Sayers Solutions receives a Leeds Hug
Last week I had some long overdue indulgence for Sayers Solutions and attended the Leeds Hug. Being as busy as I am helping my clients to market their businesses, consulting and managing projects, it’s easy to let my own focus slip – especially now as a school-run-mum.
However, on Thursday I went to a HubSpot based seminar, where I could fill my marketing mind with wonderful ideas and reminders. It has sparked off inspiration for immediate quick fix suggestions for client’s present and in the future, as well strategic suggestions to build into marketing plans.
I had previously come across HubSpot. Quite a few times recently actually. My initial introduction I think was previous to my little one and mostly I signed up for and downloaded lots of useful powerful information but never quite had the chance to exploit the information passed on. But when my daughter arrived, I (stupidly) thought I’d have the time to put myself through their Inbound Academy. However, I found having a lit phone doesn’t encourage a child to go to sleep (regardless of what their Dad says….).
Then someone recently, during a meeting, said that they were using HubSpot CRM and it was free … So, I had a bit of a Google and requested a Demo. (I’ve since had a phone call and watched some videos etc) and have been tempted to have a bit of a dabble.
But then I noticed an email for the Leeds Hug and booked my ticket and afforded myself some quality learning time.
HubSpot base their business on inbound marketing but have now developed into crm and sales tools, developing their “eco-system”.
Not only did I get to hear about some fantastic functions of the technology, but I also learnt and was reminded of some strategies and techniques, and so I thought I would share them with you too.
Topic Clusters
Firstly, a fantastic presenter Kristin Fox from Hubspot talked about the “evolution of search”. How instead of using long tail keyword searches, we are now searching in sentences (as well as voice recognition) and how google algorithms have adapted accordingly and so now favour Topic Clusters …. Essentially these have a Pillar Page – which introduces the topic – and then sub topic content hanging off it – providing richer information ….
I have already thought about how this will assist at least two of my clients, and recognised that a few others already have this in place (in some form).
Something to note is that both pages (the pillar page and sub topics) need to hyperlink between the pages – and this is one of the wonderful benefits that HubSpot Professional level will soon have (if not already).
4 Step Action Plan
Kristin concluded her presentation with a 4-step action plan –
1 – identify 3/4 core topics and build pillar pages.
2 – review how you report your marketing (part of their offering includes a marketing campaign management tool)
3- Review sales tool used in business (they sell and measure sales tools too)
4 – Put customer first, when they receive an enhanced experience they will then be your promoters ….
Growth Driven Design (GDD)
Rikki Lear from Digital 22 Online Ltd took over presenting and explained the new way of designing and building websites, where as you launch a smaller website quicker and use continuous development, updating and improving the website depending on results, instead of the traditional method which can be a big risk, investing in a website taking 3 to 6 months to build … which for many reasons (exhaustion) you then leave alone it alone, apart from adding blog posts or occasionally extra pages on the site, until you need to rebuild it all again because it’s got tired and needs re-doing.
Low Hanging Fruit
A reminder offered by Rikki was to look at the pages which have high traffic but generate low conversions, these are low hanging fruit and can easily be fixed. And those are the ones we need to identify and action for quick wins!
5 second rule
It was also suggested to do a 5 second rule test. This is where you take a screen shot of your website and show it to people and see if, in 5 seconds, they can name what you do/the website is for.
Customer Feedback
Another nugget of information gleamed was to survey people as soon as the (service) ticket is closed and measure the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
I also got a #trickortreat social media campaign idea … but I am not sharing everything with you!
So, I had a brilliant time and received loads of ideas and inspiration, I’d totally recommend it, if you are that way inclined … and I had 3 extremely delicious coffees too (and a sneaky packet of biscuits).