There are a few things you can do for an inbound marketing campaign before you actually plan a strategy or talk to a consultant. Think of it like doing some basic mobility work and eating well before you start training for a marathon. If you lay a solid foundation with the following tips, you’ll have a much smoother start to your campaign:
CHOOSE YOUR GOALS
You can’t have everything all at once. For the average company, it’s impossible to get to the top of Google’s SERPs, establish credibility, attract 20% more social media followers, and increase your email open rate at the same time.
It’s true that you’ll make progress in all of these metrics when you practice inbound marketing, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t select narrower goals. According to this Forbes article you should pick a specific goal, perhaps based on your weak link, and plan your strategy around that:
“Prioritize your biggest concern (your “pain”) and build your strategy around that. Do you need more website traffic? Do you need to increase your conversion rate? Are you not getting the right kind of leads or not able to close the ones you are getting? Depending on the priority, you can choose to narrow your focus for your initial launch of your inbound marketing strategy.”
It’s a lot easier to plan a strategy when you’ve already decided that email marketing is your top priority. Once you’ve achieved those goals, you can always switch your focus for the next iteration of your campaign.
Imagine your content plan
It’s too soon to break out the calendar and plan your posts, but it doesn’t hurt to think about the kind of content you’ll create and how you’ll create it. Think about whether you’ll produce the content in-house or will work with a professional copywriter. In addition, brainstorm possible topics you could write about that would showcase your expertise.
Choose which analytics you’ll follow
The great thing about inbound marketing is that you can measure every little thing. In order to not get overwhelmed, however, you should pick a few analytics that you find most important for your goals.
This Entrepreneur article, for example, explains how certain metrics will give you better insight into your content performance than others:
“What makes something the best piece of content on the internet, you ask? It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Once you know how to measure success, you’ll be better able to tell whether the asset produced the intended results.”
It all depends on your goals. Are you looking for engagement, conversions, or shares? Nonetheless, having these analytics in mind will help you prepare for an inbound marketing campaign.
Think of customer personas
Creating customer personas is one of the most effective inbound marketing tips. These personas should be representative of your target audience and will help you create relevant content, plan interactions, and understand your leads.
At the very least, customer personas will give you a more concrete idea of who you’re dealing with. This can be useful when you plan your campaign and have to make key decisions.
Clean up your website
And finally, without a good website, there is no inbound marketing campaign. It doesn’t make sense to put so much time, effort, and money into content creation, social media, PPC, and email if your website scares leads away.
Make sure your links still work, your website is mobile-friendly, and the site navigation is clear and intuitive. Search engine optimization comes into play a bit later, but it’s important to have this foundation first. Sometimes, it’s better for businesses to completely redesign their site. It’s nice to know whether you’ll have to do this before you start planning your campaign.
With these tips, you can set your business up for a successful inbound marketing campaign. We’ve found that this laying this foundation down can make all the difference for a campaign’s first iteration.
To learn more about how to improve your marketing strategies, give us a call at 661-702-1310!
