There is an old American homily that says “New friends are silver, but old friends are gold.” This saying can also be applied to marketing techniques. Many new marketing strategies exist today, but they can detract from the tried and true effective strategies that have been proven to deliver results. 

Here are 5 proven inbound marketing strategies for you to implement in 2015.

Google Local

Although the name has changed over time, this listing is still an essential part of your inbound marketing campaign. Formerly called Google Places, the listing puts your business front and center on Google.com, Google Maps, and Google+. The process can be time consuming for most businesses, and is difficult for a 3rd party to implement, but the time invested will be worth it. Choose someone on your internal team to complete your company's Google Local listing. Many businesses cross this listing off the list, because they sell nationally or internationally. You wouldn't turn down business if the consumer or client were a few blocks away, would you? Probably not.

Here's a quick and easy guide to begin your Google Local listing:

• First, create a Google My Business account.

• Next, confirm the listing from the postcard that Google sends to your physical address.

• Complete the Google+ details that go along with your Google Local listing. Google+ has over 540 million active monthly users, and it's more sophisticated than Facebook. Posts to your Google+ business page can show up in search results.

• Pay attention to business categories closely.

• Encourage reviews from customers or clients who love your business.

Content Optimization

The most critical ingredient in any inbound marketing campaign is content. While there are countless articles and guides on content optimization, implementation and follow through are imperative. Combine your editorial calendar with factors such as keywords and target audience, and produce useful content on a regular, consistent basis. It is important to devise valuable content that fits the interests and needs of your visitors, such 

• Blog Articles

• Case Studies

• Whitepapers

• E-books

Applying technical SEO practices to your articles, blog posts, and other content assets will help your content optimization efforts. There is no guarantee that search engines will find the content unless a team member has ensured it's set up correctly to be crawled and indexed.

Video Marketing

The statistics are in: According to Business Wire, a recent Wistia poll found that 78% of marketers indicate video will be a key component of their overall strategy in 2015. Although video marketing is new to many companies, it has been around for a while and should be capitalized on by every marketing team.

Videos allow businesses to effectively educate, demonstrate, and entertain potential clients and customers. Don't limit content to interviews with key team members or management; expand video horizons with explainer videos, slide show videos, and even animation if it fits your brand and company image. 

Although YouTube is the most popular video search engine, and it is owned by Google, there is room for additional help from Wistia. There is no need to put all of your video marketing eggs in one basket, utilize both of these tools to kick off your 2015 video marketing efforts.

Combining tips from Hubspot and Wistia will enable your video marketing team member to implement the following details to your campaign:

• Embed video thumbnails in your email to promote traffic visits to your website.

• Tailor the colors of the video player to your specifications

• Monitor & track viewers

• Create video sitemaps to help search engines index the content of your videos

• Annotate a YouTube video

Webinars

Webinars carry the video experience further because they are interactive. If a potential client finds a video and is intrigued by your content, they are more likely to sign up for an upcoming webinar. If you host videos within your website, this is an ideal page to incorporate a call to action to invite them to receive webinar notifications. Hubspot recommends offering exclusive resources or information, utilize guest presenters, and gather feedback to improve future webinars.

The number of webinar hosting providers are growing, with companies such as GoToWebinar, Onstream, and ClickWebinar. Select a provider who can offer the following options for a successful webinar:

• Video conference. Personalize your webinar with the ability to see attendee faces.

• Screen share from your computer or iPad

• Record meetings and post them to your website.

The best part about webinar creation? Easily convert them to video content and utilize Wistia and YouTube to optimize your video library.

Inbound Customer Service

Otherwise known as "Live Chat", inbound customer service tools allow your website to turn into an inbound customer service machine. Imagine if a new visitor could contact your team immediately, and interact with your brand within 1 minute of arriving at your website! What if a returning visitor was encouraged to take the next step and fill out your online form because they received an immediate answer to their question?  

Inbound marketing campaigns fall short because tasks are focused on increasing the number of visitors & the number of content shares. Instead of focusing on how those numbers could lead to more conversions, the focus remains on increasing site visits and shares in hopes that conversion rates will follow. Use inbound customer service tools to focus on conversion increases. Implementing a live chat tool is not difficult, and it will be easy to measure the results. Providers? Hubspot offers SnapEngage, and there are other third party providers such as Olark and LiveHelpNow.

Remember, the possibilities are endless for inbound marketing strategies, but only a certain number have been proven effective. The 5 strategies listed above are proven and will give your campaign the results it needs. If you would like to make sure these strategies are not only implemented in 2015, but will increase the number of leads your company is receiving, Rapidan Inbound is available to help. Schedule a free online lead generation assessment today, and learn more about the pillars of an inbound marketing campaign for your business.