Ready to start acting on your 2018 inbound marketing plan? Great! Set yourself up for success by making sure you’ve taken these 5 crucial steps before implementing your inbound marketing strategy.

 

So you’ve finished developing your 2018 marketing plan. Congratulations! If you’re like you most small business owners, you’ve likely prioritized inbound marketing methods over traditional outbound marketing methods.

Smart move!

Why? Because according to HubSpot, inbound marketing results in 54% more web traffic and doubles conversions compared to traditional outbound methods. Additionally, Search Engine Journal, found that inbound marketing leads cost 60% less than outbound leads.

Put another way, inbound marketing results in 3x more leads per dollar than traditional methods! (Kapost)

But . . . here’s the catch. In order for it to be effective, you need to make sure you’ve taken a few steps before you start. What are they? Glad you asked! Here are 5 of the most important steps to take before implementing your inbound marketing strategy.

 

5 Important Things to Check Before Implementing Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

 

1.  You Know Who Your Ideal Clients Are

 

At its heart, inbound marketing is about being helpful and providing value to potential customers. But, without first understanding who they are, you can’t give them what they’re looking for. Make sure you take the time to get to know your buyer persona’s by developing your customer avatars. And don’t forget that this process is never done. Stay curious about who your buyers are, what they struggle with, and what they value.

 

2.  You Have a Solid Inbound Marketing Strategy In Place

 

Having a well-developed inbound marketing strategy streamlines and simplifies all of your marketing activities. By establishing clear goals and objectives, everyone knows what you’re working towards, why you’re working towards it, who’s responsible for doing what, and when they need to do it.

Moreover, your inbound marketing strategy also guides most – if not all – broader business activities. From product creation to distribution to public relations and more, a solid marketing strategy provides the research necessary to increase your chance of success and profits.

Finally, taking action without knowing why you’re doing and what you hope to achieve is pointless and largely ineffective. Sure, you may score a few occasional wins, but that won’t make up for the hours of wasted time shooting arrows in the dark.

However, this doesn’t mean that you have to have it all figured out before starting. Don’t get caught in a trap of endless learning without application or you won’t see any results.

 

3.  You’ve Identified Key Performance Indicators and Have a System In Place to Monitor Them

 

Although 32% of businesses have a documented strategy, only 45% of them are clear on what successful inbound marketing looks like, according to research from the Content Marketing Institute. This is truly unfortunate since it can potentially result in a wasted time, energy, and money, as well as missed opportunities and leads.

This is why it is so important that you track key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics can help you determine whether your inbound marketing efforts are successful, which methods are most effective, and which are not.

Common Inbound Marketing KPIs you can track include:

• Web Traffic
• Organic Web Traffic
• Website Conversion Rate
• Cost Per Lead
• Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate
• Sales Revenue
• Average Customer Value

 

4.  You Have a Responsive, Mobile-Optimized, User-Friendly Website

 

Attracting visitors to your site is only a piece of implementing your inbound marketing strategy. Once they arrive to your site, you need them to stay there.

Increase the chances by making sure your site is:

• Attractive – 38% of people leave an unattractive website (HubSpot) and 48% determine a business’ credibility by its website’s design alone (KOMarketing).
• Fast – Approximately 50% of people leave a site if it takes longer than 2 seconds to load (Tyton Media).
• Mobile-Friendly – Mobile devices now account for nearly 1/3rd of all internet use, and the majority of users leave a site if it’s difficult to see or navigate a site on their tablet or smartphone (comScore).

 

5.  You Have Content {Or a Plan to Develop It} for People at Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

 

One of the most important, and unfortunately overlooked, parts of an inbound marketing strategy is to have content that will be especially attractive to people in the middle and bottom of your content funnel. Often business owners think content only includes blog posts, and while blogging is a great way to attract visitors to your site, it often won’t convert them into paying customers in and of itself. That’s a role for other pieces of content you create. (Click here for ideas for the types of content you need to maximize conversions.)

 

In Sum

 

Properly putting your inbound marketing strategy into place has the potential to effectively grow your business by attracting more of the right visitors to your website, ultimately converting them to actual customers. Get off on the right foot by checking these 5 important things before implementing your inbound marketing strategy.

 

Need help developing and implementing your inbound marketing strategy?

Let’s talk about your goals and help you determine the best steps to achieve them!

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