An AB test can be a great tool for nonprofit or small business marketing. Whether you're doing the marketing yourself or overseeing a team, it's important to understand how AB testing works — when to do it, how to do it, and what kind of effort you can expect to put into it.

Nothing compares to spending 4 days with 22,000 marketers, a handful of inspiring celebrities and hundreds of educational sessions on all things marketing, sales and the human experience.

Inbound17 was everything I’ve grown to expect from HubSpot's yearly conference: totally moving keynotes (Michelle Obama), entertainment that makes my spouse increasingly jealous every year (Judd Apatow), free massages and head shots and a stunning variety of food trucks everyday at lunch (vegan!) and of course leading thought in the sales and marketing industry.

HubSpot's INBOUND conference, held every fall in Boston, is the one conference Yodelpop has attended every year since we were founded. Not only do we tap into an incredible amount of marketing information that we bring back to our work, we always make great connections with clients, marketers, and HubSpot team members. Watching the video recap reminds me of the impressive range of the stories HubSpot brought before 21,000 people this year: keynoters included Michelle Obama, Roxanne Gay, Billie Jean King, Issa Rae, Piera Gelardi, Brene Brown, and so many more people I admire. 

The biggest tactical challenges for how to market a small business often come down to time, expertise and resources. You know you should be marketing, but who has the time? How do you even know where to start? Where will the money come from?

Fortunately, launching an effective marketing program doesn’t have to take forever, can use tools you already have in hand and won’t break the bank if you make wise investments. And keep in mind that you don’t have to go it alone.

Over time, technology has truly transformed small business marketing: It used to be that unless your firm was a big company with sophisticated advertising and PR programs or had big marketing teams with big budgets to go with them, you didn't think marketing was for you.

The digital environment has provided us with a democratic marketing revolution, making it more accessible to everyone. As a small business, you've been committing more resources to your web presence through the accessibility of marketing channels such as websites, social media, and email marketing.

Still, marketing can be confusing and overwhelming, especially with ever-changing and emerging digital platforms and tactics.

Anyone who’s been lucky enough to work as both a journalist and in marketing will attest that the common thread is the power of stories. Whether I'm covering breaking news for a wire service or developing content strategy for a non-profit, the ability to draw people in with compelling narratives is key.

I approach my work with marketing clients in much the same way that I approach my articles as a reporter, using storytelling techniques to inform, educate and sometimes entertain. When it comes to conveying stories effectively, there are some important common themes to keep in mind.  

In that spirit, here are three marketing lessons from a real, live journalist.

As you dig into your marketing plans for the year, one of the biggest challenges is knowing where to start. It helps to have a sample marketing plan that you can use to map out your marketing and web strategies step-by-step.

But when it comes to filling out the plan with the specifics of your marketing activities for the year, it's easy to get pulled in different directions. Some of your colleagues may see budget as the place to start, while others want to jump right in with how to improve the website, social media, email, or blogging strategy.

Let’s have a heart to heart: starting something new can be daunting. Whether it is a new job, a new diet, or even a new hairstyle, change often brings growing pains that can (unfortunately) stop us from trying new things. The biggest reason why change can sometimes seem scary is because you just don’t know what to expect. 

If you’re posting or overseeing web content and you know just enough about keywords to be dangerous—it’s time to learn more. Keywords are a critical part of search engine optimization, to drive traffic to your website and for finding your company’s ideal customers. If you’re investing time and money on creating content and you’re not researching keywords, you’re not getting a full return on your investment.

The annual inbound marketing conference that HubSpot hosted last week in Boston wasn't so much a conference as a 15,000-member learning community. This is the third time Yodelpop has been to Inbound as a HubSpot partner agency, and once again, it sparked tons of insights that can help our clients—and Yodelpop—succeed. These ranged from organizational strategies to marketing techniques to the meaning of "on fleek" as applied to shrimp skewers (that one came from my own team).

Here are a few of the Inbound 2015 takeaways that top my list: