B2B Inbound Marketing: Commit, or Save Your Money

An interior designer friend of mine complained to me several years ago that HGTV was giving the public a false impression of how easy and inexpensive it is to remodel your home (DIY.) I couldn’t help but make the comparison to the proliferation of information on the Internet today about Inbound Marketing, and how easy it is to achieve unbelievable results.  Just as my interior designer friend knew all the pitfalls, challenges, and skill required to remodel a room in a house, I also know these things about executing a successful B2B Inbound Marketing program.  Companies are being misled; sometimes innocently, sometimes intentionally. This creates unrealistic expectations and is a recipe for what will eventually be deemed a failed experiment.

As someone offering inbound marketing services to industrial companies, it’s easy to focus on all the benefits and not focus enough on the ONGOING part.  Companies that are anxious to “make something happen,” because their sales are stagnant, or who have moved into a new market and need to turn a profit are often looking for a quick marketing fix.  The reality is: there is no silver bullet in marketing, even in the online world.

We can provide case studies for companies who have experienced significant increases in website traffic and organic search traffic; large numbers of incoming calls that originated from the company’s website; RFQ’s coming in through their website form; and actual new business because of their inbound efforts; but every company is different.  There are so many variables that determine how quickly an Inbound Marketing program will impact a company’s sales that there is no way to predict or guarantee anything.  We can “guess” based on a company’s specific circumstances, their chosen keywords, and our past experience; but that’s what it is: a guess.

If you are considering an Inbound Marketing program for your company, whether you choose to manage it internally or outsource it, here is what you need to accept (and commit to) – or – and I say this with all sincerity – save your money.

It will take between 6-12 months to gain traction.

If you only have the budget for 3-4 months of an inbound marketing retainer and you’re thinking, “by then, we’ll surely have new sales coming in to offset the expense,” – don’t bother.  The first 3-4 months of an inbound program will primarily be laying the foundation for the social media, search and content marketing to come.  There are many obstacles that could prolong the set-up period, and even then it will take 4-6 additional months to start benefiting from the set-up.

Beware of companies who promise you Page 1 on Google for your keywords within a certain period of time (unless you’re paying for an AdWords, pay-per-click advertising campaign.)  Also, be aware that while pay-per-click ads may put you on Page 1 of Google within a day or two, a whopping 94% of the people who see a page of search results do not even look at paid ads – they go directly to the organic search results.

Be prepared for stumbling blocks and accept that it will take time for your inbound marketing program to operate like a well-oiled machine.

• Your website could be a total disaster from an SEO standpoint, which will require a great deal of time to correct.
• You may have a corporate office that wants complete control over your website’s CMS, which will slow down the onsite search optimizations.
• The internal subject matter experts that so readily agreed to supply information for your blogs may fail to deliver and bog down the content marketing process.
• There could be what seem to be minor details that make it impossible to create backlinks from authoritative directories.  Again, working out these “minor details” could take months. For example: Do you have more than one company operating out of the same address?  Without a unique address most directories will not accept a submission.  You will need to create a “suite number” at the same address that is unique to the business.

Successful inbound marketing depends on more than one component.

In many people’s minds, SEO is the “magic” that makes inbound marketing successful. A truly successful inbound marketing program will incorporate on and off-site SEO; social media marketing; and content marketing.  One supports the other, and so on and so on.  Of course there are companies who will sell you SEO services without the other two components; and if you’re one of those that view SEO as the “magic,” the reduced cost will be tempting.  Unless your only goal is driving more traffic to your website, this is not a good strategy.

Inbound marketing is an ongoing process that never ends.

Google is changing its search algorithms constantly; sometimes daily … if you truly want to stay ahead of the curve and continue to improve your results, you HAVE to view inbound marketing as a continuous marketing expense.  Don’t think that 6 -12 or 18 months of inbound marketing will take you to marketing nirvana and then all you have to do is reap the rewards.  This simply isn’t the case.  Studies reveal that B2B inbound marketing delivers a lower cost per lead than say, a print advertising campaign: but it should be considered as much of a long term investment as any traditional marketing tactic.

The bottom line is that most things that make a significant difference in your business (or home) don’t come without time, commitment, and dedicated resources.  A successful inbound marketing program is no exception.