile, is not providing content about their product or business, but partnered their Garnier Fructis line with Rolling Stone Magazine to create Women Who Rock, featuring content around new, emerging musicians that their customers would be interested in. Smaller businesses cannot partner with Rolling Stone but they may be able to partner with smaller media organizations or businesses that cater to their customers to the mutual benefit of both partners.

5. Vanguard

Vanguard, an investment management company, has taken the traditional TV commercial format, produced a series of spoofs on classic movie genres and launched their own YouTube Channel called "Vanguard at the Movies". Any business can launch a YouTube Channel and it is a great way to get your content found online. Even without big Hollywood budgets it is possible to make effective videos that will help your business get found.

Inbound Marketing Impressions and Critiques

My one critique of most of these examples is the idea that the only content anyone is interested in is entertainment. That is what the traditional Madison Avenue model of outbound marketing has always been: put on a successful TV show and sell ads around it. For most of these businesses the content they produced had nothing to do with their product.

They made something entertaining for their customers and promoted it so that it is connected to their brand. This can actually be a good lesson for those businesses that say they do not have content that anyone would be interested in. Associate yourself with content that your customers are interested in and promote that content. Still, people need help and information and that is exactly what happens at Take Care Garnier, L'Oréal's more hands on, how to do it content website.

One more thing from the Forbes article; Gutman interviewed Lisa LaCour, VP Marketing from Outbrain and I think her 5 tips bear repeating here:

1. A content strategy should focus on existing customers as well as prospects. Content marketing is a great tool to create brand affinity but can also be powerful in building a new audience of potential customers.
2. When it comes to content marketing, brands should think beyond direct response tactics and focus more on the top of the funnel customer engagement and awareness. Content marketing is a great tool for thought leadership, education and customer relations. Define the appropriate analytics so that the ROI can be measured effectively.
3. An amplification strategy should be a key tactic in a content strategy. Once the content is created, search and social networks can be used to distribute, but you should also make sure to distribute it out to others who may not know it exists. Intent is not created in a search box.
4. Invest in the appropriate resources to meet your objectives.
5. Stay honest and true to the brand

What is your reaction to the examples in the Forbes article? Let us know in the comments section below. If you would like to learn more contact us for a free Inbound Marketing Assessment.

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Readers of this blog will know that I am a HubSpot Partner and I offer the platform as one of my solutions. This does not mean that all of my customers use HubSpot nor does it mean that I think every online business should use HubSpot. Part of my job is to help my customers analyze their situation and find the solution that will be right for them.

That solution may be HubSpot or it may be Google Ad Words or a WordPress website. There are a number of blogs that have addressed this question and several have gone into a feature by feature comparison. I am not going to go into that much detail here but I'll give you the links to those blogs below.

WordPress and HubSpot are tools and like all tools the valuable tools get the job you need done. If you have a flat tire the nicest wrench set is not going to help you if you do not have a jack and a hand cranked jack will lift your car just as much as an hydraulic jack. When you put up a business website you use the tools available to achieve your online business goals.

A business selling online jewelry will have different business goals and a different tool set than a million dollar consultant.

But your knowledge, skill-set and resources may also influence your decision. A master chef can probably make a great omelet with an old frying pan and an electric plate. The chef can do a lot more with a kitchen set up with the tools and utensils the chef needs. (If I were put in that well stocked kitchen I would probably still burn the omelet so I should be left with the electric plate.)

WordPress Has All You Need

The amazing thing about WordPress is that it is free. You can also get for free, or for a very low price, just about any plug-in or widget for WordPress that will enable you to do anything you want to do online. WordPress is very versatile and with some HTML skills or by purchasing a specialized WordPress theme you can make your site look amazing.

All the tools you need to do any of tasks associated with inbound or online marketing can be added to your WordPress site. You can connect MailChimp to WordPress for email and a newsletter.

There are plugins for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Plugins will help you optimize your webpage for SEO or you can add a paid service such as SEOmoz. And we should not forget that WordPress is one of the web's most popular blogging tools.

