Let’s start this off with some (blatantly obvious) full disclosure: we’re a leading agile inbound marketing agency, and so the question “should you outsource your inbound marketing” may seem a little self-serving. Or maybe a lot.

Here at Leap Clixx, we focus on success — which is why most of our blog posts highlight best practices, top strategies, insights and tips, and so on.

As an agency that specializes in developing and delivering cost-effective, ROI-driven agile inbound marketing campaigns for customers nationwide, you might assume that we’d answer the question “should your business do inbound marketing in-house” with an unqualified “yes!” But that’s not necessarily true — which is why it’s not necessarily our answer.

There’s probably no better example of the difference in perception between businesses and website visitors than contact forms.

When it comes to the classic “4 Ps” of marketing — product, price, place and promotion — most businesses have a solid grasp of the first three, but often struggle with the fourth: promotion. 

By now, most people have come across “Smart Goals,” which is a mnemonic acronym (say that three times fast!) for objectives that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound 

And it’s not just that the building blocks of smart goals are easy to remember (or that it’s likely to come up at least once if you’re playing corporate buzzword bingo). Smart goals make sense and actually work.

It’s a mystery worthy of Sherlock: persona based campaigns are everywhere, but most businesses aren’t getting results or ROI. What’s the deal? 

Well, it’s elementary (my dear Watson). Persona based campaigns generate significant engagement, conversions and ROI. But these outcomes only happen when all of the fundamentals are in place, which is where most businesses — and surprisingly, many marketing agencies — veer off track. The top mistakes include:

Depending on your source of information, body language is anywhere from 58 to 93 percent of communication — which essentially means that it’s a much, much bigger piece of the communication puzzle than most people and, indeed, most businesses appreciate.

Just when you thought it was safe to close the door on your inbound and online marketing vocabulary-building efforts, there’s one more to add to the list — and in terms of bottom-line profitability, it’s among the most critical entries: context marketing.

Let’s start with this: persona-based marketing is a subset of inbound marketing that is creative, fun, and the kind of thing that people look forward to developing at work vs. dread dealing with. Just like kids celebrate when the teacher rolls in the TV and says, "Who’s up for some Star Wars?”, grown-ups get all happy inside when their boss says, "Let’s do some brainstorming about persona-based marketing!”