In case you somehow hadn't heard, Steve Jobs, an amazing marketer, presenter, and product designer, resigned as CEO of Apple earlier this week. This week on the Marketing Update, Karen Rubin and Kipp Bodnar discussed lessons marketers can learn from Jobs. The Wall Street Journal published a great article about his best quotes.

 Below are some of our favorites and how they apply to marketing. 


Quote #1: Marketing Budget: "Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it." Fortune, November 9, 1998

Marketing Takeaway: Innovation in marketing has nothing to do with how much budget you have either. In fact, this is what makes inbound marketing a much better, cost-effective alternative to traditional outbound marketing. Make sure your team is filled with passionate people who believe in what they are marketing. In inbound marketing, it's about the size of your brain, not the size of your wallet. Create amazing, remarkable content, and you'll be amazed at the kinds of results you can achieve. 

Quote #2: Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing“When you’re young, you look at television and think, there’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.” Wired, February 1996

Marketing Takeaway: More people are ignoring television ads by blocking them with TiVo and DVR technologies every day. At some point, the television networks will catch on that their business model is no longer working. As a marketer, make sure you have started using inbound marketing techniques to stop interrupting people and start engaging with them. 

Quote #3: Differentiation“It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.” 1982, quoted in Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple, 1987

Marketing Takeaway: Be unique in your marketing! Try new things, and be remarkable and different. Wearing an eye patch and a peg leg could do wonders for your marketing!

Quote #4: Passion"And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it." Stanford Commencement 2005

Marketing Takeaway: Inbound marketing demands passion. You can't create remarkable content if you don't believe in what you're creating. Hire people who are passionate about what your business has to offer, and it will inspire an awesome inbound marketing strategy that features amazing content that generates results.

What else can Steve Jobs teach you about inbound marketing?



Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/23630/4-Marketing-Lessons-From-Steve-Jobs-Marketing-Update.aspx#ixzz1WXa31sR5

The online world is an attention economy. Attention is finite, and therefore scarce. So if you want people to pay attention to you, you need to earn it.

You can't expect your work to speak for itself. Most of the time, it won't. You need to accept that marketing is part of your job, just as much as making.

But the game changes when you start applying your creativity to your marketing -- it becomes more fun as well as more effective. Here are four ways to use your creativity to attract the right kind of visitors to your website.

1. Create an amazing blog.
Note the word 'amazing'. I'm not talking about a blog you only update when you've got a new client or exhibition, or something new to sell. I'm not talking about a personal diary where you to post your musings on art, life, and the universe. I mean the kind of blog that grabs people's attention by delivering outstandingly valuable, useful, or entertaining material -- consistently.

Instead of writing, 'here's my latest work', write about:

• "Here's how I made it" - with pictures and/or video. Like this or this or this.
• "Here's what inspired it" - if you like it, chances are your audience will like it too. Like this or this.
• "Here's how you can make one like it." Like this or this.
• "Here's a gadget that makes my work better (and could help  you too)." Like this.

 Instead of burying your opinions in long paragraphs of diary-style 'musings', put them out there loud and clear:

• Devote an entire blog post to nailing ONE idea.
• Start with a compelling headline.
• Ask yourself 'So what? Why should anyone care?' -- and make that the start of the post.
• Give concrete examples.
• Invite comments by ending with a question.
• For example: I'm a designer. Use me better.

 And don't forget to ask for the subscription! Repeat visitors are the best visitors, so one of your goals is to build an audience of loyal subscribers. Ask people to subscribe and offer an email option to make it easy.

2. Give (some of) your best work away for free.
Just so we're clear: I'm not one of those internet hippies who tells you "information wants to be free", so you should give away all your best work and forget about being paid. (Have you noticed those guys tend to have a comfortable salary or professorship?) 

But as Tim O'Reilly has pointed out, for most creatives obscurity is a greater threat than piracy. If no one's ever heard of you, they won't even bother to rip you off, let alone pay for your work.

So take advantage of the spreadability of digital content by giving away something valuable and encouraging people to share it with their contacts:

• the first chapter of your novel (or even an entire novella)
• a free report or e-book, full of insanely useful information
• one of the best tracks from your album
• a design template
• high-resolution images
• a series of tutorials
• videos that anyone can embed in their site

Use a Creative Commons license to make it clear what people are allowed to do with the work. And make sure it's something genuinely valuable. If you feel slightly uncomfortable about giving away something so good, you're on the right track. Otherwise, why would anyone get excited enough to tell their friends?

