One of the most common questions we’re asked is: “what does it take to run a successful inbound marketing campaign?”
This is the most important question that a business owner or leader can ask, since it sets the framework for whether their inbound marketing investment will be profitable -- or regrettable.
It’s also an eye-opening and interesting question to explore, because there are aspects to running a successful inbound marketing campaign that aren’t necessarily obvious or self-evident, but are nevertheless critical. Indeed, lack of expected success is often not a matter of what a business did, but rather, what they neglected to do or were not advised to do by their (so-called) inbound marketing company.
And lastly, this question is worthwhile because, as you can well imagine, there are several pieces of the inbound marketing puzzle that all must work together to make a campaign successful. If any of these pieces are missing or not working the way they should, then lack of success – or outright failure – is all but assured even before the campaign launches.
With the above in mind, we’ll spend the remainder of this blog post and the next few to cover the key factors to running a successful inbound marketing campaign. We invite you to use this as a checklist to ensure that you’re firing on all cylinders, or that the inbound marketing company you hire is putting you on track to succeed.
1. Understand What Inbound Marketing Is – and What it Isn’t
While there are similarities between inbound marketing and outbound (a.k.a. conventional, traditional or “interrupt” marketing), there are key differences that are vital to understand.
The most important of these differences is that inbound marketing is about making an impact on customers – whether B2B or B2C – before they enter your sales funnel, and ushering them along the customer journey that transitions them from interested prospect to delighted evangelist. In this light, inbound marketing is therefore fundamentally about building relationships – not about “making the sale.”
With this being said, transactions, conversions and indeed sales are naturally the welcome by-products of this ongoing relationship building effort – which of course is why businesses do it in the first place. But the orientation must be about building relationships; not converting customers.
2. Understand that Inbound Marketing is a System
Inbound marketing is not a project that results in a product. It’s a system comprised of elements that create (as noted above) robust, mutually rewarding customer relationships. Some of these elements are more visible and therefore easier to identify and classify, like blog posts, ebooks and Infographics. And some elements function on the back-end, and can be harder for those less familiar with inbound marketing to put and keep on their radar screen, like buyer personas, keyword research and offer development. Regardless of the elements that make-up your inbound marketing system, the point here is to keep in mind that it IS a system – and not a one-time event.
3. Understand that Inbound Marketing is a Commitment
An extension of the point raised in #2 above – but deserving of its own spotlight here in our list of key factors – is that inbound marketing is a long-term commitment.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you should sign a blank check and “hope for the best.” And it doesn’t mean that it takes months or years to see results. Rather, it means that inbound marketing is an ongoing process; much in the same way being healthy is an ongoing process.
Unfortunately, MANY businesses lose patience and pull the plug on their inbound marketing campaign just when they were on the verge of breakaway success. Understanding that it’s a marathon rather than a sprint can prevent this from happening, and lead to very impressive ROI that actually gets larger as time goes on, since successful tactics and strategies can be leveraged in future campaigns.
Stay Tuned for Part 2
In part 2 of our series, we’ll look at 3 additional key factors to running a successful inbound marketing campaign. Stay tuned!
Can't wait for part 2? Download our FREE resource "A Guide to Inbound Marketing Best Practices" below!
Topics: Inbound Marketing
