It IS a damn good question. The Cialdini principles are so often abused today, IMHO: fake scarcity, fake likeability, fake social proof, all that stuff. And “online” is a place were this kind of fake can live long enough, apparently to make some bucks and don’t bother about ethics, honesty or reputation even.

That said, I sometimes find solo-entrepreneurs in their social media who act like this. Perhaps because they are seen as the real person they are, can’t believe that they hide behind a brand or something. Maybe that is the reason why you, Corey, get so much positive feedback on your email today: even though being “behind” the Unbound brand, you show your personality, in a positive way. Many of your readers think this is something special. And though it IS (kudos for you), it shouldn’t be.

Hi all, my name is Ben and I work for a large bank in Ontario Canada, my goal is to develop a lead gen site that does not infringe on my employer, a site that can generate leads and prospects so that I can reach out and assist in their financing , oh BTW i am a mortgage agent with a bank. Any thoughts and or direction greatly appreciated.  

Thanks a lot Corey!!! Will start with that today.

Hey Nathan,

Great to meet you and thanks for the compliment! I was considering claiming that I had “1 weird trick that moms hate” in the subject, but it didn’t feel right 🙂

You’re a brave man to suggest that you’re considering buying a software product in a public space! I’ve let Phil, our Executive Assistant for agency customers know that you could use a hand. He’ll reach out shortly.

Go easy on him… he’s new.

Thanks Ton! When I saw your book, I couldn’t believe more people hadn’t written about the topic yet. Also, I’ve never seen a website with a responsive border like yours has. It definitely stands out.

When the day comes that you need Unbounce, we’ll be here. Until then, I hope we can help you see success with your book and course!

Hi Ben, I’d imagine that there are a lot of people who need help with their financing and don’t necessarily trust banks to help them. You could certainly use PPC to place ads next to banks and tout yourself as a more progressive solution. Of course, I don’t know the ins and outs of what’s legal in that space, but it sounds like there would be opportunity there. Also, the drawback with relying on paid advertising is that you’ll have to invest money upfront before you see a return.

If you have some capital to start with, I’d recommend reaching out to an Unbounce partner who specializes in PPC who could give you an idea of how much it would cost to get started with paid advertising. If not, you might consider writing guest posts on credible blogs about why your financing solution is superior to going to a bank, then just leaving a small CTA that directs them to you (or your landing page).

Hi Corey,

I am Melisa from Indonesia. Thanks for your email. I am just a student who wants to do a startup in the future (this summer!). I did a summer school on entrepreneurship and I used resources from unbounce to do my job as the assigned CMO. 

Thanks!

Best,

Melisa

Hi Corey and all, 

I’m Stela, currently working in UK and helping a national online accountancy firm with all aspects of marketing. I’ve been designing a few landing pages, plenty of banner ads, blog headers and images for social media. I’m also running email, PPC and social lead gen campaigns with free eBooks, email courses and newsletters. Unbounce’s resources have been very useful when I needed to focus on a specific short-term project. It feels good to keep my knowledge fresh and stay on top of the latest marketing updates with your emails. For the moment I’m nurturing my skills and building experience until I can hopefully take off on my own soon. 

Best wishes,

Stela

Hi! I’m Andrew, Ukraine. I worked in social media for a bit more than 3 years. Just over a year ago I upgraded to digital marketing. Got lucky to land a job in an IT outsourcing company. Here I got my hands first on email, then - content marketing… in addition to social media. Really happy to have this opportunity to grow and Unbounce blog is of great assistance here.

The biggest challenge right now is finding that niche, a perfect spot in a very competitive environment, where my company can really spread its wings. So, got lots of analytics to analyze and hypotheses to test.

Thanks for chiming in, Hana! Really appreciate it 🙂

Whoa, cool! Which resources did you use?

Wow Stela, you’re doing a lot! And going out on your own seems to be a common thread within the responses to these emails. Best of luck to you. If you’re experiencing any challenges with any of your banner ads, landing pages or lead gen campaigns, I’d encourage you to visit us again and ask the community what they think! There are some really smart people in here :) 

Glad to have you with us.

Hi Andrew,

That’s an exciting (and confusing) time to be in, for sure. What’s your favourite type of marketing, or industry to work on? Could it be as simple as picking your favourite?

Hi Pat, great to meet you.

It’s not necessarily unrealistic, but it’s very difficult to tackle ALL the tools and ALL the channels at once. My advice would be to strongly consider which channel makes the most sense for your business and nail it first. Once you’ve got that one channel figured out, branch out.

