Does your business website reflect your brand? 

Does it visually translate and present your products and services the way they deserve?

There is no doubt that the strategies and methodologies of inbound marketing are essential ingredients to your inbound marketing success, but your website represents a critical component of your branding strategy.

Earlier this year in April 2011, Google’s Panda was launched, creating quite a stir in the industry. Up until Panda, content writers were essentially writing to out-Google Google, with content factories churning out articles, up to thousands a day.  The notion behind this concept was simple: since search engines love fresh content, flood the web with keyword rich articles and soon you’ll rise to the top with organic search. It didn’t seem to matter whether the content was relevant or useful or even coherent. But that was then and this is a new Panda world and the lessons we’ve learned – as we’ve weeded out the factories and the farms – is that content is still KING but relevance rules.

You’ve cast your website out there with the hope of luring customers to your door. But no one’s knocking. Your website needs to attract prospects and keep them coming back for more.

Every Inbound marketing plan must consider the opportunities that various social media channels have to offer – the leader of course is Facebook. With over 600 million members (and growing), Facebook provides a pool of potential customers that smart marketers simply can’t ignore. If you want to grow your social media footprint, you may want to explore these features as part of your Facebook social media and Inbound marketing mix.

If your B2B company is about to undergo a website redesign there are a few important design elements that need to be considered prior to reconstruction. The face of your organization’s website is not something that should be overlooked. Some may argue that the back end or ‘what’s under the hood’ is what’s most important, and who can argue with that? After all, most companies today are focused on increased traffic and leads, so naturally their attention to ‘what’s under the hood’ is to be expected.

A lot of small to mid-size businesses may realize at one time or another that their current website is simply not performing as effectively as it should. They know they need to focus more on their web investment but most simply don’t have the time or the resources, so they just make due. It’s a conundrum that leads to poor results and a lot of frustration.

Last week I attended the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) conference in Toronto. The two day event was packed with guest speakers sharing thoughts and advice on a number of marketing and related topics. I don’t go to a lot of conferences but I thought that they offered a great mix of interesting guests with an eclectic menu of digital, social media and such, and I’m a sponge to learn. I also think it’s important to stay in tune with the industry and stay ‘up’ on what’s happening now and what the future may unfold.

Last night I attended the Toronto Social Media Week seminar put on by Paul Copcutt titled “Personal Branding to Compete in the 21st Century Marketplace”. I thought that Paul did a great job presenting a few good lessons on personal branding—that is all about YOU—and I wanted to share a few of them with you today.