Are you implementing an Inbound strategy and you are not having the expected results? There are several factors that influence: lack of planning, not defining your goals or perhaps the lack of a trained team.
To avoid this, you must correctly assess the impact of an Inbound strategy and allocate the appropriate budget for a satisfactory return on investment.
In order for you to save time and resources, we want to show you the most common mistakes in an Inbound strategy and we explain the best practices and tips so you can get the most out of your strategy.
1. Start without having clear objectives
The first mistake that companies make when implementing an Inbound strategy is not being clear about their objectives.
It is essential that your objectives, especially those related to your growth goals, are well defined , so that the real impact of the inbound strategy on your company can be demonstrated.
For a better definition, your objectives must have SMART characteristics, that is:
- S = Specific
- M = Measurable (Measurable)
- A = Achievable
- R = Realistic
- T = Time-Bound (Limited in time)
Let’s see an example of this: let’s suppose that the company ContableSoft SA invoices USD 2 million a year, and that for the next 12 months it needs to grow 30% in the XYZ line of business.
The first thing to do is review the growth of the company in recent years and ask ourselves a series of questions such as:
- Is that growth consistent?
- Did something happen in the industry to grow?
- Are the conditions given?
So that we have a realistic view of the situation.
With this defined we can calculate exactly how much we need to achieve the goal.
Continuing with our example, the growth goal would be about USD 600,000, that is, USD 50,000 per month to achieve the desired 30% growth.
Now it’s time to get a little more specific , let’s say you noticed that the company’s product line XYZ is the most profitable, and for the desired profitability to be achieved, the sales team must close deals from this line with an average per $10,000 business.
This tells us that we have to increase the number of businesses by 60 to achieve the desired profitability, that is, 5 per month.
You already have a realistic, achievable and well-defined goal in time, with specific and measurable objectives , it is time to write your Inbound objective, like this:
“The company ContableSoft SA seeks to grow an additional 30%, which means going from an annual turnover of USD 2,000,000 to USD 2,600,000, this would imply adding 60 additional businesses per year that the commercial force must close with an average ticket of USD 10,000 in the next 12 months, otherwise the expansion to other countries could not be financed.”
2. Not having a well-defined plan
Another mistake when implementing an inbound strategy is not having a defined plan at the beginning. It’s not just about posting loads of content, everything must be aligned with a well-defined plan.
For this, it is recommended that you define the content based on the objectives of the brand and that this content is aligned with the needs of the buyer person , in addition to establishing publication dates and channels in advance.
In this way, the success of the actions of your Inbound strategy will be guaranteed.
3. Create your buyer personas without foundations
Many companies think that creating buyer personas is one more step in the inbound strategy. But nothing is further from reality.
The buyer person is the axis and the reason why the Inbound strategy is designed, this semi-fictitious representation of your ideal client is an advantage when attracting the client that will help you increase your sales .
With a buyer persona, you will have defined who would pay USD 10,000 a year for your software (continuing with our example). Is it a company? Then define the company profile and the buyer profile within that company.
What do we recommend you do?
Investigate your clients, and if you have a CMR, use it! It’s a great way to get data. In addition, you can also use the following strategies to extract information for your buyer personas:
- Hold meetings with the sales team: after all, they have more contact with your customers and know their concerns directly.
- Survey your customers: this way you will get first-hand information about their needs and pain points.
- Research on the internet: Know the habits of your customers so that you can offer them the right content for their needs.
4. The content is of poor quality
To achieve success when implementing an Inbound strategy, good content is essential. But what is good content? Many companies think that good content is the one that pleases them, but no.
Good content, apart from being pleasant, must be designed to address the issues of interest to the buyer persona and answer their questions satisfactorily. What can you do? Investigate what your buyer person is interested in and take advantage of it for your content plan.
5. Invest little and expect a lot
Another common mistake when implementing an Inbound strategy is not investing what is necessary to obtain the expected results. This is because many companies do not know the impact of an inbound marketing strategy on their business.
To avoid this, it is best to define a budget based on the growth of annual sales. A good range is between 10% (conservative growth) 30% (aggressive growth) and invest 10% of that budget in digital marketing.
For example: if our growth goal is USD 600,000, 30% would be USD 180,000 for 12 months, of which 10%, USD 18,000 would be for digital marketing.
6. Pretend that one person is in charge of everything.
Saving costs in personnel is a mistake when implementing your Inbound strategy.
Expecting one person to do all the work means that the person ends up doing very little of many things and the results will not come. So the investment in this person ends up being more expensive no matter how cheap it was.
In these cases , it is best to define roles and seek to outsource certain activities that cannot be paid for in-house. For example, hiring an Inbound agency would be an excellent option.
7. Marketing and sales teams are not aligned
For the implementation of your Inbound Marketing strategy to work, it is essential that the marketing and sales areas are aligned. In this way, criteria are unified and joint actions and strategies are established that lead to the success of your company.
One solution to this problem is the definition of shared goals; For example, both teams have a goal of reaching $600,000 in annual revenue, so marketing, for example, would have a goal of generating the number of leads the sales team needs to close deals, and sales would have a goal of closing the number of leads. business necessary for this.
8. Underestimating the use of a good tool
If you want your inbound strategy to be successful, never underestimate the use of technology. Investing in a technological tool for marketing and sales is not an expense , especially if this tool helps you solve operational problems between teams.
The best thing is to get advice and get a technological tool that helps improve the marketing results and productivity of the sales team, and that in turn allows you to analyze the entire strategy for acquiring new customers.
Conclusion
Having an expert team from the beginning of your strategy is the only way to avoid making these mistakes when implementing your Inbound Marketing strategy.
Having a specialized consultancy from planning is the best way to solve the challenges of objectives, budget and investment that may arise along the way.
