What exactly is Inbound Marketing? Is it something new or is it an old hat? How does it differ from other forms of marketing? Is your business a good fit for it?
In this article, I point out some of the reasons you should not do inbound marketing. This will help you decide if you are ready to start doing inbound marketing and what kind of results you can expect.
Your business might not be the perfect fit for inbound marketing. If you're going to invest your time and money into an online marketing strategy, you'll ideally like to know if you're going to get results before you commit to it. How do you know if inbound isn't right for your business?
| Inbound Marketing A business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. Simply put, turning strangers into brand promoters. |
There's more to inbound marketing than just creating great content and posting it on the web. You need to understand who your audience is, and what they want, and then create content for them.
If you're a business with a good word-of-mouth reputation for quality products or services, inbound marketing may not be an effective way to reach potential clients. Take a local business as an example: a small joinery company that has customers booked in for months. Inbound marketing will not work for this kind of business. They are not required to work hard to nurture leads when they are already being recommended as solutions to problems right away.
You may be surprised to learn that the likelihood is you are not a business with a small team of two people working exclusively in the local area. Inbound marketing is the best way to reach out to people because it acknowledges that you need to work really hard to get their attention.
If you want an out-of-the-box marketing solution (spoiler alert: this doesn't exist) that requires no effort but gets results - inbound isn't the one for you.
It's no secret that traditional inbound marketing doesn't work for all businesses, but it has been so well assembled that it has become an extremely attractive solution to many businesses, who falsely believe that following a rigid plan in a neat little package will get results.
Inbound marketing is about understanding your audience and creating content that resonates with them. It's about listening to what they say and responding to their needs. It's about building relationships with your customers and nurturing those relationships over time.
But, here's the thing. Inbound doesn't work like that. And it shouldn't.
Inbound isn't (contrary to what some marketing agencies would have you believe) as straightforward as it's sometimes made out to be. A one-size-fits-all solution won't work, and if that's what you're looking for then inbound isn't for you. An inbound strategy will only perform effectively if it is completely tailored to match your business needs, goals and challenges - and it does require a considerable amount of time and effort before you start seeing results. With inbound, you're in for the long haul.
Check out our What is Inbound marketing post
Inbound marketing is about getting you closer by answering the questions your customers are asking and gaining their trust, thus making it easier for them to buy from you. If you cannot be somewhat transparent about what you are offering, how will you expect to accomplish that?
Inbound marketing is about your customer, and not you. Outbound marketing focuses on what you are good at and going for the hard sell. Inbound marketing focuses on what your customers want to hear. For instance, the one thing many companies are always reluctant to discuss on their websites is pricing. If your competitors have the prices of their products listed on their websites, then why don't you?
If you don't provide some sort of transparency, then your customers will not be able to trust you and they will end up going to your competitors. You shouldn't publish everything on your website. With an inbound marketing strategy, you will know your customers well enough to know what content they want to read.
Your website is the heart of a successful inbound marketing strategy.
If you don’t have a website designed and optimized with the customer journey in view, it will be difficult for inbound marketing to succeed. Most B2B purchases don't happen without a visit to a supplier's website. If yours isn't informative, easy to access, and clear, they're likely to go somewhere else.
Unless your website is well-designed and built to convey the necessary information required to generate a sale, you'll continue to lose sales opportunities. Inbound websites are built with the customer experience at their core. If you cannot invest the necessary resources into creating an inbound-ready site, then it's best you do not attempt to do inbound.
The final and perhaps most important reason why you should not do inbound marketing is that you aren't prepared, or willing to change your approach. To be successful with inbound marketing, you need to change your original thinking about marketing, sales, and the customer experience. If you aren't willing to put in the effort, then inbound marketing isn't for you.
Some companies prefer traditional marketing methods such as cold calling and shouting into the void to see if anyone hears. And that's okay - if you have the funds to do so. If you put out messages hoping that someone will want to buy your product or service, you may end up spending too much money without any proper research. You're also less likely to attract relevant leads who are more likely to convert than if you did some research first. There's an abundance of research out there that suggests customers are getting smarter, and have high expectations when interacting with brands. They're not falling for the sales shtik anymore - so why are so few B2B organisations doing it?
Who knows. We know that inbound marketing is the way forward. If it doesn't fit your needs, don't worry - but if it could, you're missing out on an enormous opportunity to change the way you interact with and attract your customers.
So, what do you have to lose?