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Is the blog dead? Marketing gurus have predicted the death of blogging on and off since 2009. In niche industries like optics and photonics, advanced manufacturing, and medical devices, many companies were slow to adopt a content-driven strategy because they believed their customers didn’t read blogs. Now that they’ve seen the ROI of blogging, we question how long it will remain viable. Let’s explore.

Members of the Launch team trekked to Boston recently for INBOUND 2017, HubSpot's annual conference on inbound marketing best practices. It was a few team members’ first time attending, but it was a learning experience for all, as well as a chance to visit local Boston clients.

I like to start each day by opening up the HubSpot marketing dashboards for each of my client accounts. I take a look at the numbers, the most honest assessment of how an account’s inbound marketing activities are performing.

There's a lot more to budget planning than deciding how much to spend where. For some, it's setting a right-sized investment in marketing to match their growth goals. For others, it's optimizing their marketing budgets by shifting resources to what's working best today—namely, online channels. This shift involves a broadened focus on bringing in leads through websites, targeted social media, regular blogging, opt-in email subscribers, etc.

Tom McManus, CEO of KegWorks, has worked to build a global, multi-channel, multi-brand corporation committed to “everything in the bar except the alcohol,” including their Line Logic and Behind the Bar brands.

Launch Team Inc. President Michele Nichols will present a short course at the 2017 Photonics West conference to discuss inbound marketing and sales strategies for optics companies.

Last week we reported some of our findings from Hubspot’s INBOUND 2016 conference, including how to succeed using today’s sales model and how to overcome common inbound marketing challenges. This week we dive deeper into our favorite presentations and explore ways to improve email marketing, social selling, and conversations for a better customer experience.

It was Michele, Aimee and Mandy’s turn to attend HubSpot’s INBOUND conference this year in Boston. Each year we send part of our team while the rest hold down the fort at the office. While every member has been through HubSpot’s extensive training and certification, the conference offers the chance to interact with thousands of HubSpot agency partners and customers and to hear their experience with inbound marketing. Here’s what we learned:

You asked—we answered.

Last week, we presented at an event for High Tech Rochester (HTR) and their manufacturing community, and at Optifest, Optipro’s annual manufacturing open house. Many companies like these, faced with overseas competitive price pressures and increasingly complex customer demands, struggle with what an effective sales model looks like now.

Many business leaders, particularly in manufacturing and high tech companies, are skeptical of inbound marketing; they think it’s “squishy” and question its value to the business. While it does take time to see significant growth, even those just starting to implement inbound strategies can achieve some wins relatively quickly.

More and more companies are realizing that they can get better ROI from inbound marketing than traditional outbound strategies. In an age when most buyers prefer to do their own research before engaging your sales team, providing informative content is key. Content marketing is especially important in technical industries, where sales cycles are longer and engineers are often making purchase decisions. Yet many high tech companies still rely on an outbound marketing approach.

Chris Bihary, CEO and Co-Founder of Garland Technology, sat down with Michele Nichols in downtown Buffalo, near Garland’s new headquarters, right in the middle of Buffalo’s revival.

Chris shared the results of a shift to inbound marketing strategy and the ramifications on the rest of his business.