Guide to Inbound Marketing on Alignable

Introduction to Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a highly effective technique for attracting customers using one’s expertise or industry knowledge.  Its effectiveness stems from being able to attract people based on their interest or intent on solving a problem and by you providing an informed solution.  In order to attract the right people, your efforts should be focused in areas where your ideal customers naturally congregate looking for answers.

This guide was created to provide our members who are interested in selling their products or services to other members with a process for doing inbound marketing on Alignable to reach potential clients.  

Inbound Marketing on Alignable

Alignable was created to help small business owners gain access to all of the resources needed for success.  Isolation, long the achilles heal of small business survival, is overcome simply by enabling business owners to connect, build relationships, share ideas, and work together to gain competitive advantages typically reserved for only the largest of businesses.    

Having the ability to ask questions and start discussions with one’s peers is a powerful component of enabling small business success and the forum is where this all takes place.  Each week thousands of questions are asked and tens of thousands of comments and advice are shared across the 3 million (as of Dec 2018) members. Alignable has become the trusted place for these business owners to solve problems and find solutions.   If you happen to be a provider of products or services to small businesses then you’re in luck, and you should use this how-to-guide for finding new clients just like Jenny and Jeff...

70% of our New Clients come from Alignable

Read Jenny & Jeff’s story

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Alignable Guide for Inbound Marketers

Inbound implies a destination... so we’ll start with your profile since it’s where people will land

Inbound marketing is a technique for attracting potential clients to a destination where they can learn more about you and you have the opportunity to turn their interest into a connection you can engage with.  The inbound destination for your efforts is your Alignable business profile. Since this destination is where the conversion magic will be happening, you’ll want to make sure it’s looking good before they get there.  See this post showcasing some of the awesome profiles on Alignable by business category.  

Here are the questions you’ll want to answer on your profile:

Who Are You?

• A description of you and your business explaining how you’ve built your business, where your expertise is drawn from, and who your ideal customer is.  The goal here is to demonstrate what makes you different and to encourage people to reach out to you to learn more about you and your business. Including a great headshot and something about how you got into this line of business makes a big difference too.  
• Pay close attention to your referral card.  This is used by members when they want to refer you to other members and people off the platform directing them to your profile to learn more.  

• You’ll see a variety of “tags" on your profile.  We use these tags to direct people to you and your business so the more complete these tags are the higher the likelihood of our being able to direct the people you’d like to meet in your direction.  Tags include:
  • Category Tag:  what type of business do you run (eg. “Restaurant”)
  • Search Tags:  what products or services would you like to be found for (eg. “Catering” or “Delivery”)
  • Customer Tags: what types of businesses do you serve

What Do You Offer?

Highlight the products / services you’d most like people to know you provide.  In addition to completing the search tags you have the ability to add full descriptions and images so people get a more complete picture of what you offer.  These are also shared with people in your network to make it easier for them to refer you to others.

Why Should I Trust / Engage With You?

Trust is a critical component for success as a small business owner.  The more you can demonstrate you’ve built it and shared it with others the higher the likelihood visitors to your profile will turn to you over the competition.  In order to demonstrate trust on Alignable you need Recommendations.  Both Given and Received.  

Recommendations Received: we recognize asking for recommendations is sometimes difficult, so each time you add someone to your network whether through a connection request sent to someone you know or an invitation you’ve sent asking someone to join your network, we’ll ask them to recommend you. You then have the opportunity to review each recommendation submitted and claim those you want added to your profile.  You can also directly message clients who are members of your network and ask them directly to add a recommendation. Each time a recommendation is added to your profile it’s shared both with your network as well as the network of the person who recommended you!

Recommendations Given:  there is something to be said for it being better to have given than received.  Giving recommendations shows your willingness to help others in the community. It also turns you and your profile into a go to local resource for others looking for advice.  Let’s say someone in your network is searching for a local accountant and you just happen to have recommended yours. When they search for accountants in your community the one you’ve recommended will show up above all others with you acting as the referral agent.  The more you refer people to others… the more they will refer to you and writing a thoughtful reason for your recommendation really makes a statement.

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Ready to Roll?  

You’ve done the above and you are ready to roll.  Now’s a great time for a quick reminder this process is called Inbound Marketing NOT Inbound Selling…

It’s about giving people reasons to Buy from You.   The goal is to use your expertise to answer questions and start discussions around topics of value to the audience (millions of small business owners).  The content you share MUST have value to the recipient not just to you!

