Before looking at what is SMO (a.k.a. social media optimization), let’s take a step back and highlight something that every business needs to know -- especially those that incorrectly believe that social media isn’t a big deal, or that it’s a trend or fad that will fizzle out sooner or later.

As advised by Forbes contributor AJ Agrawal, companies that want to enjoy substantial business growth in 2016 must make inbound marketing a top priority. Argrawal writes:

As an Inbound Marketing Coordinator at Leap Clixx, one of my jobs is to build and maintain PPC advertising campaigns for clients. Many times these clients have already started a Google AdWords campaign, but have struggled to make it successful. That’s where I come in! Below I review the 10 biggest mistakes I see made using Google AdWords that can seriously impact your budget and ultimately your campaign’s success.

It’s one of the most important yet misunderstood concepts in the marketing world, which explains why if you ask 10 marketing consultants or agencies “what is lead scoring?”, you might end up with 10 different answers. Heck, you might even get 11 (marketing people are a creative and inventive bunch). 

Before exploring retargeting best practices, let’s quickly recap what’s involved in this highly effective, yet often misapplied inbound marketing strategy. 

Retargeting -- which is sometimes referred to as remarketing -- automatically pushes targeted ads to specific prospects based on their previous interactions or behaviors, such as browsing web pages, watching videos, downloading ebooks, and so on. The purpose is to re-engage these prospects and pull them back into the customer journey. (For a more detailed look at retargeting, read our blog post.) 

As you make your way across the inbound marketing landscape, you’ve likely come across the phrase “editorial calendar” a few times -- and may be wondering what the heck this is, and if it means that you need to start wearing one of those old fashioned editor's outfits (you know, those wacky green eyeshade hats, pinstripe shirts with rolled up sleeves, pencil behind your ear, etc.).

If you’re in charge of marketing in an environmental services company, we’d like to offer you our sincere condolences. In fact, if we could, we’d give you a hug, a bowl of soup, and wrap you in one of those shock blankets that the paramedics use. We know what you’re going through.

Today’s manufacturers are facing an enormous, and frankly daunting series of marketing challenges that are more than enough to keep sales executives, managers and specialists up at night worrying about the future. These challenges include: 

Although the concept of the sales funnel is not a new one, inbound marketing has improved the sales funnel to help marketers visualize where a customer is in their buyer’s journey as to better meet their needs. In other words, publishing the right content at the right time in the right place. Since this sales funnel is at the heart of a successful inbound marketing strategy, it is important to be able to move leads through the funnel and align your content with the buyer’s journey in order to attract, convert, close, and delight your ideal customers. So without further adieu, here is The Lazy Man’s Guide to The Inbound Marketing Sales Funnel with examples.

For most businesses, their most valuable asset isn’t their inventory, their capital, or even their talent: it’s their brand.