How To Get Quick Wins When Kicking Off Your Inbound Marketing Program

So, you’ve just learned about inbound marketing and analyzed how the methodology will be a good fit for your business. You feel ready to start generating leads and nurture them to customers. 

Yay – what an exciting time!

But wait, before you start executing, it’s crucial that you build out your messaging and inbound plan. “Strategy before tactics” is the rule. You might feel some frustration at the thought of that concept. You want to start seeing results NOW, not wait weeks after your investment to see the results you were promised. There are a few reasons why you will want to fight this urge to leap straight into inbound without a strategy. Here are some tips to expedite the process in the meantime so you can get a few quick wins. Everybody loves a quick win, right?

You’ve Heard It and It’s True: “Inbound Strategy Before Tactics”, “No Random Acts Of Marketing” 

If you want your inbound marketing program to be as successful as possible (which of course you do), it’s extremely important to develop an inbound plan including the following (at a minimum) prior to jumping in: 

1. Messaging
   • Build out your ideal client, personas/pains solutions and your remarkables
   • Define your voice and tone
   • Research and identify keywords
2. Strategy And Goal Setting
   • Determine areas of focus and set goals
   • Build out strategy including initial campaigns
   • Identify key performance indicators
3. Sales Integration
   • Create the form field strategies
   • Define the lifecycle stages
   • Determine the process for closed loop reporting

This may seem like a lot, but it will pay off. We’ve seen the problems with skipping this step time and time again. We’d like to help you prevent those mistakes. If you’re a cooking fanatic like me, try to think of it as “mise en place” which is a French term that refers to gathering and prepping all of the ingredients/tools you’ll need for your recipe prior to cooking (if you skipped this step, ran around the kitchen with your hair on fire only to wind up ordering pizza delivery, then you know where I’m going with this). Similar to many culinary professionals, try to enjoy this process and embrace the importance it brings in order to have the most successful inbound experience. 

But What If You Need Leads Now (…or Maybe Yesterday)?

We’ve got a recipe for that – and we call it “quick wins”! Here are some tips to create some opportunities to start seeing results sooner rather than later, while still allowing yourself time to build your inbound plan:

1. Content Audit
   • This is an often overlooked step that can pay off by saving you time and generating leads more quickly. During your inbound plan development, be sure to look at what content you already have that can be leveraged to show value. Most likely, you’ll already have something you can use without investing all of the time to build something brand new. Here’s how to do it:
     • Look through your existing content (ebooks, whitepapers, checklists, videos), document what you have and evaluate its quality.
     • Find opportunities to quickly transition existing content into a format that can convert visitors to leads. Are there videos that can be converted into blogs or documents that can be converted into a checklist and gated?
     • Update the content accordingly (it may need a bit of tweaking/freshening up but this will be easier and faster than building something from scratch), and get it on the website (behind a landing page where applicable)
2. Plan a Quick Win First Campaign
   • When building out the strategy for your first campaign, try to find an offer that you can quickly research, develop and go live. For example, a simple checklist may be a better place to start than an in-depth white paper when you’re looking to get something rolling sooner rather than later.
   • Consider building out an offer that targets more than one persona/pain at a time (or has a larger audience already built out) so you can extend your reach for your first campaign.

What Are You Waiting For? Get Started Today!

Don’t delay, get started building out your inbound plan today so you can start executing and seeing results. At Mojo, we go through an onboarding process with all new clients that lays the foundation for a successful engagement. If you’re looking for help on how to get started, feel free to reach out to schedule a time to talk.