Notice that I did not say plugins can be "easily added" and the best tools are not usually free. Certainly there are easy and free plugins and WordPress tools but for the most part if you need to do serious work you need to spend a lot of time or spend some money. For example Google Analytics and Google WebTools are very powerful, free tools that give you deep, analytical information about your website.

Most website owners I've talked to have not even put the tracking code in the website never mind delving into the reports and tables. If they do they concentrate on useless metrics like how long someone was on a page. You can also pay between $99 and $499 a month to have a tool like KISSmetrics help you track and interpret this same information.

HubSpot is a Well-Stocked Kitchen

Even if you are not a chef it sometimes helps to have a small pan and a large skillet in the kitchen. It would be even better if the kitchen utensils were labeled so you knew the best pan to fry an omelet or sauté some vegetables. That is what HubSpot does. It puts the tools you need together and integrates them in a way that it is easier to tell what you should do and what is working.

For example when I look at the report that tells me how many people came to my website it also tells me why they came. Did they come because of my Facebook post or because they were searching for a keyword? Do I sell more products when people are responding to a tweet or an email? To top it all off the report is in color so for my simple mind, I can get a visual snapshot almost immediately and delve into the details when I can.

Do Not Use HubSpot, If ...

If you are just going into the kitchen to boil an egg do not bother with HubSpot. At the end of six months you'll be looking at your bank account with a negative balance and you will be frustrated and angry. If your goal is to make beautiful websites that amaze the eye and stimulate the senses do not bother with HubSpot. Not that you can't make beautiful websites on HubSpot but that is not its main purpose.

If you want the freedom to build anything on your website with any tool you choose then do not bother with HubSpot, you may find it too restricting.

If you just need a static website to act as an electronic calling card, then do not bother with HubSpot, it is overkill.

If you have a small cash flow and no plans to use online marketing to increase business then do not bother with HubSpot because you will go broke.

But, if you are a marketer or online business and you want to be freed from the burden of getting the information you need to make business decisions then consider HubSpot.

And, if you want to know what marketing actions affect your bottom line then consider HubSpot.

If you want tools you need in one place then consider HubSpot.

If you want to concentrate on marketing and not web development then consider HubSpot.

Other Bloggers Weigh in on HubSpot vs. WordPress

A number of other bloggers have gone into much more detail than I have on the features and the pros and cons of HubSpot and WordPress. Here is a brief list:

Marcus Sheridan is The Sales Lion and a small businessman who achieved a lot with HubSpot. He also has an extensive background in WordPress and his two blogs, The Most Important Customer Review of Hubspot You'll Ever Read and The Most In-Depth HubSpot Vs. WordPress Review Ever Written, go into a lot of depth with a feature by feature analysis.

Zach Browne is an internet veteran with lots of experience doing custom websites and CRM deployments. His blog HUBSPOT VS WORDPRESS FOR SEO, IS HUBSPOT WORTH IT? is posted on his WordPress site.

Adarsh Thampy is the Conversion Champ and another non-HubSpot user who goes into a lot of detail in his blog Hubspot Review: Should You Buy This Inbound Marketing Tool? As a follow up he posted WordPress: A FREE Alternative to Hubspot, that lays out exactly what you need to have to match HubSpot's functionality on Wordpress. At the bottom of this blog he has a quiz that will help you decide what platform to use.

From my friend Doug Kirk, CEO of Optimize 3.0 we have #1 Reason Why Hubspot Doesn't Work | Hubspot Fails| Hubspot good? Doug is a HubSpot user but has a great perspective on why it doesn't work for many people.

One caveat on these reviews, HubSpot keeps making upgrades and changes to its system. Many of these reviews were written before the upgrade to HubSpot3 so there have been many changes and upgrades to the HubSpot feature set.

Tell me what your favorite platform is and why you prefer it in the comments section below. But take a look at the video from HubSpot.

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In the January 21, 2013 issue of The New Yorker financial reporter James Surowiecki writes about the sunk-cost effect.

