This month we’ve brought together some top-quality posts from the most authoritative websites in the sector. The focus is on one thing really… getting more customers:

  • understanding what your prospective customers need and the environment they’re in,
  • tools to measure the effectiveness of your marketing, and
  • bringing these two together to continuously make your offer more useful and more relevant.

1. The Consumer Buying Decision Process

Sub-titled ‘…or how real people really buy things’, this helpful post reminds us that to sell effectively, you need to get inside your prospective customers heads and understand what they want.

Includes some simple models to help you do this. Learn about them.

2. How to Earn the Amplification of Influencers

Whilst the title might be a bit of a mouthful, this ten-minute video by the charismatic Rand Fishkin is crisp, clear and insightful. In a nutshell: how to get to your target market via the most influential people in your market.

Check it out here.

3. An In-Depth Look at the Inbound Marketing Funnel

If you’re looking for a detailed infographic on the anatomy of inbound marketing, then check this one out on the Digital Relevance blog.

Inbound marketing, by the way, is one of the more recent terms that describes how to make it easier for people to find your stuff online when they’re looking for answers to a specific problem.

Click here to see the infographic.

4. Five Essential Analytics Reports for UX Strategists

I’m recommending this post because it brings together two areas I’m really interested in:

  • measuring how well your website is actually supporting your business objectives (analytics), and
  • organising your website so it’s easier for your target audience to use and engage with your business (‘UX‘ standing for User Experience).

Read about it on the authoritative Nielsen Norman website.

5. How To Use Google Analytics To Enhance Your Content Marketing Strategy

Another nice post on how to use Google Analytics to measure and improve the effectiveness of your online marketing. This time by the clever people at Koozai.

6. How To Use HARO for Content Marketing Ideas

How can you judge what’s going to be interesting to journalists? It’s a tough question, and often one that can’t be answered from within the organisation.

Get answers to this knotty problem by learning about an the HARO (Help A Reporter Out) website.

7. Quick Fixes in Mobile Website Performance

And finally… worried you’re losing valuable traffic because your site doesn’t perform well on mobile devices? Check out this ten-minute video by Google on what to do next.