Optimize 3.0 Inbound Marketing Blog

Doug Kirk

Recent Posts

Inbound Marketing & Hubspot ROI

Posted by Doug Kirk  Mar 10, 2015 4:14:00 PM

In the five years of running an inbound marketing agency, I’ve been afforded a close up view of what works and what doesn’t.  At this point, I’m prepared to answer the tough question often posed to me in one of the following forms:

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Topics: Blogging Benefits

5 Questions To Ask A Marketing Automation Company

Posted by Doug Kirk  Feb 9, 2015 10:30:00 AM

Sales of marketing automation software have exploded over the last several years.  In addition, there are many new players in the market – almost 20 different providers.  Yet, if you’re looking to purchase marketing automation, knowing how they differ is important.  To help you, we’ve created the Marketing Automation Comparison Chart.  If you have narrowed your choices to just a few, you may be asking how can I evaluate each of these to determine which is best?

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Topics: Inbound Marketing Software, Hubspot Competitors

Inbound Marketing Software Comparison 2016

Posted by Doug Kirk  Jan 14, 2015 4:50:00 PM

As a follow up to one of our most popular blog posts ever about Hubspot Competitors we felt compelled to provide an update to our popular inbound marketing software comparison chart.  Much has happened since that blog back in 2013.  Hubspot and Marketo have gone public and Pardot and Eloqua have each been purchased by Salesforce and Oracle respectively.  There has been an explosion in the use of this software.  So much so, they've even come up with a term called "marketing automation stack."  This is the array of software a website uses to market their goods and services. 

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Get More from Marketing Automation

Posted by Doug Kirk  Dec 29, 2014 10:00:00 AM

Here are two interesting yet somewhat contradictory statistics about marketing automation adoption and usage:

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Topics: Online Marketing Essentials, HubSpot Tips, Hubspot Training

Call to Action Buttons

Posted by Doug Kirk  Dec 18, 2014 11:00:00 AM

Call to action buttons (CTAs) are a critical component of inbound marketing. My guess is that you if you're like me you look at a website and think “those are really cool, if only I knew Photoshop I could build that.”  I used to do that until I figured out a way to create great call to action buttons without using Photoshop.

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Topics: inbound marketing, Blogging Tips, HubSpot Tips

10 Powerful Inbound Marketing Charts

Posted by Doug Kirk  Dec 16, 2014 11:00:00 AM

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Topics: hubspot, inbound marketing, Online Marketing Essentials

What is Funnel Marketing

Posted by Doug Kirk  Dec 10, 2014 9:50:00 AM

Here’s a question I hear frequently: “what is funnel marketing?” and how does it relate to inbound marketing.

If you’ve been trying to get your head around funnel marketing, I want to help solve this little marketing mystery. In doing so, provide a clear and simple example of the funnel marketing. Moreover, explain that if used properly a sales funnel will unlock the unique powers of inbound marketing automation.

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Topics: HubSpot Tips, content marketing, marketing

Wordpress Alternatives For Small to Medium Businesses

Posted by Doug Kirk  May 20, 2013 5:33:00 PM

Have you ever contemplated what it would take to independently aggregate the most important elements of an inbound marketing campaign onto a Wordpress site?   It’s likely that small to medium businesses do this research and come out with two fairly common objections to the Hubspot software solution:

“I can do all of this on Wordpress for free”

Or

“I’m not moving my site onto the Hubspot CMS”

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Topics: hubspot, inbound marketing, CMS Marketing

Inbound Marketing Plan | The Essential Roadmap

Posted by Doug Kirk  Apr 22, 2013 11:07:00 AM

From industry best practices and our own experience here at Optimize 3.0, there are six key components of a successful marketing campaign.  We detailed those here to assist your ongoing inbound marketing plans:

1) Produce a compelling offer

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Topics: inbound marketing, Blogging Benefits, Online Marketing Essentials

SEO Grader

Posted by Doug Kirk  Apr 16, 2013 3:15:00 PM

I’m often amazed at how many websites are even remotely optimized for search engine optimization (SEO).  I see many.  I wanted to share some ways for my readers here to grade their websites. First, below is a quick 10 point SEO self grader test:

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Topics: inbound marketing, Online Marketing Essentials, seo