…In the short term.
Inbound Marketing is a game of patience and persistence. It is unlike a traditional media splash, which at times, creates the delusion (sometimes successfully) that things are working out.
Inbound marketing could show a spark in the short-term, but it takes at least 3 to 6 months to achieve predictable results.
At Znbound, it took us sustained efforts of eight months to achieve our goal of one marketing qualified lead everyday.
Without Buyer PersonasThis is key – you better know who buys from you.
Buyer personas need not be perfect, but they should at least exist, to begin with. And even if they exist, they need to be continuously refined. Businesses sometimes make the mistake of ‘completing buyer personas’. It is vital to recognize that buyer personas are never done, they evolve.
At the very beginning at Znbound, there was just one buyer persona. This August, we began work on a fourth.
Without a process
A key distinction is at the core of Inbound Marketing. It is not about selling. Inbound marketing does not focus on ‘who to sell to’. It obsesses with finding out ‘who will buy’.
That isn’t easy.
It takes a process.
In the absence of a process, it would be impossible to declare success or failure, with a reason. A proper well-defined process could tell us where we are going right or wrong.
Making a process also isn’t straightforward. You may start with one only to shelve it completely.
It will take many a trial and error to figure out a process that works.
At Znbound, we are still figuring this out.
Happy Inbound Marketing!
