Marketing plays an important role in every business. It shows the audience what the product or service has to offer. You can use different platforms like social media in marketing. Inbound marketing is a business strategy where attraction of customers is done by creating valuable content and experiences tailored for them.
While marketing is done to attract potential clients and increase overall sales, inbound marketing takes time to actually prosper. It took us quite a long time to stop worrying about seeing quick results and figure out how to love the process.
Here are seven tips on how we did it, and how you can too.
Trust the process!
Keep in mind that there are no shortcuts and quick fixes in inbound marketing. Campaigns may take longer than you expected to start yielding results. Remember that there is no immediate gratification with inbound marketing. Stop stressing out! Instead, have fun working on your strategy.
Numbers don’t lie. It took seven months for 84% of the businesses who use inbound marketing to increase their lead generation. You might not see any quick results the moment you begin. But don’t worry, inbound marketing does work, it only takes time.
… and stick to it
Accepting the actual fact that inbound marketing is a slow process is one thing. But sticking to the process is another. There is no better way to do this but to plan.
With each task, goals, and scheduled due dates, write it in your planner. Concrete planning serves as a guide for your actions directing you to your desired outcome. It is easy to get discouraged when you are not seeing any results. But having a plan will keep you on track and continue to push forward. Planning comes in very handy to check your progress and keep yourself accountable.
Here’s our recommendations to make your plan:
- Audience phase (Month 1): Identify your target audience. This will help you in creating ideas for your content in the future.
- Writing phase (Months 2-4): After determining your audience, you can start the writing process- blog posts, articles, landing pages, social media posts and so on. This is where you should focus for the next few months.
- Tracking phase (Month 5): When you have already established your content, it is time to start monitoring closely your web analytics and lead generation. Through this, you can start seeing the impact of your campaign.
- Improving phase (Month 6): Now that you are aware of your numbers, you can focus on improving your campaign. See which parts to modify and work on it. Pro tip: make a system where you can go back to your previous blog posts to add more to it, both on length and SEO.
One thing you need
While patiently waiting for your campaign to be successful, the one thing that is necessary is proper finances. We don’t necessarily mean that you need to shed a big chunk of money from your profit. But you should have a steady source of income from different products or saved up enough money to support your team. In the end, the money that you invest in your marketing is typically worth it.
Get ready for the hardest work
Patience and money aren’t the only things required while waiting for the success of inbound marketing, you must also be persistent. Most of the time you will be working very hard with your team.
It is important for a team to be prepared by setting priorities each day. Conducting meetings every week to stay on top of your game and to communicate the progress of ongoing projects is equally important. You can also decide how many articles to write each month. You might end up writing multiple new blog spots and reworking on old articles every month, several posts for each social channel and weekly emails. Again, it’s hard work.
Be consistent
Consistency is always the key. It would take a lot of time, but you will get there. If you stick to your plan, you will probably succeed. It is about continuously giving your target audience the information that they need.
Some product launches may take a year of growing social channels and pushing out contents to start driving new leads. There is nothing to worry about taking a longer time than the average. Just be consistent. Don’t give up and keep pushing. Soon, you will be reaping the rewards of your hard work.
Track your progress
After some time, you will eventually have data on your web analytics and lead generation. From that, reflect on how effective your marketing strategy is. You can also check if the goals and tasks written in your plans are being achieved.
Improve your ways
Constantly level up your marketing strategies. Know what is trendy and appropriate for your target audience. You don’t want to give them the same, old articles you have been writing over and over again. Find ways to spice it up by giving them a variety of content fitted for them. Keep them guessing on what’s up next. Through this, the audience will be left craving for more content from you.
Now that we have given you some tips on how to enjoy the inbound process, you can start applying these to your strategies in the market. Apparently, the inbound process requires time and a lot of work, but it is going to pay off if you push through.