4 Simple Tips For Ensuring Inbound Marketing Success

4 Simple Tips For Ensuring Inbound Marketing Success:from Business 2 Community by Tami Wessley
After the initial flurry of activity when implementing Inbound Marketing, teams can sometimes become more laid back about their diligence in maintaining their activity level. Missing one or two blogs, delaying an email distribution or posting a little less on social media may not seem like a big deal until you take a close look at the results. Below are four tips to make sure your Inbound Marketing is successful.

1. Blog Frequently – The actual frequency will depend on your business and availability but as a general rule, more is better. Search crawlers see each blog post as fresh content worth exploring. If optimized with your target keywords, your blog has a greater chance of attracting the right readers and generate more qualified leads. As a rule, try to maintain at least one new post per week; if you can do more, we highly recommend it.
2. Always Use CTA Buttons – Think of call-to-action buttons as the billboards for your content. Simple links embedded in your copy are helpful but can easily be overlooked. CTAs are a visual reinforcement reminding web visitors and blog readers that you have something they should be interested in.
3. Distribute Content Regularly – Got content? Take a look at your segmented lists and decide which contacts will be most interested, then send them a way to access it. An HTML email to the right audience with a description of what you have to offer and how it will benefit them, along with an engaging CTA, will greatly improve your conversion rates.
4. Promote, Promote, Promote! – You can have great content but if you don’t promote it, it won’t be found. According to a report from comScore, Inc., 98% of the U.S. online population use social media. Social media also accounts for 20% of total online time. Besides being a fantastic way to reach your audience (yes, every company has an online audience) social media posts now influence SEO performance.

Those four tips may seem a little elementary but their importance can’t be overstated. We recently helped one of our clients take more of their Inbound Marketing responsibilities in house. Based on the content strategy and editorial calendar we developed, they felt confident handling the execution with just some maintenance support. Prior to the turnover in early October, they were seeing significant visit and lead growth each month. Unfortunately, they experienced some hiccups in execution and their activity dropped off. A drop in performance was immediate and significant.

Results comparison after transition

• Website visits down 36.7%
• Lead conversions down 100%
• Visits from social media down 46%
• Email visits down 500%

Do you see similar results slumps when your Inbound Marketing activities dwindle? We notice if we miss even one of our planned blog posts during the week our visits and leads suffer. Sometimes, it’s a simple matter of needing a topic to blog about. Download our Keep Your Blog Stocked With Great Content tip sheet for 13 ways to generate topic ideas.