In the article Surowiecki uses the example of New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. The Jets extended Shanchez's contract and will pay him $8.25 million next year even though he has thrown more career interceptions than touchdowns. The Jets bet big on Sanchez and against all evidence they are hoping that their investment will pay off if they keep at it.

This not only happens in sports it happens in big and small businesses all the time. You have invested, or sunk, a lot of time and money into a project and even though it is not getting results you continue to invest. I often see this with online businesses who have a new website that is not getting the results they need but will not give it up because they have invested so much in it.

The article quotes Hal Arkes, a psychologist at Ohio State University, "Abandoning a project that you've invested a lot in feels like you've wasted everything, and waste is something we're told to avoid".

It's not only about waste it is about reputations. Giving up on a project is like admitting a mistake and accepting failure is something that is very hard to do. In sports you can fire the coaches (something the Jets did do) and in business you can bring in a new manager. Not having been part of the original decision new blood can look objectively at a problem and make changes without admitting having made a mistake.

This is a lot harder to do in a small business or for those of us who are sole proprietors or solopreneurs. Abandoning a failed project also goes against the common business ethos to just stick with it. If quitters never win then when you quit you are a failure. Investing more in a poor quarterback or a failed online marketing strategy is what is called "escalation of commitment" and it just deepens the sink hole.

When to Dump Your Online Business Strategy

There are definite advantages to sticking to a project, marketing plan or a business but you need to know when you are being patient and steadfast or just plain obstinate. Every successful enterprise or winning team has had its dips and disappointments but that does not mean that success is on the other side of every dip or sink hole.

Any small business faced with this dilemma needs to read Seth Godin's The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit. In fact one quotable Godin insight is, "Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations". It is hard to admit a mistake and move on so my advice is to reframe your outlook and think like a scientist.

• Experiment: Everything you do is an experiment. Some things will work and other things will fail. Accept and keep the successes and dump the failures. As Seth Godin says, "Stick with the Dips that are likely to pan out, and quit the Cul-de-Sacs to focus your resources".
• It's not personal: If success depended on our good looks and intentions then more successful people would be well intentioned and good looking. If something you tried fails you are not the failure. Unless you keep trying the same failed project.
• Rely on statistics: Did the project increase web traffic? Did it decrease sales? Rely on the numbers and do not get personally invested in the outcome.
• Focus on the goal: One of the hardest things to know is what activity is moving you toward the goal and what is keeping you away from the goal. To quote Godin again, "Persistent people are able to visualize the idea of light at the end of the tunnel when others can't see it".

None of this is easy. If it were we would all be champions, but it is possible to move beyond the sink hole.

In The New Yorker article Surowiecki tells how the Seattle (my home town) Seahawks signed quarterback Matt Flynn to a hefty free-agent contract. Even though the Seahawks had a lot invested in Flynn and he had a guaranteed contract, new draftee Russell Wilson outperformed Flynn and was put in the starting lineup.

A heartbreaking loss in the final seconds of the Atlanta Falcons game doesn't diminish Wilson's role in getting the Seahawks into the playoffs.

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In early 2103, the Director of the CIA became the latest example showing that managing an online profile and a professional reputation is very difficult.

Many people bemoan the fact that your personal life can be so easily exposed and what many consider private conversations can be so public. It is true and in spite of warnings for at least the past 20 years to not put anything in an email that you would not want your Mother to read on the front page of the New York Times many people do just that and are shocked when their private emails end up on the front page of the New York Times.

Not only is it fairly easy to find salacious tidbits and scandalous gossip online, with Facebook and Twitter the news spreads faster, is distorted quicker and travels further than at any time in history.

No wonder many are reluctant to get involved, especially if your reputation is important to your business or career.

Many people I talk to balk when I say that because of their business they have to get involved with social media and need to maintain a good online profile. "No way," they say to me, "did you see the 'Social Network?' Nothing is private anymore."

We need put this into perspective, however.

The last 100 years or so have represented a brief period in history where people could live a private life and a public life.

Billie Holiday used to sing:

If I go to church on Sunday
And I shimmy down on Monday,
It ain't nobody's business if I do.

