Internet Marketing and SEO Tips

by Dave Maloney
Some recent changes in LinkedIn have made the professional network not only more user-friendly, but more worthwhile than ever for professionals to spend a little time checking out how their business can benefit from it.

LinkedIn Home

Logging in you may have noticed the Linkedin home page received a facelift, with styling similar to Facebook and Google+ in its display of trending stories and recent updates. The important difference being while the latter networks keep you abreast of what your brother-in-law had for lunch and so on, LinkedIn's feed contains news consistent with your industry and shares from the network of professional businesspeople and companies that you've been building and continue to build.

by Dave Maloney
Your website looks and performs just the way you want on your machine, but what about the rest of the world? Previously the only challenges web designers faced was making sure there weren't any issues between web browsers: what you had lined up perfectly in Netscape Navigator (remember that?) was a mess in Interent Explorer. Now with so many different types of mobile devices that can access the internet and more toys coming out every day, the challenge would be basically impossible without the idea of "responsive web design".

They're saying by 2014, internet usage through mobile devices will surpass desktop computer internet use, and sometimes it seems like it has already. There are more mobile devices (smartphones, Ipads, tablets, mini-tablets, etc) than desktop PCs now, and people are attached to them 24-7.

by Dave Maloney
The CAN-SPAM Act requires that recipients of any of your email marketing efforts (monthly newsletters, company news, sales or promotional material, etc) are given an option to "opt-out" of receiving any further emails from your company. If someone does request to be removed from your mailing list, it is your responsibility to make sure their email address is removed from your list unless you want to pay a huge fine. If you use HubSpot email marketing tools, here's how to manage unsubscribes on your email and blog lists:

Managing Unsubscribes in your Email List(s)

1. Log in to your HubSpot portal and in the top navigation click on "Content"; when you arrive at "Content Home" choose "Email" at the top right in the light grey nav bar.
2. You are now in the Email Manager tool where you can view the details on any draft emails you are working on, and emails you have already sent. In the lower half of your screen on the left, click on "Manage Unsubscribes."
3. This brings you to your Unsubscribes - Do Not Email List page. There are 2 sections on the page, an "Import" list field and below an "Export." Enter your email address in the lower field, "Export your unsubscribe list" and HubSpot will email you a .CSV file that lists all the emails that have asked to be unlisted. You should get the email within 30 minutes or less, and you may have to check your Junk folder to find it.
4. Ok, once you have your email from HubSpot, save the .CSV file to your desktop. If you don't still have your Unsubscribes page open in your web browser, go back to it; this time you'll be using the top field: "Import your unsubscribe list." Click "Browse" and select the .CSV you just saved from the email, then click "Import List." And you're done! You'll see a message indicating that the upload was successful and will be done processing in a few minutes. (You may wonder why this process isn't just automatic, but what fun would that be?)
5. You can doublecheck your success by going into your HubSpot Leads list and searching for one of the names you just had unsubscribed. They will still be your Leads list, but if you look under "See Full Lead Details," and click on the "Email Communications" tab, you'll see a message that reads "Lead chose to opt-out of receiving emails."

Managing Unsubscribes in your Blog Subscriber List

While you can view your blog subscriber list under Settings/Blog Email Settings/Mailing Lists, you can't edit the list yourself. To manage unsubscribes in here, whether it's to add any new emails or to take off any that have requested to be removed, you need to contact HubSpot support at 1-888-HUBSPOT (x3) or use the "Need Help?" at the bottom right of your dashboard screen and request the email be removed from your blog subscriber list.

by Dave Maloney
The Hubspot App Marketplace has been growing quite a bit since its kickoff about a year ago, and if you haven't poked around in there recently, you might be missing something you could use. App categories include Content, Social Media, CRM, External Website, Analytics, Collaboration, SEO, Online Advertising, eCommerce and Email, and while some apps have a fee, there are a lot of good free ones. Below are just a few free ones you may find helpful, but log in to HubSpot and click on Marketplace/App Marketplace to see what else you can use!

by Dave Maloney
My daughter competed in a horse show this past weekend. Not knowing much about Dressage (or anything about riding for that matter) all I could see was an arena-full of horses and riders all doing the same thing at the same time - and I wondered: with everyone seeming so equally qualified, how do the judges choose a winner? What is it that sets one above the rest?

Details - Details - Details!

The judges know exactly what they're looking for: the little things that make or break the overall decision. Everyone in the ring did have the exact same things to offer, but... Rider 140's canter was just a little too fast, Rider 195 followed instructions perfectly, but her posture was too relaxed;  Rider 176 sat up straight up perfectly straight and her smile glowed as she came around the turns. Her uniform was flawless and boots gleemed and even her horse presented an attitude that he loved what he did. (She won.)

by Dave Maloney
HubSpot just released a new and improved tool that lets you create call to action buttons right in your HubSpot portal, even easier and faster than previously. If you hadn't liked using the old CTA tool because it seemed too cumbersome, you'll be pleasantly surprised with the simplicity and straightforwardness of the new CTA Manager. Now not only is the creation of your call to action buttons easier, but using them/managing them/editing them/even testing them is simple throughout HubSpot's content management system.

by Dave Maloney
Facebook's "change of the week" is a positive one for all of us who have a hard time finding (several) times during the week to engage in social media while still trying to get some work done during the day. Up until now, if you wanted to schedule posts in Facebook on your business page, you had to subscribe to a paid service like Hootsuite, or set an alarm for yourself on your calendar.

by Dave Maloney
You've been really good about getting blog articles written, and you post them regularly just like they said you should. You share them throughout your social media profiles and pages like you're told you're supposed to. But your list of subscribers, followers, likes, etc. isn't growing. You've done the homework and put a lot of effort into creating quality blog content that actually does have value to readers, but they're stopping to read - why? Maybe it's not what you have to say, but how you're saying it.

by Dave Maloney
For reasons we may never understand, Facebook recently made a little change to your profile: they went ahead and added your Facebook email address in your contact info. They didn't give any kind of notification of the change, so you may have not even noticed. So whether or not you had any email address visible in your profile before, you now have a new email being displayed which you may not even know about.

by Dave Maloney
Recently HubSpot rolled out a completely revamped navigation intended to make their inbound marketing tools easier to work with by grouping what you need to do into related categories. Part of it may be our human nature to grumble about any kind of change, but after using it for a couple weeks, we're not sure these changes were for the better.