A recent article from Marketing Automation Software Guide hit on the main reason why many of our clients hire us for marketing: running a complete system is difficult and requires perseverance. Pieces have to be put together, tested, changed, refined and created again. Getting into the mind of a specific buyer with their preferences and peculiarities needs to translate into a well-laid strategy.
Inbound marketing typically involves getting a visitor to find you and then helping that visitor convert into a lead by providing value. Once they opt-in, then you can nurture them and ready them for the sales proces via marketing automation.
Here are the activities typically involved with running an inbound marketing system:
- Strategy. There has to be a vision for how the logic will work for visitor behaviors on the site. This results in a decision tree that needs to be architected with the right content at the right time.
- Scoring. This is part of the strategy. How leads are scored will arise from a definition of what a ready lead is to a sales person. Their readiness should be quantified and the lead scoring should follow suit for the desirable behaviors to warrant sales interaction or more targeted marketing engagement.
- SEO. Tuning your content to get found online via search or social media is a relentless activity. Your systems should have feedback to help refine your content so that it all matters and counts for driving traffic. Both authority and relevance from a search engine standpoint are key metrics to monitor.
- Analysis. Watching visitor and lead behaviors needs to be continually monitored for trends. As the data comes in such as what content is valuable and where people are clicking to on your landing sites, your analysis should provide action on refining the links, logic and layout of your inbound marketing system.
- Segmentation. New offers, richer content and specific events need to be developed based on timing, seasonality and the critical mass of your inbound leads. Develop specific segmentations with personalized offers and lead processes.
- Sales engagement. Working with your sales team to understand if the lead scoring and nurturing is calibrated needs to be a continuous process. Furthermore, gathering information from your CRM system to drive content and lead flow logic back into your marketing system needs to be part of the ongoing strategy.
Traditional marketing where there is an event and a response is a different mindset altogether. Today’s marketing game for inbound leads and marketing automation is ongoing and changing. Attention to the details and how the system supports the buyer experience rewards organizations with easier customer acquisitions and lower internal costs.
How are you doing marketing today to continually make it better?