When we look back at the idyllic village and small town America of the 19th century we often extol the independent small businessman and the local shopkeeper who knew their customers and provided for their needs. We envy the farmer who worked hard then helped his neighbor raise a barn or the friendly cop on the beat who knew everybody's name.

Many people have compared the new online digital village to this romantic, neighborly past.

That may be an over simplification but unlike the mass businesses of the 20th century today's online businesses can better connect to, know and cater to their customers. For more about this read my blogs about Seth Godin's new book, "We Are All Weird," and What Seth Godin's "Weird" Can Teach Us about Social Media Marketing.

The down side of the personal relationship of the villages is that everybody knew what everybody else was doing. If the blacksmith's assistant kissed the farmer's daughter behind the barn you can be pretty sure everybody in town knew about it. The new world of online commerce and community also brings a transparency that many of us are not used to. What should you do about it?

Well, first off, you need to be more realistic about your expectations. If you want to be able to reach a wider market online in a personal way that connects with your customers you need to be prepared for a certain level of transparency.

If you are trying to be an alternative to impersonal mass marketers and opaque large businesses then embrace the opportunity for transparency and connection. If your personal beliefes and actions support your business and connect with your customers then shout it from the roof top and tweet till the cows come home. If your personal believes and actions do not mesh with your customers' then be a bit more discreet.

Being discreet means you need to be more careful online. Now I want to go on record as one who really doesn't care what someone does in their private life. That is their business.

I also believe in free speech. I think anyone can say what they want as long as it does not harm another person. Does that mean that I think anyone can and should say and do anything they want?

Well it depends. If you are trying to earn a living online and your business or career depends upon your reputation, then yes, you need to watch what you say. As one online business person told me, posting political or religious opinions on their Facebook page would be like a shopkeeper putting a sign in their window that said: All Welcome except Democrats and Methodists. Why turn away business when that business has nothing to do with personal beliefs and politics?

If your doing business online or if you represent a company or organization and you are active online you need to be careful, even with very personal matters like our friends in the CIA. Monitor your business, your name and your reputation online and avoid giving others the ammunition they need to make your life difficult.

For some more information take a look at some of my past blogs on how to maintain your professional online profile.

Recently I was helping some friends get their social media accounts set up for their new coffee shop.

A local business like a coffee shop is not going to get a lot of value from many techniques used by content and inbound marketers.

Their new coffee shop, Café Love in Olympia, Washington, is not going to generate customers with a blog. (Well, they could generate customers with a blog but it would need to be special and that would not be the first thing I would suggest.)

Café Love will benefit from a social media presence and getting found on internet searches.

As I was working with Vanessa and Marty I thought it would be good to have a quick list of the accounts that should be set up.

This list would be great for any business but especially for location based businesses that depend on local traffic and people actually coming into their business.

This could include any type of restaurant, or business in the food and beverage industry; services such as barbers and beauty solons; automobile services, pet services, grooming and supplies; dancing schools and music stores; any type of brick and mortar stores; private businesses; franchise businesses; government offices and services; charity and non-profit services; and medical and health services.

The exact mix of accounts and what works best for you and your customers may vary a bit but this is where I would start.

Remember to experiment, see what works best and to try new things.

1. Facebook

With Facebook practically ubiquitous in North America it would be silly to ignore this. Remember to set up a personal account first then set up a business page. Once that is done you can invite others to help you administer the page. A few things to be sure to do:

• Pick the correct category for your business
• Set up your address so you show up on the map location
• Put in your contact information
• Learn about setting up Check-in Deals
• Create and promote events
• Adds can be targeted to your locations and to your customer profile
• Update with photos of your space, products and events

2. Twitter

You can set up a Twitter account for your business and use it to promote your business, sales and events and connect with your customers and fans. Twitter may not be for every local business but there are a number of things you can do to make it more effective:

• Follow and promote other local businesses
• In Twitter Search use the Advanced Search to find people and business in "places" near you
• Act like a person people would want to do business with, not an advertising broadcaster
• Tweet about specials and coupons featured on your other accounts like Facebook and Foursqure
• Send photos of events, regular customers and products

3. Foursquare

It is easy and free to set up Foursqure for business and Foursqure keeps track of your fans and check-ins for you.

