Inbound marketing is now more crucial than ever before in connecting to your visitors and turning them into leads. If you aren’t using inbound marketing strategies, you are most likely overlooking a large opportunity to connect with visitors on a personal level.

Want to know just how important inbound marketing is for your marketing strategies? 93% of companies who are using inbound marketing are significantly increasing their lead generation. This could be you in a few simple steps.

Many companies think they are inbound marketing and maybe they are, but they just aren't getting it right.  Here are 5 reasons why your inbound strategy is not working to it’s full potential and solutions to revamp those strategies.

1) You don’t have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish

When people think of inbound marketing, they immediately think “I need to create more blogs” or “I need to increase my search engine optimization” and right away they dive into accomplishing these tasks without thinking about their current strengths. Before including these strategies, you need to...

REEVALUATE YOUR GOALS

How can you improve your existing assets before including even more inbound marketing strategies? Ask yourself some simple questions such as, “is this adding value or accomplishing our business goals?" Aligning your objectives with your goals will allow you to see what current strategies are working and which ones aren’t. Once you have a clear goal in mind, you can begin to implement inbound strategies that work for you.

2) You don’t have the right foundation

If your foundation isn’t strong while you’re trying to build your inbound strategy, many times companies find it difficult to keep their strategy moving in the right direction. Without a strong foundation, it’s hard to see which efforts are producing the best results.

COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR TEAM

Communicating with your team and making sure everyone is on the same page is the best way to ensure your foundation is solid. Schedule regular meetings to see to it that you’re reaching your objectives and that your solidifying positive results within your strategy, while removing anything that doesn’t seem to be working.

3) You don’t have a specific target customer

If your marketing plan isn’t clear in targeting who exactly your ideal customer is, your strategy will be all over the place. You need to know who your ideal customer is and what they are looking for before you can implement any inbound marketing strategies tailored to them. Without identifying your ideal customer, your business isn’t able to solve any of their problems.

IDENTIFY BUYER PERSONAS

Buyer personas will allow you to identify who your ideal customer is and what your business can do to solve their problems, every step of the way. Buyer personas allow you to create content that appeals directly to your ideal customer.  

4) You’re not aligning your inbound efforts with your outbound

You may be creating advertisements to raise awareness on a certain product or initiative, but without incorporating any outbound efforts, you won’t be as successful in locking in those leads.

CAPTURE YOUR INTERESTED VISITORS

Use tactics such as landing pages or follow-up emails to ensure your locking in those visitors and turning them into leads. It’s one step to gain interest from your ideal customer, however it is crucial to take the next step and follow-up with these people to ensure your converting them to leads.

5) You’re not positioning your efforts based on your data

You may not be paying attention to the data you receive when you send out information to potential leads. Continuously sending out information about your product or initiative without considering things such as open and click-through rates is a pitfall that you want to avoid.

TRACK YOUR DATA AND TAILOR YOUR MESSAGES

After sending out information about your product or initiative, use a CRM base such as Hubspot to track who is opening and engaging with your information. If your open rates are dropping it’s a clear indication that you need to alter the strategies you’re using to connect with your potential lead. Change your communication style based on the data that you’re receiving from your customers.

Inbound marketing is essential in locking in and connecting with potential leads. Here at Hughes & Co. we are implementing marketing strategies in our Change Heroes initiative to generate leads. See how we are using these strategies to build a school in Haiti for 1,000 children.