5 Ways to Achieve Scalable, Year-Over-Year Gain with Inbound-Driven Growth Marketing

Inbound marketing is a term that has been getting tossed around a lot lately. You’ve probably heard all about how easily it can scale your business, how much it can lower your cost per acquisition (CPA) and increase customer retention, etc. And you might be thinking it all sounds too good to be true.

Well, it’s not. Inbound marketing can do all of those things, but only if you have the right mindset and are willing to put in the work. Here are five ways your can achieve scalable, year-over-year gain with inbound marketing.

1. Have a Long-Term Vision

Inbound marketing is not a money in/money out kind of thing. In fact, the first three to six months will require a fairly significant investment in time and/or money before you start to see any noticeable traction.

The key to a successful inbound marketing strategy is to have a long-term vision of at least 1 – 3 years into the future. Having this kind of vision will allow you (and your agency partner if you are working with one) to build a scalable infrastructure that will save lots of time and money in the long term.

2. Consider the Future

As mentioned above, inbound marketing isn’t about getting the quick sale. It is not a tool that will help you reach your monthly quota. A custom inbound marketing methodology designed to generate new contacts, nurture your leads, and ultimately help your sales team close more deals as your business continues to grow is the measurable missing link for most organizations.

Organizations who utilize inbound marketing should always be thinking at least 12 months into the future and asking themselves “What happens after somebody lands on my site?” Realize that each and every campaign you launch will essentially live forever and serve an important part in keeping the “machine” running.

If your goals are too short-sighted and focused on limited-time offers or monthly promotions, your conversion rates are going to suffer and you will only hurt yourself in the long run. Stay focused on how your website is moving people through the sales funnel one step at a time.

3. Trust Your Inbound Marketing Agency Partner

This isn’t to say you should just blindly trust everything your agency partner tells you and never ask questions; it just means you should consider their advice and treat them as a true partner, rather than a low-level employee.

Most established agencies are highly knowledgeable and have had a lot of past success. While they may not be experts in your industry just yet, they do understand consumer behavior and have a sense for what works and what doesn’t. They also understand what the ultimate goal of inbound marketing is and know how to set you up.

4. Recognize the Importance of Having a Solid Foundation

A lot of organizations tend to think of inbound marketing as something that gets “turned on” and instantly starts generating leads.

But it’s not.

To be successful, you really need to create a solid foundation for your strategy moving forward. This involves understanding your buyers and their pain points, creating content that will resonate with your buyers, and refining the process of handing off leads to the sales team. It also means you need to work with a website developer with growth-driven skills who can create a site that resonates with buyers, appeases search engines, and converts traffic.

These initial steps are absolutely essential to the success of your marketing strategy moving forward. Skipping this part of the process and jumping straight into execution will only come back to bite you down the road when you realize the different pieces aren’t quite fitting together.

5. Do Your Diligence

The surest way to be successful with inbound marketing is to do your due diligence and actually learn the methodology and understand what your agency partner is doing and why.

You don’t have to be a marketing expert (that’s what agencies are for!) but you should have a basic and general understanding of what the goal is and what the roadmap looks like before you decide that inbound “isn’t working”. There are tons of resources available online that provide software tutorials and general education on newer marketing practices. If you are working with an agency partner, they should be more than happy to assist with client education – in fact, it should be part of the services they offer.

Scaling Your Business with Inbound-Driven Growth Marketing

Inbound marketing – when executed properly – is the most efficient and cost-effective way of scaling your business. However, organizations need to understand exactly what it involves before making the full commitment.

If you have the vision, the knowledge, and a solid agency partner by your side, there is really no limit to what your business can achieve. Download our FREE GUIDE below on how growth-driven inbound marketing strategies can help your organization meet its high-revenue goals, and give us a call with any questions.