This week’s marketing advice was actually inspired by a video clip of David Meerman Scott, best selling author of “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”.

The video is a promotional piece for a conference he will be speaking at next week in Saint John, NB – “Engage: Succeeding in Export Marketing and Sales“.

Although the focus of this week’s advice is on companies who sell (or want to sell) to International markets…it is really great advice for any company that wants to increase sales – even in your own city.

Let me start by sharing a snippet from the video that sums up David’s most important point.

The idea of “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” is that, rather than spending a lot of money on advertising, or trying to convince the media to talk about you, or spending a lot of money on direct sales, what you do is you create content on the web.

You create video-based content, you create text-based content in the form of great websites, also in the form of blogs…and you put those on the web so that #1) search engines find them, and #2) so that people share them on social networks…

…and it works brilliantly … because when people are looking for a product or service to buy, the first place they go is the search engines…

Watch the full 3 minute video here:

David is referring to Inbound Marketing. Yes, it’s a simplified explanation that leaves out the technical details (such as SEO, quality content vs crap, lead gen, etc.)…but the idea itself is more than just “an idea”, Inbound Marketing works.

Regardless of whether your customers and potential customers are in your own town, or another country, they have this one thing in common – the Internet. And they’re using it to search for information, help, product reviews and more.

The more content (blog posts, articles, advice, video, podcasts, ebooks, photos) your brand posts on the Internet for search engines to index, the more people will discover your brand.

Even the folks at Google (the worlds most used search engine) say the same thing in their Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide:

“Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here.”

How We Increased Our International Visits by 300% Through Blogging…

Do you know what percent of the visitors to your company website are from countries other than your own?

At the beginning of 2013 I committed to publishing regular marketing advice (aka “content”) on our website. It has resulted in a 300% increase in visits from outside Canada in the last year.

When we compare numbers from September 2012 to numbers from September 2013, we see:

• an 80% increase in visits from Canada,
• a 250% increase in visits from the United States,
• an almost 400% increase in visits from the United Kingdom,
• and a 600% increase in visits from Australia.

Web traffic is important because, using the right strategy, you will convert a portion of these visitors into leads, and a portion of your leads into sales.  Content works…it generates attention, traffic, leads and sales.

I’ve written on this topic before, here is a recent article that has become very popular: Marketing versus Sales

If your company exports, or plans to export, the “Engage” conference may be a good fit, here are the details…

Engage 2013: Succeeding in Export Marketing and Sales Conference
October 21st and 22nd, 2013
Saint John Trade and Convention Center
Saint John, New Brunswick
Register Here | Visit the Website