Simply dabbling in inbound marketing is not going to be effective. For inbound marketing success, you need buy-in from your entire team and a well-organized plan to show tangible results. It is also important to note that inbound is a long-term strategy. It can take up to six months to start showing a return on investment, but once you do, inbound strategies can feed your pipeline consistently for years to come. Here's how to get started.

Inbound Marketing Assessment

Running a thorough assessment of your current inbound activities will give you insights into where you need to focus your resources. Including a competitive analysis will allow you to see how you stack up with the competition and what other successful companies in your space are doing. These assessments should take a detailed look into your website, social media pages, content, and SEO.

Inbound Marketing Plan

As with any aspect of business, it's a good idea to have a solid plan to start with. While you may need to make tweaks throughout the life of your plan, a well-thought-out inbound marketing plan will lay the foundation for successful campaigns. Everything found in this blog and more should be a part of your plan.

Buyer Persona Development

"A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better." For inbound marketing to work, you need to know how to reach your audience, what content will resonate with them and what makes them tick. Buyer personas provide the tools you need to create compelling content that speaks directly to your target audience.

Keyword Research

"Keyword research provides you with specific search data that can help you answer questions like: What are people searching for?, How many people are searching for it? In what format do they want that information?" Although search engines are now more focused on topic clusters than individual or long-tailed keywords, they still play a role in building the SEO of your website. Keyword research allows you to craft content and topic clusters that resonate with your audience and improve your rankings.

Blogging Strategy

Blogging is perhaps the most important aspect of inbound marketing. Consistent blogging efforts help to improve SEO, gives you a ton of social media content that directs visitors to your website, and allows you to promote the premium offers that will convert visitors to leads. Creating a blog calendar will help your team stay organized and on time with content development. Despite the opinions of critics, both volume and quality are equally important.

Premium Content Creation

Premium offers allow you to turn your website into a lead generation tool. A variety of offers ranging from eBooks, white papers, and case studies to videos and surveys will keep your content fresh and help you determine the pain points and stage of the buyer's journey of your prospects.

Search Engine Optimization

The technical aspects of SEO, such as title, URL, and description, should be taken care of early in your process. Creating high-quality content optimized for search engines will be the most important thing you do for SEO. Developing topic clusters and having a plan for obtaining backlinks will also play an integral role.

Website Optimization

Website optimization is all about creating a user-friendly experience and generating leads. Calls to action that link to landing pages with premium offers should be placed on every static page and blog post. Each offer should be relevant to the page it is housed on. Menus should be clear and functional. Sufficient whitespace should be left to make your content easily digestible. Links to your social pages should be included to encourage shares and followers. High-quality images and consistent branding make your site easily identifiable and help leave a good impression on your visitors.

Social Media Strategy

Social media play an integral role in the success of your inbound marketing strategy. Distributing blogs through your social pages and industry-relevant discussion groups is an essential piece of content distribution. Your pages should provide educational and entertainment value. A social media posting calendar will help keep your pages fresh and active. Visual content is a must. Videos, infographics, and memes are some of the most shared content online. Profiles should be optimized with proper descriptions and contact information. Social media tends to be the first place a prospect will visit once they've become familiar with your company. Aside from an avenue to generate leads, social media is irreplaceable when it comes to building your brand.

Learn more with a free marketing assessment!