Impulse Creative
New to inbound marketing? Welcome! We're glad you're here. If you've been partaking in outbound marketing for the last several years or forever, until now, chances are you might run into some bumps on the inbound marketing road. You're probably one of two things right now: weary of inbound and all that it promises, or excited beyond belief after drinking the inbound Kool-Aid. Either way, any time you start something new, mistakes are bound to be made. This is how we learn right? Mistakes have been made by many in the inbound marketing industry, and to save you the time and trouble, we've listed a few so you can avoid them.
1. Starting without a strategy
Surprisingly, this is one of the most common mistakes newcomers and even some seasoned inbound veterans, make. Planning can be a drag, but it has to be done. The success of your marketing campaigns depend on it. When you get excited, it's easy to want to jump ahead and dive head first into blogging, social posting, and emails. However, you'll first need to map out a solid inbound plan to make sure your goals are defined and you know how your campaign is performing. Marketing strategies should be based on buyer personas, goals, types of marketing messaging, and how you'll deliver these messages. After you create your plan and start your inbound marketing, you'll be able to accurately see what works and what doesn't. If you already started your inbound techniques and don't have a plan, an experienced inbound strategist should be able to integrate what you've already accomplished into the right marketing plan.
2. Not setting realistic goals
Along with creating a plan, setting realistic and measurable goals is imperative to inbound marketing. Not setting goals is a path to disaster. To hold yourself and your team accountable for achieving these goals, you'll have to get specific. Instead of saying, "We need more blog posts." You should plan a schedule for 3 blog posts a week, set to go out on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Another way to be measurable is to pinpoint hard numbers. It's the only way to truly measure your success. Make sure you incorporate time for roadblocks and be honest about what your team is able to achieve in the allotted time. Remember: your goals should be relevant to your business and you should stick to your deadline!
3. Trying to do everything all at once
Inbound marketing is exciting! We get it! You want to get started and you want to do everything right now. We recommend resisting the urge to do everything all at once. This can become overwhelming. High expectations and passion are great things, but to be successful at inbound marketing, you'll need to learn the phrase "slow and steady wins the race." Tackling your marketing slowly and gradually over many months will enable you to concentrate on each piece of your marketing plan. This way, you won't run the risk of being spread too thin. Another good way to achieve this is to prioritize your marketing efforts. Ask yourself, what channel is performing the best? Which channel needs your attention first? If your email bounce rates are high, you will probably want to work on that first.
4. Trying to leverage inbound without a blog
We see clients every day who don't believe in blogging, or don't want to put the time in that it takes to commit to blogging. If you fail to blog, you put off your ability to create evergreen content that can continue to deliver relevant value and solutions for your website visitors over time. Each blog is another indexed page to your website. This means another opportunity for you to show up in search results and drive traffic to your website. Google and other search engines are then alerted that you've added a new page, letting them know your website is active and should be crawled frequently to see if you have new content that may rank.
5. Not using what you have
Another danger is overhauling your entire website and marketing materials, getting rid of everything you have. Even if you were using old school marketing tactics, chances are the content on your site is still useful. It may be easily repurposed to fit in line with your new inbound marketing efforts. Also, now that you've embraced the inbound way of life, you can go back and optimize all of your old content. You can always put a series of old posts into an eBook as your first offer, turn your company brochure into your new "about" page, or see where you can insert keywords naturally. The possibilities are endless, so don't just write off old content.
Mistakes won't ruin your marketing plan, but it doesn't hurt to learn from others and avoid the common ones if you can. You can still get excited about implementing inbound marketing and you should! Don't get too overwhelmed and remember mistakes aren't a total loss, if you learn something! Take these tips and get started on your pathway to success.
