Mad Marketing #12: Link-Building, Facebook Likes, PPC, and More!

Well it’s that time again everyone for me to answer all the awesome questions I’ve been getting from you these past couple of weeks (see the ones mentioned in this podcast below) and give you my frank, riff-filled thoughts on each.

Oh, and btw, the Mad Marketing Podcast is now on Stitcher .(For those unaware, Stitcher is killer app that allows you to download and listen to podcasts and radio shows very easily on your phone– so you don’t have to do it in iTunes!!)

As always, I appreciate your support in spreading the word with the podcast and hope you’ll get a chance to listen to the answers of the questions below….

Your Awesome Questions

Hi Marcus… After reading your latest blog: “Why Buying Facebook Fans Makes Your Company Look Really Stupid” – we wanted to know what you think about companies that hold contests on Facebook to gain more “likes.” I find some of them do this aggressively. Personally, I will “like” that business just to enter the contest and then unlike them after. Nothing against that company, but I only want companies showing up in my feed that I’m really interested in. Do you think holding a contest is effective, or do most people drop off afterward like I do? With regards to twitter: I often see companies saying, “help us get to 1000 followers” or “follow us and we’ll follow back.” I find this annoying but maybe I’m out of touch? Maybe it’s “okay” to do this? We’ve been in business about 14 months now, and so far we’ve got nearly 100 FB likes and 1120 twitter followers – and all of them have liked or followed us because they chose to. (We call them quality followers, haha.) We would love to know your thoughts? Cheers! Erin

Marcus- I have been reading through “Inbound and Content Marketing Made Easy”. What a wealth of info! How do you handle comments on a blog? Do you allow folks to directly post or have it moderated before posting? –Jen

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Hi Marcus, first of all, your content and speaking is great. Really like your approach. I’ve just started with hubspot and am creating good content but I have no inbound links. I’ve listened to various tutorials on inbound links such as guest posting - could you let me know how you achieved good inbound links for the swimming pool business? I can see how buzz topics such as inbound marketing would get shared and easily achieve sharing but swimming pools I would have thought would not be shared as much. My business is telecoms so would have thought the same. Rob

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I would like as much advice you can give on overcoming sales objections.—James

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We have appreciated your industry specific help and currently use Hubspot (big fan of it). I wonder how much, if any, you recommend spending on SEM (paid online marketing)- either ppc or online display ads? If you do use/ recommend it, how much money to invest? Based on sales, goals, what? Thanks for your time and info,

Laurel and co

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HI Marcus……
Has penguin/panda (other google updates) affected your pool blog in anyway? Is it still producing leads as well as it ever has? I’ve heard of a few instances where local businesses have been crippled by the above changes, many times at the whim of google and not because of crappy backlinks, spammy seo techniques, etc.

Darren

Hannah