006: Inbound Marketing Based On Solid Metrics With Tom Schwab

It’s a little bit intimidating to interview a guy whose first job out of college was running a nuclear power plant. After that start, Tom Schwab grew his own company from a small, regional player to a national leader in three years during a recession – and he did it without a sales or marketing department.

Tom Schwab is a smart man. He realized very early that chasing ever-increasing costs on Google AdWords was ultimately a losing game. So he switched things up and started looking for ways to provide value to his customers instead of just looking for ways to sell to them. Yep, way before inbound marketing was “a thing,” Tom was doing it – and doing it authentically. In ways that resonated with customers.

These days you can find Tom at tmschwab.com – he’s a digital marketing engineer who consults with big and small names to help them get the results they want. He’s also speaking at the Inbound 2015 Conference in Boston in September, so be sure to look for him if you’re there. This is a great show, full of practical advice and information. Have a listen!

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL HEAR:

• What terrified @Tom early in his career when he looked in the mirror.
• How listening to customers helped Tom develop a product that made a real difference in people’s lives. #BuyerPersona
• The secret to getting customers to know, like, and trust you and your product – and how to create content that builds authority. #ContentStrategy
• The best compliment Tom ever received – and why he thinks we should all try to be like Preparation H.
• Why you might want to rethink – or even cancel – your Google AdWords campaign. #AdWords
• What you should strive for in all the content you create, and the only vanity metric that matters.
• Where Tom puts his focus – and why he doesn’t believe in pushing customers through sales funnels.
• The $20 tool that Tom used to nurture his users and convert them to happy customers.
• The most important thing you absolutely must know about landing page design in ecommerce to reduce bounce. #Ecommerce
• How you can use audio content to drive customers to your site without starting a podcast.
• Tim’s top marketing tip for Insiders.

Links and Resources

• TMSchwab, Tom’s site, where you can sign up for his Podcast guest webinar.
• All about Inbound 2015.
• MailChimp, which both Tom and Buckley have used with great success for mailing list management.

Thank you so much for listening. I hope you learned something new or found an idea that you can put to use. And hey, if you did, could you tell a friend to listen, too? You can use the social media buttons at the top of the post.

I’d also really love your help in getting the word out about the Podcast, and one of the best ways to do that is with ratings and reviews at iTunes – they really make a big difference. Honest reviews help me improve the show and make it better for you.

Have comments about the show? Let me know at the blog or on Facebook. You can also subscribe on iTunes – and then you’ll never have to worry about missing an episode. That’s a wrap – I’ll catch you next week!

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