With apologies to the musical, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", this blog is dedicated to the hard work and commitment that's required to make inbound marketing work for your business. Here I will debunk some of the myths that are out there.
Unlike e-mail blasts, direct mail campaigns or any kind of advertising, inbound marketing requires daily, consistent effort. You must blog several times a week. You must engage in social media every day, several times a day. You can't build an online presence without doing these things consistently. You must analyze, work on your strategy and adjust to get more leads and lead conversions.
See Myth #1. Someone has to spend a lot of time creating content, working the social media sites and analyzing the data. Time is money, remember? Are you going to do the work yourself? That's time away from your other duties. Are you going to hire an employee or an agency? Those things cost money too.
Not true. If you set specific goals for leads and sales for a period of time, you can directly measure your inbound marketing results against those goals. Your revenue is the sales you generate as a result of your campaign. Your cost is the amount of time you spend and any software or services you need to use.
Well, maybe. If you don't set up a solid strategy and social media policy for your team members, you can encounter problems. If you do, and you monitor everything closely, you risk is minimal. Consider the risk of not doing inbound marketing. Will you fall too far behind the market trends? Will your competitors jump ahead?
This goes back to Myth #1 as well. It takes time and commitment to learn the trade. The more time you can spend on the front-end, the better your results are likely to be. You can also hire one or more experts, but then there goes Myth #2.
I know there are more myths we can debunk. What's your experience with inbound marketing?