But don't give away the farm. Make sure you have plenty in reserve -- products, services, artworks -- for the folks who want to take things further and buy from you.

3. Borrow someone else's audience.
Why build an audience from scratch when you can borrow one that someone else has spent months or years assembling? No, it's not unethical -- in fact, the 'someone' in question will love you for it.

Writing high-quality guest posts for popular blogs in your niche is one of the most effective ways to get yourself on the radar of the people you want to reach. Your 'payment' is a link back to your site -- make a great offer and you could land hundreds of new subscribers with every guest post you write.

And make sure it's your best work. This is your chance to make a big impression -- don't blow it by sending out second-rate articles and keeping the best stuff for your own site.

4. Get your content into circulation.
Have you noticed that of the three tips so far, only one of them is centered around your site? (No. 2 may start on your site, but the real magic happens when people start sharing it with their friends.) If you really want more visitors, you have to go out and find them.

Social networking sites are not just for networking -- they are ideal places to get your content (blog posts, videos, free reports, etc) in front of other people. Use Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ to share links to your content. Make use of portfolio sites like Behance to showcase your work in places where people go to look for it.

And be generous -- share more of other people's content than your own. That way, you not only help others (good digital karma!) you also position yourself as a go-to authority, a source of cool stuff who people want to follow. ***
None of these methods is a quick fix. They require time, effort, and persistence. But the good news is the benefits are cumulative - as your blog attracts links and subscribers, as your free content gets into circulation, and as you get known as a rising star in your niche, you'll find yourself attracting more and more new visitors for every hour you spend on marketing.

And no, website visitors don't necessarily equal customers -- otherwise there'd be a lot more Internet millionaires! My next article will offer tips on turning visitors into buyers, so make sure you're subscribed to the 99% RSS feed if you want to know how to do that.
Over To You: Which of these methods is most appealing to you? What have been your best sources of web visitors?

--Mark McGuinness is a coach who specializes in internet marketing for creative professionals. For a FREE 26-week creative career guide sign up for Mark's course The Creative Pathfinder.

1. Maintain an Active Business Blog: Launching a blog that covers important topics relating to the industry in which you're selling is perhaps the best way to establish and uphold your image as a thought leader. A well-written blog will make prospects and current customers confident that the products and services they buy from you are created using industry expertise. Not only will maintaining an active business blog reward you with a more credible industry presence, but when done right, it will also afford you additional business benefits such as improved lead generation and a boost in search engine optimization.

2. Contribute Guest Blog Posts: Once you start gaining traction as a credible business blogger using your own blog, it's also a great idea to seek opportunities to contribute guest articles to the blogs of other industry thought leaders. Being recognized by already-established thought leaders as a credible source and contributor will further legitimize your industry expertise.

3. Publish Long-Form Content: Publishing longer form content such as ebooks, whitepapers, and even webinars shows prospects and customers that your knowledge about given topics expands beyond 600-word blog posts. By publishing well-crafted, educational ebooks or other downloadable content, you'll demonstrate that you're capable of thought leadership on an even higher scale.

4. Launch Your Own Podcast: An alternative or complement to blogging, launching a regularly scheduled audio or video podcast is another great way to exhibit thought leadership. Consider discussing important industry-related topics or news and inviting other industry experts to join you as guests to create an even deeper level of credibility.

5. Speak at Conferences/Events: Your thought leadership doesn't have to be limited to the web. Live, in-person conferences and events are valuable marketing assets, and a presence at these gatherings can be valuable to any business' marketing efforts. Apply to speak at these types of industry events. Start with smaller events to introduce yourself into your industry's speaking circuit, and work your way up to larger, more prestigious events once you've gained more experience and respect as a speaker. Once you've secured speaking engagements, always be sure to make your presentations as educational and non-promotional as possible to achieve maximum credibility.

6. Answer Questions in Social Media: This is perhaps one of the easiest thought leadership tactics to keep up with on an ongoing basis. Social media is littered with people trying to learn more or find answers to questions they have. Monitoring social media sites for industry-related questions can help you identify opportunities to share your expertise. LinkedIn Answers is the perfect platform for this, allowing you to search users' questions by industry and topic. Also consider using Twitter Search to find users' questions on Twitter. Quora and Facebook are also great places to search. Once you've identified questions for which you can provide a helpful response, answer it in an informative, non-promotional way. (Bonus points if you can link to a blog post you've written that expands on the topic in question!)

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/22170/6-Ways-to-Establish-Yourself-as-an-Industry-Thought-Leader.aspx#ixzz1UcvXAiLs