• Make sure the address is correct so you show up on maps and searches
• Reward the mayor and frequent customers
• Set up check-in specials
• Post new images and photos
• Connect to your other social media accounts
• Foursqure Badges are connected to certain activities and businesses and are half the fun. What badges can your customers earn and how you can you make it fun?

4. Myspace

The obituaries for myspace have been written but I wouldn't nail the coffin shut yet because it is reinventing itself as the social media location for bands and entertainers. If your location business features live bands and entertainers then set up a Myspace account and connect and promote the bands, singers, comedians and dancers who will perform at your business.

5. Google+ and Google Locations

I've written that Google Places is now Google+ Local and published an eBook on the importance of Claiming Your Google Places. Google is such a big player now that it is important for any location based business to set up a Google+ Business Page and to claim their Google Places. Not only will this help you get found on Google searches you will show up on searches for Google Maps. This is essential especially when people do searches on their smart phones and that is exactly where you want to show up, when people are out looking for your services or product. A few things you should be sure to do:

• Put in your contact information
• List your hours of operation
• Put a link to your menu or web site
• Follow statistics about views for your listing
• Use offers and coupons
• Share updates about events, specials and more

6. Google Express Ads

In a recent blog I wrote that Google AdWords Express was a great solution for small business marketing. If you have thought about Pay-Per-Click ads but were intimidated by setting up Google AdWords or you do not have a website then this may be a great solution. This is specifically designed for small, location based businesses and is aimed at walk-in customers. It is worth checking out. If you need help we have a free Google Adwords consultation.

7. Yelp

Yelp is the other big location search engine and it is defiantly worth setting up an account and putting in your business' location and information. Yelp is famous for its reviews and this is something you want to be aware of and to follow.

8. Punchcard

I do not often push paid solutions but punchard is one that I have recently looked into that I like. It is a loyalty punch card system optimized for mobile applications. Your customers take a photo of their receipt and can redeem coupons and specials from you along the lines of buy 10 lattes and get the 11^th latte free. As the business you get an amazing amount of information from your customers who check in so that you can tailor specials, coupons and promotions directly to the customer. For example set up specials for the customer who loves muffins, only comes in on Friday or never seems to spend more the $5. It is worth a look if rewarding loyal customers is important to you.

Another paid solution that I do not have a lot of experience with but I know others who swear by it is Groupon and similar coupon services.

9. Local Listings

There are a number of other places your business can be listed depending upon your location. Check out the local Chamber of Commerce, local newspapers or your city's official website. There is often a place to list local businesses. Depending on what is going on locally there may be a website devoted to local businesses or certain types of business such as restaurants or nightclubs. Search for businesses similar to yours and see where they are listed. Most of these sites will at least have a free listing and many will have enhanced services for a fee. What is important to you will determine what will be the best option.

10. Keep Track and Reward

Remember to keep track of what is bringing customers in. With Foursqure and Facebook you will be able to see who checks in but ask your customers what they are doing and how they found out about you. Run different specials and coupons on different sites and see what generates business. Remember to reward your customers who connect with you on social media and promote your business. If a customer is telling others about you, that is free advertising so thank them from time to time.

What have I left off the list that you think is good for local advertising and social media promotion? Tell us what you are doing in the comments below. If you are a small or local business we can give you a free social media marketing evaluation. Let us know how we can help.

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There are some common myths that inbound marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising like Google AdWords' paid search are mutually exclusive. You do one or the other and if you are a proponent of one you are against the other.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

They each play a specific role and can even support each other. Many of the concepts and techniques are the same but the reasons to use one strategy over the other may be different and the results may be different.

Let's take a look at some of the differences.

Getting Found on Search Results

Both will get your website found on searches but the way they do it will be different.

