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The Definitive Inbound Lead Generation Resource List

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Posted by John Beveridge on Aug 22, 2012 4:15:00 PM

Inbound lead generation back to school list 2012In this article, I thought I'd share several inbound lead generation resources that I've found useful over the past few months.  So in no particular order, here are my recommendations for your inbound lead generation resource list.

The Challenger Sale

"The Challenger Sale - Taking Control of the Customer Conversation" by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson is an excellent book based on the research of the Sales Executive Council on how the sales process has been transformed during the great recession.  One notable conclusion of the research was that a new sales professional profile, the Challenger, was more successful than any others.  The Challenger has the ability to teach, tailor and take control of the sales process.  This book is a must read for anyone challenged with growing revenue in a continually tough economy.

HubSpot Inbound Marketing Blog

The HubSpot Inbound Marketing Blog covers all areas of inbound lead generation.  Recent posts have ranged from The Marketer's Simple Guide to Creating Infographics in Powerpoint to The Secrets to Increasing Blog Subscribers & Boosting Traffic.  Filled with actionable information, the Hubspot blog is a daily visit for me.

Elogua's It's All About the Revenue Blog

The blog from marketing automation software provider Eloqua is an excellent source of information on converting leads to revenue.  A recent post titled, "How to Tell if Your Customer Community is Driving Revenue" is indicative of the type and quality of content available in Eloqua's blog.

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Nimble's Social Relationship Manager

Nimble is a start-up Social CRM run by Goldmine founder Jon Ferrara. Nimble has built a cloud-based CRM tool that was designed and built to incorporate social media activity into the CRM process.  Nimble offers a 30-day free trial and business packages are available at $15 per user per month.  I recommend taking advantage of the 30-day free trial to see if it will help you revenue generation efforts.

Webinar: How to Grow Your Business with Social and Inbound Marketing

This webinar, presented by HubSpot's Mark  Roberge and Salesforce's Jamie Grenney, is definitely worth 50 minutes of your life.  Roberge and Grenney lay out a step-by-step blueprint to sell with social media and internet marketing.  This accountability-based process focuses on increasing the metrics that matter:  web visitors, marketing-qualified lead and sales.

Inbound Writer

Inbound Writer is a cloud-based content optimization tool that helps you create search-engine friendly blog posts and web content.  I find the feature that suggests improvements as you write particularly useful.  The free version lets you optimize 8 documents per month; a professional plan with unlimited use is available for $19.95 per month.

Hootsuite Social Media Management Software

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that lets you manage all of your social media network and monitor the web for conversation around your brand or industry.  Every sales professional should use the free version to manage her personal social media process.  A professional version is available for $9.99 per month and an enterprise version is available with custom pricing.

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HubSpot End-to-End Internet Marketing Software

Last but certainly not least is HubSpot's end-to-end internet marketing software platform.  HubSpot's software does everything you need to do to excel at inbound marketing:  SEO, blogging, call-to-action and landing page creation and optimization, social media management, e-mail marketing, lead scoring, lead nurturing and analytics on every element of your inbound marketing process.  Rapidan Strategies is a HubSpot VAR and we operate our own inbound marketing program on HubSpot.  If you'd like to learn more, try a 30-day free trial of HubSpot with Rapidan Strategies.

So that's the back-to-school list for this year.  Which sales and marketing resources have you used that you recommend?

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