Are you keen to dive head-first into the world of inbound marketing for lead generation?
Getting started can be thrilling; your motivation is high and you’ve done your research. You’re ready to go! But are you making one of the 5 common mistakes that many businesses make when starting out in inbound marketing?
We’ve compiled a list of the 5 common mistakes – and provided simple and effective advice to help you avoid them. So read on and discover how to make the most of that enthusiasm and head your inbound marketing strategy in the right direction.
Mistake # 1 – Your goals are not realistic or measurable
Every action plan needs a set of goals – without it, you’re driving blind. But one of the most common mistakes we see businesses make when starting out with inbound marketing is that the goals they set are neither realistic nor measurable.
So, what should you do? We suggest going back to basics and creating a specific goal plan for your inbound marketing strategy, which includes the following:
- Create specific metrics – for example, ‘post 2 new blog articles each week’
- Ensure these metrics are realistic – are they viable and can you or your team achieve them?
- Place hard numbers against the metric to make it truly measurable.
Mistake # 2 – You’re going gung-ho on your content but you don’t have a strategy
When you get started with any new project or plan, it’s easy to get excited and go a little gung-ho. You’re producing content as fast as you can in the hope it will somehow produce results.
This approach is tempting, but it’s simply not a good choice. A good plan needs a strategy behind it, and your content strategy is no different. When starting out it’s important to:
- Take the time from the beginning to really plan out your strategy
- Use schedules and editorial calendars to stay on track
- Post the best content, at the right time so that everything you produce is relevant and click worthy.
Mistake # 3 – You’re trying to be everywhere at once
One minute you’re on Twitter, then you’re over to Facebook, and the next you’re on LinkedIn. It gets tiring, doesn’t it? You may want to be everywhere at once when you get started with inbound marketing, but this is the time to be picky and specific about the platforms you’re active on. Focus your efforts on the following:
- Take time to research your target audience and find out where they’re heading online
- Make sure you’re covering the key areas when you start out – but don’t try to be everywhere at once
- A great way to get started is to use automation marketing to ensure you cover your selected platforms throughout the day.
Mistake # 4 – You don’t believe you need a business blog to make your inbound strategy work
Don’t skimp on your blog, it can be a powerful conversion tool. Blogs are one of the best ways to generate new leads, for the following reasons:
- You can feature strong calls to action and internal linking to other relevant content
- By featuring your ‘body of content’ in a logical and accessible place, it helps to index your business in Google search
- Each time you add a new blog, that’s another page being indexed, which helps rank your website in search results.
Remember though, just blogging without purpose is a mistake in itself (see mistake #2 above). Each and every post you publish needs to be relevant to your buyer personas and help them solve a problem. Plus each post should have a conversion goal, much like the call to action you see at the bottom of this post, which adds leads to our database for follow up.
Without these basic elements, you won’t be using your blog to its full potential.
Mistake #5 – You have great content already, but you’re not utilising it
Often marketers think they need to redo absolutely everything when they begin a new project or strategy plan. But it’s likely you already have a pool of resources that, with a little tweaking, can become brand new tools and content for your inbound marketing. So, think outside the square!
- Have an old whitepaper? Turn it into a remarketed e-book.
- Need to create an infographic? Use your research reports.
- Your sales team likely answers questions from prospects every day – why not collate them all into a guide or FAQ section?
- The resources you need may already be there – so get creative and re-use them!
Remember that old saying ‘fail to plan, plan to fail?’ It couldn’t be more relevant than with your inbound marketing strategy…
What action steps will you put in place to avoid these mistakes before getting started with inbound marketing?