“YOU NEED BETTER INSURANCE - CALL ME @ (555) 555 -1212 or visit www.buymyinsurance”

Wondering what’s wrong with this post?  

Read our Best Practices Guide

In fact, trying to sell while helping others often has the opposite impact on users driving them away from you and your business. That’s why our moderation team reviews all posts made to the forum and only approves content and comments that help our small business members succeed in their business.  

But you get all that, believe in the Golden Rule, and are ready to share some valuable insight… so let’s get started

Search is your Friend

If you’re looking for local clients for your business it might seem logical to only answer questions from members in your community, however, that’s not the case.  We review all of the comments posted by members and when we see a great ones, we share those posts across the member’s community to demonstrate how great insights and knowledge are nearby.   So search for your expertise and see what shows up.

So use the search box to search for topics or discussions based on your expertise.  If you’re a marketing consultant who helps people with social media search for “Facebook” or “Facebook Ads.”  If you’re an accountant who specializes in retail businesses and taxes search for “retail tax.” Then click on the search button for Q&A Activity to find all of the related discussions.

Other Ways to Find Content

Follow discussion topics by going to the user topics page and selecting the content areas of greatest alignment with your expertise.  Then you’ll get notified when a discussion matching that content area has been asked or discussion has ensued.

Answering Questions

When you answer someone’s question try to give them actionable insights based on your experience and expertise.  It’s fine to share how you’ve come upon this insight (“I’ve helped a number of retail businesses figure out how to configure Facebook Ads and my top 3 pieces of advice are always…”).  You don’t need to tell people how to contact you directly in the post unless they ask for it. Each post you make has a link back to your profile where all that information should reside.  

When you post answers to questions your answers will also be featured on your profile so when people visit it to learn more they can see the advice you’ve offered to the community.  

Sharing Insight when No Question Exists

Is it possible to share the insight I provide my clients when I can’t find a question that aligns with it?  In short, yes. But you must follow this approach and consider upgrading to Premium to maximize your success:

• Pick the right venue.  You can post questions either to your local community or to the community at large.  Both are moderated by the content crew at Alignable to make sure they are not a sales pitch and to insure quality content is being shared across the platform.  If you post a question to the community at large it will start off being visible to your network first and based on their response to your post may be shared with all members or a subset based on the content (eg. just shared with pet store owners). 

• Ask the question in the words your clients use when they asked you:
  • “How can I use Facebook Ads to drive traffic a men’s clothing store?"
  • “What tax deductions are most often missed by retail businesses?"

• Ask a local question based on discussions you’ve had with other nearby business owners
  • “How can we increase local participation in the [town name] holiday stroll this year?"
  • ”What’s advertising method has worked best for getting your business noticed and generating new customers in [town name]”

• Share your answer in the description section of the post by prefacing it with:
  • “I recently got this question from a client so I thought I’d share a few tips on how to make the most of Facebook Ads.  Here are my top 3 tips.”
  • “Over my 15 years as an accountant I’ve been asked this question hundreds of time.”

Amplify your Voice!  

Add to your Network

Content you post is automatically shared with all of the members in your network so adding people to your network amplifies your voice.   Each person you add has the ability to share you with hundreds if not thousands of others so take the time to add members you know to your network.  It’s super easy to do and you can use our contact matching system to locate them in your address books.

Go Premium

Our premium membership includes a variety of features designed to both amplify your visibility (get your post seen beyond your network) and make it easier for you to engage with visitors to your profile.  Check out all the features and functionality on your “My Membership Page.”  Premium Plus members also get a dedicated inbound marketing specialist to work with on a regular basis.  

How Big is your Voice?

Understanding how your posts are doing is a snap.  Right on your profile you’ll find a referral dashboard highlighting all of the traffic you’ve been getting and how that traffic is turning into views to your profile and leads for your business.  Premium members can dive even deeper into the data to see who’s been visiting and even reach out directly to start a conversation.

In Conclusion

“Inbound marketing is about creating valuable experiences that have a positive impact on people and your business. How do you do that? You attract prospects and customers to your website and blog through relevant and helpful content. Once they arrive, you engage with them using conversational tools like email and chat and by promising continued value. And finally, you delight them by continuing to act as an empathetic advisor and expert.”

Brian Halligan, Founder of Hubspot, creators of the Inbound Marketing movement

If the customers you’re looking for include small business owners and their employees then you’re in the right place to make a great impression and draw attention to you and your business.  We hope this guide helps you get started.