Inbound Marketing for Startups in 2011

Inbound Marketing for Startupsin 2011:Earning great traffic w/o spending a fortune dime
Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-founder, SEOmoz
February 2011

Our only marketing expense? Flights + hotels for conferences/events
More at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-history-of-seomoz

How’d You Do That?

News/Media/PR
SEO
Email
Research/White Papers
Blogs + Blogging
Infographics
Comment Marketing
Social Networks
Online Video
INBOUND MARKETING!(AKA “free” traffic sources)
Forums
Webinars
Word of Mouth
Social Bookmarking
Podcasting
Direct/Referring Links
Type-In Traffic
Q+A Sites
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-rich-get-richer-true-in-seo-social-all-organic-marketing

It all starts withContent Marketing

A Blog We Update Every Day

“Viral” Targeted Content
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

http://guides.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization

http://www.seomoz.org/seo-industry-survey

Graphics + Illustrations

A Weekly Video Series
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/category/33

Build it and they’ll come?Nope. Build it, then market it.

Comments + Conversations

Social Networks
Data and charts of our Facebook and Twitter account performance via http://export.ly

Social News / Bookmarking
http://news.ycombinator.com, http://delicious.com, http://stumbleupon.com and http://reddit.com have historically performed best for us, but you should test results

Q+A Sites / Forums

Conferences + Events

Email Marketing
We use/love http://www.mailchimp.com (who now has a cool free option for early stage folks)

Let’s get specific with someAdvanced Tactics

Involve a Sharing-Incented Community
The brilliant strategy by http://www.urbanspoon.com made them one of the biggest players in the local restaurant business and got them acquired by IAC

Design Like an “Award Winner”
Check out http://google.com/search?q=css+gallery for tons of great galleries and inspiration

“Skip” the Competitive SERPs

Leverage the QDF Algorithm
Watch the actual commercial at: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120562

Investigate the Competition’s Top Content
Sort of a shameless plug, but http://www.opensiteexplorer.org is the best way to do this 

Examples of more startups thatRock Inbound Marketing

OKCupid
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/

EngineYard
Engineyard does awesome stuff on their blog, job board + site in general – http://www.engineyard.com

Mint.com
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/

Adioso
Adioso’smicrosite for Valentine’s Day is here – http://howmuchdoyouheartme.com

Visual Website Optimizer
http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/

The Inbound Marketing processIn 4 Simple Steps

Step #1: Discover
Find inbound marketing paths that look promising and make a list.
Step #2:Test
Invest a few days/hours building authentic value in that niche/sector.
Step #3: Measure
Use your web analytics to track primary + second-order impact
Step #4: Repeat
Throw out low ROI projects; repeat high ROI ones.

Q+A
Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder, SEOmoz
Twitter: @randfish
Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog
Email: rand@seomoz.org

http://www.seomoz.org	3422
http://www.alloymarketing.co.uk	442
http://join5works.com	154
http://paper.li	136
http://www.conseilsmarketing.fr	42
http://www.b2foundry.com	34
http://www.conseilsmarketing.com	26
http://static.slidesharecdn.com	16
http://moz.com	15
http://codingtutor.info	12
http://livingjunction.com	12
http://austop1a.com.au	11
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	11
http://stephaneallard.tumblr.com	11
http://mikegeraci.posterous.com	10
http://flavors.me	8
http://twitter.com	7
http://michielgaasterland.shareist.com	7
http://www.twylah.com	7
http://mosbacher.tumblr.com	7
http://localhost	5
http://5works.co	5
http://internetwebsitedesign.biz	5
http://www.onlydoo.com	5
http://jaredroy.blogspot.com	3
https://si0.twimg.com	3
http://www.verdepr.com	3
http://ag3ntz.ning.com	3
http://wtf-highschool.ning.com	2
https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net	2
http://feedingo.com	2
http://www.uglybear.co.uk	2
http://verdepr.com	2
http://feeds.feedburner.com	2
http://fanyi.youdao.com	2
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	1
http://blog.technetsource.com	1
http://rss2.com	1
http://tweets.lagrangianpoints.com	1
http://trunk.ly	1
http://www.netvibes.com	1
http://www.hostmds.com	1
http://onlinemarketingnews.org	1
http://www.quangbawebseo.com	1
http://content-connect.com	1
http://dashboard.bloglines.com	1
https://twitter.com	1
http://harkable.posterous.com	1
http://ranchero.com	1
http://marketingknowledgehub.com	1
http://ffree8.freeweq.com	1

Inbound Marketing for Startups in 2011

by Rand Fishkin

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