Wish I could do a Charles Dickens here. It would be a tough one to pull off, in this era of content overload.
Through this post, I give a growth marketer’s perspective about what is reasonable to expect when undertaking inbound marketing. Your situation could be one of the following:-
- Planning to engage or would have already engaged with an inbound marketing agency
- Undertaking inbound marketing through an in-house team
Doing ‘inbound marketing’ may mean different things to different teams, and so the expectations are different too, ranging from…
- SEO
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- and everything digital marketing…
The above isn’t out of place but lacks direction. I come across colleagues, prospects, and friends who think they are doing inbound marketing if they do any of the above.
Is that a problem?
No, but we have a more important reason.
There is no reason why inbound marketing should not be linked to business goals. Inbound marketing expectations should be around revenue, growth and customer acquisition. The attention to vanity metrics is a known risk, and a point of refuge for unsuccessful inbound marketers. Beginners should be wary of this distraction. A focus on revenue and customer acquisition will bring in more marketing dollars and a consequent focus on ROI.
(Refer SOI 2016 takeaways)SEO, content, social media are all part of inbound marketing strategies, with a clear focus on revenue. Month after month and campaign after campaign, inbound marketing should be able to create a roadmap to customer acquisition and revenue generation. It will be foolish to expect revenue realisation in the first month, but for beginner’s luck. Nevertheless, it is vital that inbound marketing translates into opportunities, qualified leads and growing relevant website traffic. Over a course of few months, this focus on revenue begins etching a marketing funnel, with a roadmap to revenue.
What expectations do you have when initiating inbound marketing?
Did I hear the sound of money?
