By James Wirth
In my monthly Google+ Hangout on Air online event series, I recently interviewed Sam Mallikarjunan, Head of eCommerce Marketing for HubSpot. A sharp young guy, Sam is marketing wise beyond his years, and thanks to a survey he recently ran on QuestionPro, he’s got the data to prove it.
Each year, HubSpot runs a survey on the ‘State of Inbound Marketing’ and releases a report on the findings. Sam decided this year to drill deeper specifically into eCommerce marketing.
And a very enlightening webinar was born.
One of the very really interesting concepts that came from the webinar was talking about the lifetime value of a customer and how selling on Amazon impacts this. Sam wrote a book called “How to Sell Better than Amazon” (which inspired the title of this post) and offered keen insight for the audience; but more specifically on that later.
Instead of just regurgitating (lovely word, I know) the discussion in transcript form, I’m going to walk you through it in video segments. To start, let’s differentiate inbound marketing from outbound marketing.
Sam, you got this one?
Makes sense, right? So it could almost be said that outbound marketing is interrupting someone from what they want just long enough to get something from them; inbound marketing is giving someone something they want to build a relationship with them.
I’m going to assume most of us are in the “Inbound Marketing is Better” camp and run with it.
Let’s dive a *little* deeper into how “inbound marketing” works, shall we?
Phases of Inbound Marketing
Sweet. Now that we’re singing form the same hymnal.
But now I hear you saying: “Woah, WOAH, pump the brakes dude – most eCommerce companies of all sizes just flood my email inbox with coupons and discounts. Some B2B companies maybe do this more, but it doesn’t seem like eCommerce companies are catching on – not even Amazon. What gives?”
Sam, you want to take that?
Now I’m sure our ‘Type A’ readers – if they even made it this far – are thinking: “Ok fine but how do I sell better than Amazon?” Just remember:
It’s about the journey, not the destination.
Ok, if you didn’t buy that, Sam and I get more into how Amazon does what Amazon does, here:
The full recording of the event contains a plethora of valuable information regarding how eCommerce marketers are (or are not) applying inbound marketing techniques, the ROI they’re seeing (or missing out on) from those techniques and more. And there are more great nuggets on how to attract more contacts, leads, and customers, increase your conversion rate, increase your CLTV and much MUCH more!
EVERY marketer, business owner or manager needs to watch this! The main focus may be about eCommerce but this is applicable to all.
You can find the full video recording at http://bit.ly/inbound-commerce;
If you’re more into at-a-glance infographics, here’s one we made for HubSpot’s report.
Thanks for reading & watching!
James Wirth is the Marketing Manager for QuestionPro, an online feedback software company serving the small business community. James is a skilled marketer with 20 years of experience working with entrepreneurs and small business owners & managers.
