Smart Marketing Blog

Microsites: Effective Marketing or Bad Idea?

As Google’s search algorithm has evolved to emphasize trusted, well-established domains and unique content, the debate is heating up on the marketing value of microsites. Some experts believe that creating a microsite is never a good idea, diluting the brand and hurting coveted search results, while others think they still have a place in a targeted, strategic marketing campaign.

Now Hiring: Marketing Account Manager

We are seeking an experienced marketing professional to join our growing agency focused in the B2B science, engineering, and technology markets. In this role, you will lead the execution of custom marketing and content plans, working with a team of specialists and writers, and collaborate closely with clients to ensure we deliver results. There is a specific focus on implementation of inbound digital marketing projects within the HubSpot platform including, but not limited to, marketing automation set up and training for clients, website strategy and maintenance, SEO, social media, multi-touch email campaigns, and sales enablement.

5 Tips for a Tagline that Sticks

 Brainstorm notes on hotel bar napkins. Conversations that take you so far down tangents you’ve forgotten what your company does. You need something that’s memorable but not too off-the-wall, specific but not excluding, and exciting but accurate … Your tagline.

Live Webinar: Storytelling for Technical Brands

Marketing practices are continually changing and providing new ways to drive awareness and efficiency. With this change, it's easy to get lost in the chaos and forget that at the end of the day people are still people. If they don’t trust you, your company, or your spokespeople, or if they believe you say one thing and then do another, no marketing program will change that.  However, if you have great products or services, a compelling brand story can help solidify and communicate your brand to your audience.

Improve Database Quality By Taking Out the Trash

Content is termed the “king” when it comes to marketing – but I am going to challenge that and say that data might be even more powerful. Without accurate data, your content will never reach its fullest potential. Leads are one of the most common metrics measured by marketing. But if you start to peel back the layers, the TRUE leads are likely to be a smaller percentage after you remove the “trash” that accumulates in your database.

Top Content Marketing Metrics You Should Be Monitoring

Content is the fuel of your inbound marketing strategy so you want it to perform well. Good housekeeping means monitoring your metrics and making the necessary adjustments to keep your content performing at its best. But, what are the top metrics you should monitor?

How Does Your Audience of Engineers Feel About E-Newsletters?

Marketing to highly technical audiences can require some research into the best practices of what resonates with the audience. To create a dialogue about this, we recently conducted a survey with engineering professionals from all major regions of the world, helping to demonstrate how to best reach this target by understanding the ways they find, use, and engage with content.

Stop Cold Calling, Start Lead Scoring: Lead Scoring Checklist, Definitions, and Best Practices

The process of cold calling is one that has been dreaded by both marketers and potential customers for years. Thankfully, this practice is becoming increasingly outdated and is being replaced by lead scoring. 

4 Crucial Elements to a Website Redesign

Your website serves many roles. It has the unique ability to serve as both an outbound and inbound marketing tool, as a way to communicate your brand image to your audiences, and as a response mechanism for prospects interested in learning more about your company, products and services. You can think of your website as a valuable, 24-hour-a-day employee in your marketing organization. It’s always on, always ready to communicate your brand value and always focused on generating leads.

How Do Engineers Search For Content Online?

Oftentimes, marketers targeting technical audiences grapple with how to best implement online and content marketing to attract skeptical engineers, scientists and technology professionals. To shed light on this, we recently partnered with ENGINEERING.com for a survey, Smart Marketing for EngineersTM: Content and Online Marketing. The survey of 580 engineering professionals reveals insightful findings about engineers’ preferences for online content marketing and channels such as the types of content engineers most value and trust, and where they look for that content online.