Pardon my language, but it is about to get worse, so I might as well warn you now. If you are easily offended, don't keep reading. In fact, you may want to unsubscribe from this blog. Hopefully you will laugh, I sure did. I debated whether or not to share the following thoughts, and my fellow Inbound Networkers told me not to waste my time. But I feel like there are multiple lessons to be shared and learned. And if not, then maybe someone else will at least get a laugh.

"We are not responsible or accountable for your sales."

I cringe whenever I hear a marketing agency or "professional" say this. I recently heard it from a prospect who was frustrated with their current marketing agency who said this to them when they were asked why the client wasn't seeing results. As in sales. In their minds, their responsibility ended when the email campaigns went out. They weren't responsible for what happened after they hit the send button. 

What entrepreneuers can learn about time management from a Super Bowl loss.

Sometimes I ask my husband to review my blog posts. If it makes sense to him, then I've done my job. But this is one post I am hoping he doesn't actually read. When the Patriots lost to the Giants (the first time) in the Super Bowl, it was dead silent at my house for a few days. No one really dared to speak. The usual replays of the game were not allowed on TV and every so often you would hear someone suddenly exclaim, "Damn Patriots!"

And other Sales and marketing thoughts for the weekend.

Looking back over the past week's conversations, blog post reads and other things that have caught my eye, these questions seemed to stick with me on my Friday review. And sure, maybe I'm feeling Seth Godin-ized now that I know he will be keynoting at Inbound2013. And perhaps these are just my reflections and mean nothing to anyone but me. (Is that why Seth doesn't allow comments on his blog? hmmm)

What does customer experience mean to your business in the 21st century?

"Remember the golden rule. He who has the gold, makes the rules."

Are you an entreprenuer who eats what you kill?

A few weeks ago I was having a LinkedIn exchange with a fellow group member. Eventually we got to a point where he said this in his email.

A salesman is a better marketer or a marketer is a better salesman?

These days, if you are not entreprenuerial in some way- you are being left behind. It is no longer a phrase exclusive to small busineses and start-ups. The most successful company founders and CEOs know that the entreprenuerial mindset is a major component to 21st century innovation and growth.

Marketing strategies both on- and offline can be described as in a state of utter unpredictability these days. 

Why Do You Perform a Keyword Analysis?

• To get visitors to your website through free organic rankings.  (Getting found in search engines based on keyword relevancy not pay-per-click).
• To get qualified traffic to your site. (The customers who need and want your product or service).
• To "Get You Found" in search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) for keyword phrases.
• To enable you to convert visitors into leads and leads into customers.

How Do You perform a Keyword
Analysis?

1. Identify Obvious Keywords - the ones you can think of easily, often this will include your products or services.

2. Look at your websites access log for keywords that are bringing people to you.

3. Look at your competitors keywords.

4. Look for other additions: common spelling mistakes, synonyms, split or merged words, singular or plural, hyphenated words, geospecific words, your company name.

5. Use a keyword tool like GoogleAdwords Keyword Tool or HubSpot Keyword Grader to find more relevant keywords and keyword phrases.

How Can I Tell if my Keyword Strategy is Working?

The goal is to bring more traffic to your site and then have more of those visitors continue through the conversion process to become leads and then customers.  The goal is not to just rank highly for as many keywords and keyword phrases as possible.  So how do you know if this is happening?

• Are you being found more easily in organic search?
• Do you have an increased number of organic visits each month?
• Have your organic leads increased month after month since you performed a keyword analysis?

Would you like some help with your Internet marketing strategy?

Not many people like to talk about money, it was 'impolite' to ask someone about their finances. For some, they don't want to let anyone know how much they really have. For others (and most of us) it is because we have a small amount and we are either embarrased or very protective of what we do have.