For example, when Unbounce was a startup with a marketing department of 1 person, Oli Gardner believed strongly that inbound marketing was the way to go, so he dumped all his effort into building the readership of our blog, writing ebooks to generate leads and building up our social media presence, so we could share our content with the audience we’ve built. It wasn’t until we got more staff that we started branching out into webinars, paid advertising, partnerships, email marketing, etc.

Anyway, only one guy’s opinion, but I believe it pretty strongly. It’s tough to do everything at once and near impossible to do everything well at once.

That sounds like an awesome trip. You picked the right sporting event, too. I’m not a big sports guy myself, but it’s awesome to see the energy that comes out of a Lions game.

Hi Corey,

I’m Tami. I handle marketing for Cyzerg an IT Services and Solutions provider for Logistics companies. I love content marketing and I’m getting into the motions of inbound.

I’ve actually used Unbounce in one of my past companies ( left there about 2 years ago…) The tool was great, but I was learning a lot from your blog so I continued to follow the blog when I started working here.

Our biggest marketing problem right now is capturing website traffic and turning it into leads. What do you think about Hubspot since you’ve started using it? 

By the way, this might be because of the way our spam filters are set up, but this email landed in my Junk box. 

I’m a residential real estate appraiser in the Chicago area. What is the best way to get a client to order an appraisal?

Alan D’alba

aexact1067@gmail.com

847-710-5114

Hi, I’m Eric, owner of Chewy Mooey, a new and growing jerky manufacturer in Perth, Australia. Over the previous year, my focus has been on wholesale - getting my products into brick and mortar shops. I’ve now engaged distributors to handle that side of things, and I’m now looking to build out our online/direct marketing side of things. I have very little online marketing experience. I’m looking forward to learning.

Hi Tina,

I work with a few Realtors down here in Florida. Would love to swap ideas with you for lead generation. I’ve set up a few successful campaigns for this using Unbounce, but there is so much else to test!

Hi there! My name is Melissa, and I am brand-spankin’ new to the whole marketing and content, etc. etc. thing, so I am trying to absorb as much information as possible. What I do know is this…I’ve just made my dreams come true and I now live in a big RV with my 2 dogs, and I have a wonderful life traveling and exploring this great United States and living life to the fullest. I plan to be able to work from anywhere in my RV as I travel, and I’m starting an online presence/business where I can help others live their lives to the fullest and pursue their dreams too. So I guess the most important thing I need to know right now is How To Get Started. Thanks and nice to meet ya! !e](https://d2r1vs3d9006ap.cloudfront.net/s3_images/1434112/RackMultipart20160615-76070-1bqjlwd-2014-08-25_15.53.39 600_x_220 inline.jpg?1466001613)

Hi Melissa, welcome to the community! That sounds very exciting. Congrats! So, what type of online presence or business are you interested in building? Do you want to sell online courses to help others, or offer consulting, etc?

Hi Nicholas (great name by the way - I have a nephew named Nicholas!), I’m just working through the outline of what I want to offer, but it will be centered around helping others achieve their dreams. I plan on including content such as courses, ebooks, videos and personal coaching (although I don’t like the word coaching - it’s been over-used). My basic plan is to start with a landing page and deliver some awesome free content (such as a 4-part video series), build a list, and then direct those list members to my website. Right now it’s just me wearing all the hats, and learning as much as I can. Thanks for your interest!

Thanks for joining the community, Melissa! That sounds like an incredible life. What are your favourite places to travel to?

It seems like you’re starting in the right place by outlining what you’re going to offer. Finalizing the details of the product itself Ñ in your case, the content Ñ is the best thing you can do before moving onto an actual promotional strategy.

Would recommend checking out both the Resources section of our website and the Unbounce blog Ñ the latter of which is so jam-packed with helpful content that I’d really recommend using the categories menu on the right to navigate it. 🙂

Hello and thanks for the email!

I am Nisa and i am Project Manager of an online sex store since 2 months now but i am getting many troubles regarding to finding marketing strategies to promote the products or the website in overall. The company where i work has been successful at promoting products of other websites focused on fashion online sales, gifts online sales, etc. But sex products seem to be difficult to promote. 

I would like some advices about promoting this kind of website.

Have a great time :) 

Who are you? What’s your name, job, what are your interests?

I am Mia, the Marketing Manager for a well-established manufacturing company that has a self-funded startup being launched this year with a patented technology designed for the small to medium industrial/manufacturing market.

And what marketing problem are you struggling with right now?

I have created an educational research guide type website for this specific product (includes competitor products, specs, applications, etc.) with the (hidden) goal of gathering leads for the future product. My challenge is needing to “gate” as much content as possible with surveys, email signups, pdf downloads, etc. but I still need to gather enough interest in the site before I ask for information from the visitor. I need to become an expert with creating a “give/take” relationship for our web visitors.