Inbound Marketing Insights

What are some reasons my inbound marketing program won't work? I get this question a lot from prospects. It may seem counterintuitive that I share the reasons why inbound marketing won't work. However, I think it's important to understand the reasons before deciding to invest in inbound marketing. Here are five reasons your inbound marketing program may not work so you can determine if inbound marketing is a good path forward for you.

1. You Don't Have Executive Buy-In:
   Inbound marketing is not a phase. It's been around for over a decade with proven results time and time again. But for an inbound marketing program to be successful, it's critical that your internal executive team and key stakeholders understand the value of inbound marketing and can support the initiative organizationally from the top down. This buy-in will help you make content a priority throughout the company, and content is critical to the success of your inbound marketing strategy.

2. Make Sure Someone Internally Owns Content Development:
   

   Content is the backbone of your inbound marketing program. Without content, you will not have a successful program and will not see the expected results. But content for the sake of content won't work either. Your content needs to be high-quality, thought leadership, industry-leading content to stay ahead. To do this, you need a subject matter expert internally who owns content development and content production. Too often, companies want to outsource their content development. That’s fine for very top-of-the-funnel content, but when you want to start creating subject matter expert, industry-leading content, you need someone internally in charge of this type of content. You can't expect a third-party agency or freelance content writer to have the same subject matter expertise that your team does...it just isn't possible. Your Content Marketing Manager will be one of the most important individuals internally to make your inbound marketing program successful. Make sure to invest in this role so your Content Marketing Manager can drive content development, and your agency or other internal individuals can focus on content amplification, lead generation, lead nurturing, and other critical aspects of your inbound strategy.

3. Utilize Your In-House Expertise for Subject Matter Experts:
   

   Remember, your internal team is a content goldmine. You have internal expertise that no other company will have to utilize. Make sure you leverage your team for subject matter expert content. All too often I hear that internal team members are just "too busy" for even a 15-minute interview with a content manager so the content manager can craft an expert-level blog post. Everyone has 15 minutes. This concept of involving subject matter experts goes back to the executive and key stakeholder buy-in. When your executive team understands the value and supports inbound marketing, they can help you influence key subject matter experts to provide 15 minutes for a quick interview so your content team can craft great content.

4. Remember Quality & Quantity Matter:
   

   You typically hear that it's quality or quantity. That's true. You don't want to create a lot of mediocre content. However, the way you're going to see inbound marketing work for you is if you're creating high volume quality content. The more quality content you create, the more content you will have for your digital assets such as:
   
   - Blog: Your blogs increase your SEO value tremendously. Each new page on your blog helps you get indexed by Google and other search engines and has a ripple effect on your organic traffic.
   - Email Marketing: For each new content piece you create, there's an opportunity for an email to target individuals in your database. You can even add this thought-leadership content to your marketing automation journeys.
   - Social Media: Every time you create new content, you have unique insights to share on social media. Remember that each piece of content isn't just a one-time post. You can leverage evergreen content as often as you would like to continue to reap social benefits for your content.

   I can't tell you how often people ask me if one blog per month is enough. The answer every single time is, "It's not." One blog every month will not move the needle. And every time someone tries to take this approach, they then say that "Inbound marketing doesn't work." Well, that's not the case. One piece of content every month doesn't work. It's not that inbound marketing doesn't work. You need to create at least one blog every week for the first 12 months of your inbound marketing program to see your efforts' SEO benefits and real traction. If you're not ready for this level of cadence, you may want to reconsider if inbound marketing is the right approach for your business. 

5. Look at Your Analytics Regularly:
   

   Inbound marketing is all about the data. There are so many tools out there that provide real-time data on your inbound marketing results. Leverage this data to determine the types of content that perform best, the most interesting topics, and the methods you are using to share this content to create the most traction. Once you see what resonates with your audience, you can start to amplify your digital efforts even more and you will see even greater results from inbound marketing.

There's a lot that goes into inbound marketing. And while inbound marketing has proven to be an incredibly successful strategy for most organizations, some companies aren't ready for inbound marketing or aren't a good fit for it at the moment. It's essential to understand this before investing in inbound marketing for your organization.

If you want to discuss your goals to see if inbound marketing is a fit for your company, I invite you to schedule a discovery session with a member of our team.