• • Inbound: Working with keywords you build content such as blogs and optimize your on-page SEO to help your website turn up on search results. Where you turn up in the results depends upon your content and the competition for the keywords.
  • Google AdWords: Working with keywords you bid to have an ad placed on Google's search results page. This is also competitive and exactly where your ad shows up depends on a number of factors including the competition for the keyword and your budget. With a properly setup campaign your ad will show up on the first page of search results. Remember, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, not for it to show up in a search.

Time vs. Money

There are no silver bullets in marketing and there is a cost no matter what you do.

• • Inbound: Getting on the first page of search results is not an overnight process. It could take months of blogging and promotion before your website ranks in the top 10 results for a particular keyword in a Google search. The good thing is once your page ranks high on Google Search it will stay there a long time. Success tends to last with inbound marketing.
  • Google AdWords: Success is an overnight process. As soon as you start a successful campaign you ads will turn up on searches and you will start to get clicks. As soon as you stop the ads the clicks will stop. There is no long lasting benefit to doing a PPC campaign.

Similarities

This is an area where there are a lot of similarities between Google AdWords PPC campaigns and inbound marketing. For both you need:

• • Keywords: Both PPC and inbound marketing are based on your keyword strategy. These are the words your potential customers will search to find your website. It is important to understand what those words are, how often people search for the words and how competitive the words are. For inbound marketing you build content around the keywords and for PPC you bid on the keywords.
  • Clear Call-to-Action: Whether it is in an ad, in your blog or in a tweet you need to have a call-to-action that induces your potential customer to visit your website.
  • Landing Page: If someone clicks a PPC ad or a link in a search result they need to land on a page that makes sense. If the ad says "Buy Red Tennis Shoes" the landing page better have red tennis shoes you can buy. If the link says "15 Little-Known Internet Marketing Facts You Need to Know" there better be 15 facts there.

Deciding on whether you do an inbound marketing campaign or a PPC AdWords Campaign depends on your website, customers, budget and time. For information on setting up a Google AdWords campaign check out HubSpot's A Simple Guide for Setting Up Your First Google AdWords Campaign or my blog on 10 Google AdWords Mistakes

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I could not resist commenting on Dilbert on Social Media: Vague Plans , or costly BS Plans. (Comic by Scott Adams: Dilbert)

A great illustration of the two polar reactions to social media experts.

1. We don't know exactly what you do nor do we understand what you are talking about so, then you must be right.
2. Social media experts are full of costly bullsh**t.

People who believe 1. will eventually be disappointed because you are not performing magic.

The people who believe 2. will never trust you.

Part of our responsibility is to educate people about online marketing and to give them value for their investment.

Just because some people believe those one of the statements does not mean that social media gurus, inbound marketers, and online experts have to be that way.

Here are a few things to practice:

1. Be Transparent: There is no secret sauce. Anyone with a Google Search Engine and some time can learn what you know about social media. Tell people what you are doing.
2. It's a Science: There is a science to all of this. If you don't think so spend some time on Marketingexperiments.com DanZarrell.com, and SEOMoz.org.
3. It's an Art: This is marketing and you are asking people to do things like click something or like something. People are different and they react to different things differently. Because something worked once in one situation does not necessarily mean it will work in another situation. Be upfront about the variances but don't be vague.
4. Don't Over Promise: Just like any business it is important for you to understand what you can deliver and what you cannot. Getting more "likes" on Facebook may not get your client more sales. Be realistic and remember: Under promise and over deliver.
5. Return On Investment: Measure, track and quantify to demonstrate what your client is getting. Be sure everyone knows what the goal is and how you will show you have achieved it. Offer value.
6. It's a Tool: Social media is one of the tools in your toolbox and it is not the objective.
7. Look at the Big Picture: Aligning your skills, tools and methods to your client's goals will help both of you be successful. They say the devil is in the details, but don't drown in a sea of minutiae.

I attended a webinar this morning by Seth Godin, and someone asked him about how to convince people who don't understand social media or inbound marketing to try it.

In essence he said not to bother. The people who think it is bull will continue to think it is bull no matter what. Those who think social media is some vague type of voodoo will never have reasonable expectations. Spend time with those who see the value you can offer and will work with you to achieve their goals.

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