The Surround Sound Series: How We Built a Bespoke SERP Tracker and Measured the Results of Our New Content Program (Part 3 of 3) This post is a part of Made @ HubSpot, an internal thought leadership series through which we extract lessons from experiments conducted by our very own HubSpotters. As our three-part series comes to an end, there’s one last question (or two) we need to address: Does the surround sound strategy really work? And what results have we seen since we started using it? The TL;DR answer is yes. It’s working and we’re sharing our preliminary results in this article. So if you’re looking to use surround sound in 2021, the two of us (that’s Irina Nica and Alex Birkett) thought we’d end this short series with a handful of resources: the formula HubSpot uses to measure progress, our proprietary surround sound tracker (aka the SERP Tracker), and a sample of results to hopefully inspire your own endeavor. What is the surround sound strategy? At HubSpot, “surround sound” is the name Alex Birkett gave to a content marketing approach that aims to make HubSpot products visible every time someone searches for a product-related keyword (e.g. “best help desk software” or “best live chat software”). The goal is for potential users to see HubSpot mentioned in all or most of the pages that rank in Google top results for those keywords. Check out the first two articles in the series for a deeper-dive into what is the...

The Surround Sound Series: How We Created A New Content Marketing Program & Improved SERP Visibility Beyond SEO (Part 2 of 3) This post is a part of Made @ HubSpot, an internal thought leadership series through which we extract lessons from experiments conducted by our very own HubSpotters. The way people shop has radically changed. Back in the day, going shopping meant visiting a few shops — maybe some with brands you knew you liked. Now, customers have a wealth of options available online 24/7. They can compare features and prices, read recent reviews, or even get suggestions from influencers and magazines. They can go back and forth between their best options, until they find what suits them best. In this new context, if you want your products or services to be considered when customers weigh their options, you have to be visible where they search for options. You have to be everywhere that matters — in recommended lists, comparison articles, review websites, etc. — so your brand stays top of mind. This is what we call creating a surround sound content strategy for your brand. In this article, I’ll take you through how HubSpot uses surround sound to track and improve its products’ visibility and awareness. What is the surround sound strategy? At HubSpot, “surround sound” is the name Alex Birkett gave to a program that aims to make HubSpot products visible every time someone searches for a product-related keyword (e.g. “best help desk software” or...

The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing in 2020 Your customers, leads, and audience members want valuable content from your business. And that content needs to reach audience members in a way that feels natural and organic versus being disruptive. By honing in on effective content marketing, you can do just that — and as a result, increase conversions, improve brand awareness, boost revenue, establish yourself as an industry leader, and more. In this guide, we'll give you a birds-eye-view of content marketing, types of content marketing, content marketing examples, and how to get a strategy going. Content Marketing Today, outbound marketing strategies (or anything that interrupts your audience members) aren’t as effective at resonating with and converting audience members as they once were. Today, your content needs to reach your audience in a way that feels natural (a.k.a. inbound). A common way of doing this is by creating a narrative for your content — or telling a story. In doing so, your content will feel more authentic, engaging, and tailored to your audience. So, what defines content marketing anyway? Why is content marketing important? Content marketing can also help your business with the following: Educate your leads and prospects about the products and services you offer Boost conversions Build relationships between your customers and business that result in increased loyalty Show your audience how your products and services solve their challenges...

A Behind-the-Scenes Look into HubSpot's Newest Content Marketing Strategy (Part 1 of 3) This post is a part of Made @ HubSpot, an internal thought leadership series through which we extract lessons from experiments conducted by our very own HubSpotters. How do customers discover new products nowadays? Despite there being many ways of becoming aware of a product, there is a simple route to considering it for purchase. If you’re like me, you do it every time you’re looking to buy or try something new: You turn to your friends (and in many cases, Google) and ask, “What are the best X products?” If you’re using Google, your query looks something like this: “Best form builder” “Best fitness tracker” “Best business scanner app” “Best restaurants in Dublin” “Best bars in Boston” Although sometimes, you drop the qualifier (the “best” of) and simply search for a broad transactional category: “Marketing automation software” “Hotels in Tallinn” “Language learning apps” Sometimes, these exploratory keywords exist in relation to an existing solution: “Canva alternatives” “Mailchimp competitors” “Ahrefs vs SEMRush” Image Source As marketers, we know search queries like these are important for two main reasons. The customer journey — the one we write about at HubSpot quite a bit — includes a Consideration stage, where customers attempt to educate themselves about the available solutions on the market, and perhaps the pros and cons of each. We have some good ol’ quantitative...

How to Launch a Successful Multichannel Marketing Strategy If you're even a casual reader of the business blogosphere, you've probably heard more than once about this great big shift in how consumers buy. And although we have plenty of jargon in the marketing world, another term is rising in popularity in response to that shift: multi-channel marketing. What Is Multi-Channel Marketing? Multi-channel marketing is defined by many organizations, unsurprisingly, as communicating with and marketing to prospects and customers across many channels, online and offline. That means instead of running a single start-and-stop campaign or using one marketing tactic, like TV or email, marketers today are pacing with how consumers operate: in lots of places all at once. Think about your own habits: We have enormous choices facing us every day, between thousands of TV channels, numerous screens and devices, and millions of websites and individual pieces of content. That means you might want to perform research and execute a purchase in a lot of different places — by reading a blog post on your tablet,by checking for deals in your inbox,or by visiting a store so you can speak to someone in-person. Multi-channel marketers,then,are ones who identify the channels their target customers are usingand understand how their target customers move from one channel to another to create a congruous experience. What Are the Hallmarks of Great Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies? Multi-channel marketing seeks to establish a marketer's presence across these many places. Online, that includes search engines, blogs, social networks,...