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Inbound Marketing Town – A Guide to the Sites

8 Minute Read | Inbound Marketing

Welcome to Inbound Marketing Town, the most exciting stop on the road to web success. Feel free to stay a while and check out the many attractions we have to offer.

Following this helpful map will give you an insight into the aspects of Inbound Marketing, and why each one is useful to building an online presence.

Click on the image below to view a larger version or download a PDF version of Inbound Marketing Town to print or share.

Inbound Marketing Town - A Guide to the Sites

If want to be an expert, check out the longer descriptions below the map. When you’re done you’ll really be able to say you understand the sites you’ve visited.


1 Email

Email - Inbound Marketing Town

 

The town Post Office is different from most – no stamps required.

Nearly ubiquitous in daily life, it’s hard to imagine a time before email. For most of our day to day contact, it’s replaced the trusty snail mail. But it can be even more useful. By including links to your site with your email signature, or even pumping out your own email newsletter, you can get visits to your website.


2 SEO

SEO - Inbound Marketing Town

The officers at the Police Station keep tabs on the how everyone operates, making sure they are on their best behaviour.

There are certain ways to do things, and certain ways not to. SEO folks are like kind-hearted cops, gently pushing websites in line so that everyone operates a little more smoothly. With the search engines making the laws, they work out ways to enforce them.


3 Research/White Papers

Research/White Papers - Inbound Marketing Town

The Science Lab is where all the deep thinking and nerd-heavy research gets done.

This is the place to bust out your brain. If you’re up to donning some spandex and flexing your grey matter, creating an interesting piece of research will get people linking back to your page. If you want to get heard, release the nerd.


4 Infographics

Infographics - Inbound Marketing Town

People flock to the Art Gallery for both deep thought and pretty pictures.

If you’re feeling a little creative, generating an informative infographic will result in link-backs and shares. Of course, you can’t be as abstract as Jackson Pollock, but there is room to have some fun – as much fun as Pacman has chasing a ghost.


5 Social Networks

Social Networks - Inbound Marketing Town

This stretch of Pubs and Clubs always keeps the gossip mill churning.

Like people yammering drunkenly at bar, telling strangers about the first thing that pops into their heads, social networks can be a great place generate popularity and engage with potential users. It’s also a good way to project your voice and be the loudest in the crowd. And just as people indiscriminately swap phone numbers, there’s a lot of link sharing.


6 Webinars and Q&A Sites

Webinars and Q&A Sites - Inbound Marketing Town

This free University brings wisdom to the masses, as long as they are concentrating.

Lecture rooms you can visit without getting dressed, webinars are the perfect way to learn from the best. Often they allow video conferencing, so for those, clothing yourself is advisable. If you’re looking to connect with like-minded people, these are a good place to start. If you’re feeling especially professorial, why not cloak up and run your own? Less formal than a webinar, Q&A websites give you guaranteed connections to people interested in various topics. You can show off your expertise and build long-lasting relationships.


7 Document Sharing

Document Sharing - Inbound Marketing Town

At the town Market you can always find people willing to trade.

Imagine you’re at a market. You’re selling apples, and the person next to you has strawberries. If you swap a bit of your produce, you’ve got fruit salad. Everyone prefers that. Swathes of information are given freely within the online community. By sharing content you can build your connections and translate that into a more successful site that leaves a better taste in people’s mouths.


8 Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth - Inbound Marketing Town

With people constantly drifting in and out, tongues are always wagging at the Town Square.

In this age of internet a lot of us forget that people still actually leave their chairs and make contact with the outside world. People gossip, giggle and spread the word beyond the confines of their computers. Getting people talking about a product/website/service is an underrated technique for building a following, much like getting on a soapbox in the town square and bellowing at passers-by.


9 Podcasting

Podcasting - Inbound Marketing Town

The town Radio Station has more programs than an aging family computer.

Like your local community radio station, there is no telling what you’ll hear on a podcast. Think of pretty much anything and there’s almost certainly a podcast about it. If you’ve got your own niche, ad your golden vocals to the mix. By creating a podcast you produce a resource that people will link to. And if you’re entertaining enough, people will come back for repeat listens instead of flicking the dial to something else.


10 Type-In Traffic

Type-In Traffic - Inbound Marketing Town

Bangin’ Burgers is the town’s Fast Food Outlet, frequented by people who know what they want and want it quickly.

This is where a site is visited by people who know exactly what they want and how to get it. With a keen mind and expertly adjusted fingers, they poise over the keyboard and type in the website they want to visit. That way they can get their fill quickly.


11 Direct-Referring Links

Direct-Referring Links - Inbound Marketing Town

At the Information Centre you can find information that easily gets you to where you want to go.

Ever been lost and needed to be pointed in the right direction? Your best bet is getting your info from someone who knows where they are sending you. A simple link from one website to another, these get you from A to B as the proverbial crow flies – directly.


12 Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking - Inbound Marketing Town

The Community Board at the town hall is where to find happenings of note.

Like pinning a notice to a noticeboard, social bookmarking sites like Reddit give you access to a broad audience you might not otherwise be able to contact. But it’s not as simple as putting something up and waiting for visitors; just as no one is going to respond to an ad for a $4000 Discman on a community board, people aren’t going to show an interest in shameless self-promotion. Good content is still a must.


13 Forums

Forums - Inbound Marketing Town

The like-minded congregate like magnets to metal at the Convention Centre.

Pull up a seat and settle in for some serious discussion. Forums are online discussion boards with an infinite variety of topics. Users generally share a common interest, and as a result, being mentioned participating in forum discussions can mean site visits from those with a genuine desire to check out what you have to offer.


14 Comment Marketing

Comment Marketing - Inbound Marketing Town

Though deep in conversation, everyone secretly talks about themselves at the Coffee Shop.

Topical and genuine engagement through commenting can generate positive interest in your site. But if people pick up a feeling of overt self-interest, expect the house to clear like you’ve let off a bad smell. Don’t be obnoxious; no one likes the guy at the coffee shop who spends the whole time talking about himself.


15 Online Video

Online Video - Inbound Marketing Town

These days it seems like everyone’s releasing a movie at the Cinema.

Like other content production, making entertaining and informative videos is perfect for encourage people to your site and to generate link-backs. You don’t have to be Tarantino, but you do want to be better than Twilight.


16 Blogs & Blogging

Blogs & Blogging - Inbound Marketing Town

The freely distributed Local Newspaper might be better called an ‘Opinionpaper’, but it’s worth a read all the same.

Free newspapers don’t always have the most amazing writing, but often you’ll find some gems inside their pages. Likewise, the fact that anyone can blog means that you sometimes get some questionable content. But there are some fantastic blogs out there, and they are well worth seeking out. Starting your own blog is also a good technique for generating topical and consistent content for your business or website, and as a result, encouraging more readers.


17 News/Media/PR

News/Media/PR - Inbound Marketing Town

The TV Station broadcasts all the latest news, the newest shows, and the next big things.

Though when it comes to what we read we’ve got more choice than a single sheep in an uncut paddock, we still take notice of the news. If you’re mentioned in any media with a bit of reach, expect at least a few people to come flocking.


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