As an inbound marketing agency, we are very selective about the clients we take on in order to ensure that the program will pay off, especially when one of the first questions prospective clients ask is, “Does inbound marketing work?” Not all potential clients are a good fit for an inbound marketing strategy. It’s anything but a one size fits all situation and we look at each company specifically to gauge the opportunity. We start our engagements qualifying whether your company is a good candidate for the program and that you are likely to see a significant return on invest from an inbound marketing program.
If you’re considering engaging with an inbound agency to help you reach your marketing and/or business objectives, you need to understand that it can be hugely successful for the right kinds of companies, but lack luster for others. With years of experience executing inbound marketing campaigns, we’re the first to say it doesn’t work for everyone so we’ve developed the following criteria to evaluate the opportunity for a solid ROI.
Is an Inbound Marketing Program Right for You? A Checklist to Consider
Consideration #1: Your Industry
- Your products/services have a high average sale or high lifetime customer value
- Your purchasing process is long and considered
- There a strong market demand for your products or services
- Among your competitors, you will be one of the few that are engaged in inbound marketing techniques
Since inbound marketing is essentially an educational/informational content strategy, prospect research plays a key role. If you’re managing a long, considered sales cycle, your prospective customers are going to spend time researching their investment options and your products/services. To help you stay in the game until they reach the decision-making stage, an inbound marketing strategy helps you to provide smart, well-thought out content that helps your prospect learn more about their problems and solutions and keeps the prospect engaged through such tactics as social media, blogging and content marketing.
For a company with a relatively inexpensive product/service, short sales cycle, or with many competitors already successfully using an inbound strategy, the time and investment required to see return on investment isn’t always worth it.
Consideration #2: Your Company
- Your company understands that inbound marketing can take time and patience but knows that the long-term impact will result in steady, sustainable growth
- Your company is actively looking to grow by filling your sales funnel with qualified leads
- You have a realistic marketing budget based on closed sales projections, but limited resources to execute
If you’re familiar with the story of The Tortoise and the Hare, then you can consider inbound the tortoise in the marketing race. We cannot stress enough that inbound marketing results take time. The time it takes to start realizing the results of your inbound efforts really depends on your level of effort. But in general, it’s important to understand that the inbound process is a long-term strategy to support sustainable, profitable growth. It’s not a strategy if you’re looking for a quick way to skyrocket results within a few weeks or months. We recommend giving your program 6-12 months to truly measure the results of your efforts.
Examples of Inbound Marketing that Works
Understanding that an inbound marketing strategy takes time to consistently develop and deliver results, you also need to know that it is a lot of work. It will require the development of new habits for your sales and/or marketing teams and you will need to have resources dedicated to execution. With inbound marketing, you get out of it what you put in (consistent growth results from consistent activity).
Look at some inbound marketing results from clients that have embraced the inbound methodology:
Are You Considering an Inbound Marketing Program?
For companies that have relied on traditional marketing tactics, they know all too well that making best guesstimates can contribute to the misallocation of marketing spend, inefficient use of resources and an overall lower ROI. To turn the tables, growth driven companies are integrating a data-based, streamlined and modern inbound marketing approach to increase brand awareness, generate leads, convert sales and retain customers. With data in the driver’s seat, companies can benefit from:
- More efficient marketing program spend and execution;
- A more unified marketing and sales relationship; and
- A significantly bigger impact on their profits.
Want to discuss how an inbound marketing program can help you meet your business objectives? Our inbound marketing specialists can help and better yet, show you results.
About Lasso Up: A Full Range of Digital Marketing Services
As a dedicated team of professionals with diverse yet complementary skill sets, we provide a convenient and knowledgeable one-stop shop for our clients’ website design and digital marketing needs. Investing in Lasso Up-marketing services gives you access to an expanded talent pool that can complement nearly every aspect of your marketing program.
Being your marketing partner is an important job and one that we’re dedicated to each and every day. This dedication is why our portfolio of services spans a broad range, including: branding and identity, web design and development, marketing strategy, inbound marketing, search engine optimization, lead generation, sales enablement and so much more. Although we’re certified and highly trained in these areas, what we’re truly good at is delivering measurable results that improve business operations and increase revenue.
And for us, it’s not about winning your business, it’s about winning over your prospective clients. While we take pride in our fierce passion for quality work, a tried and true process, a tireless work ethic, it’s ultimately our focus on helping you define and communicate your value to clients that makes us different from other agencies.
