The Online Backup business is booming. Independent Service Providers like most of us are benefiting from a rising tide of public awareness in Online Backup as an inexpensive and better alternative to tapes and CDs. This article is Part 2 of the chapter, “How to Sell Online Backup.”
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The Online Backup business is booming. Independent Service Providers like most of us are benefiting from a rising tide of public awareness in Online Backup as an inexpensive and better alternative to tapes and CDs.
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A recent HubSpot report called “The State of Inbound Marketing” offers some enlightening stats about marketers and their blogs:
- Blogs and social media channels are generating real customers: 57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blog.
- More and more businesses are blogging: Businesses are now in the minority if they do not blog. From 2009 to 2011 the percentage of businesses with a blog grew from 48% to 65%.
- Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable: 85% of businesses rated their company blogs as “useful,” “important,” or “critica‖,” a whopping 27% rated their company blog as “critica‖” to their business.
And marketers are putting their money where their mouth is:
- The average budget spent on company blogs and social media increased from 9% in 2009 to 17% in 2011.
So who’s blogging successfully? According to HubSpot, marketers in higher education, professional services and consulting, and software and biotech indicated blogging as highly effective with over 50% reporting customer acquisition as a direct result from their blogs.
If you haven’t started blogging because you are unsure about the benefits, let us give you the short list of why you should take another look:
- Nurtures prospects
- Establishes thought leadership
- Improves S.E.O.
- Builds community
- Increases CUSTOMER ACQUISITION
Remember, a blog is just one part of your larger content marketing strategy. It is critical to have something relevant to say and share with prospects across a variety of mediums. For a list of content marketing tactics, download our Content Marketing Strategy Cheat Sheet. It’s free and it will help get you started.
To find out more about inbound marketing in 2011, you can download the report “The State of Inbound Marketing” at HubSpot.
Read MoreTwo of the most common questions I am asked by new Online Backup Service Providers are, “How much should I charge,” and “How much storage space should I offer?” The answers have huge impact on profitability and marketability, and have been among the most difficult to answer – until now.
Read MoreHaving spent the past 23 years putting Online Backup Services in business I have seen thousands of them reach great success. I’ve seen thousands reach a comfortable level, and maybe more importantly, I’ve seen many fail.
Read MoreSure, the penguin is cute. (That is a penguin, isn’t it?) But do not select Online Backup software for your new company based on its support for Linux. For the vast majority of Online Backup Providers Linux is not a factor in the real world, as you will find out.
Read MoreMost small businesses that buy Online Backup services don’t know the right questions to ask. However there are some things they should consider. Depending on the way you do business, you may want to use these in your Service Level Agreement or competitive marketing.
Read MoreIt is important to be aware of the differences between the Personal Online Backup market and its Business counterpart. They have very different needs, and different prices.
Read MoreAccording to a few sources, the average customer of one of the big $5/month services stores 30GB of data online. Even at the current low price of hard drives, how can that be profitable? Here’s a much simplified explanation.
Read MoreNew Online Backup Service Providers are often apprehensive about going into business because they think their business customers will balk at paying $89/month when they see ads for $5/month services.
Read MoreYou see them everywhere – ads for companies like Mozy and Carbonite who offer to back up your personal computer for $5 a month, often offering “unlimited” storage space. So, how does a small Online Backup company compete? The answer is: Don’t.
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