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Whether you have some marketing budget left to spend before the end of 2017 or you're planning your marketing strategy for 2018, we have six recommendations on the best ways to invest your marketing dollars and your time. Some of these ideas include taking advantage of new marketing tools and others are a response to changes in the technologies we use everyday. Find out which may be best for you.

It's no secret that most businesses are trying to grow, and you do that through sales. But getting qualified sales leads can be the toughest part of the process. What if the leads came to you? What if you didn't have to work so hard to pull in leads? Enter inbound marketing. With inbound marketing you'll create content and marketing processes that draw in more visitors who (hopefully) want to become a lead based on what they see and learn while on your website.

But is an inbound marketing strategy right for everyone? Is your business ready? Here are 10  indicators that inbound marketing is a good fit for you.

Remember back in the earlier days of SEO when the main goal was to fill a webpage with a keyword or two that you wanted to rank for in search results? Sometimes it would even seem a little ridiculous when you were reading "SEO'd" content because you felt like a broken record reading the same key phrase over and over in a few paragraphs where it didn't really belong.

Is it possible to get a healthcare facility to switch to using a new software system, especially the one they use everyday for electronic health record management? It seems a little bit daunting when you consider that this type of change would affect every patient and every employee at a healthcare facility.

It does happen, and often. Especially when you consider that many facilities hastily picked EHR software a few years ago to meet the government requirement that one be in place.  Now these facilities are starting to realize the good and the bad about their selection. Not every EHR is good for every medical facility. And if they chose one that's not giving them what they need to function properly and ensure that billing goes smoothly, they're likely to start looking around. What can you do as a healthcare B2B marketer to be sure your software is one being considered?

HIMSS recently published the State of Content Marketing 2016 report with data from healthcare B2B marketers across the U.S. There were some surprising results in that report, including:

• 85% of healthcare B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy, but
• Only 4% of them said their content marketing programs are extremely effective.

This is a bit worrisome since 58% of respondents said that they use content marketing to achieve lead generation. Do you see the disconnect?

In Hubspot's recent report, The State of Inbound 2016, we were able to get a glimpse into what companies are most interested in accomplishing over the next year. 
 

Overwhelmingly in the software industry, and in the other 10 industries interviewed, the #1 top sales priority is "closing more deals." Makes sense, right? That's how you make more money. But there's a lot that goes into "closing more deals." How do you get to that point, especially when:

Using an inbound marketing strategy solves marketing problems that many people often face. Here are four ways inbound marketing will help you overcome some of the biggest problems with growing your online presence and leads generated from the web:

The idea of inbound marketing is easy to fall in love with. It makes so much sense:

1. Create content that draws visitors to your website. 
2. Share your expertise with those who are interested in your products or services.
3. Convert them to leads and then (hopefully) customers with your educational marketing approach. 

The inbound marketing process sounds great... but then you have to get it all done. And that starts largely with creating content.

When medical practices first started their research on EHR software, they were most likely searching online for really broad terms. Things like: 

• Which EHR software is right for my medical practice?
• Best EHR software
• Best cloud EHR software
• Best EHR software for [insert specialty]

But now that most practices have been using an EHR system in their offices for anywhere from a few months to a few years, you now have a more sophisticated buyer with specific questions they need answered in order to consider your software. Ultimately they only want to switch if another software can solve the problems they're currently having. A free demo may offer insight, but how do they narrow down the list of companies to request a demo from?