Trying to grow a business through marketing efforts can be a lot of fun, until you're not seeing a return on investment and it's no longer fun. For most business owners, the decision to outsource their marketing to an agency has parts of skepticism and curiosity.
As a business owner, you ask yourself: Is this a waste of money? Will I actually see an increase in customers? The marketing agency can't possible know enough about my business to make this all work, right?
Wrong!
You know more about your business than anyone else. A marketing agency has the skills and expertise needed to handle all of the marketing efforts (social media, print, direct mail, website lead generation, SEO, etc.) for you. Therefore you're able to focus on what you do best - running your business.
It is entirely possible to handle all of your business' marketing in-house, but partnering with a marketing agency who offers inbound marketing services is the best way to achieve the highest ROI in the shortest amount of time for your business.
WAIT... What is inbound marketing?! Inbound marketing is the method of attracting strangers to your website and converting them into customers. Since 2006 inbound marketing has been the most effective marketing method for doing business online. Instead of the old outbound marketing methods of buying ads, buying email lists, and hoping leads will come to your business, inbound marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your business and product.
So how can a marketing agency like Blue Frog give you the best marketing ROI with inbound marketing?
Hit the ground running
A successful inbound marketing campaign calls for all hands on deck. Having a marketing agency that has professionals in social media, website design, lead generation is key.
Inbound marketing has a steep learning curve. Unless you have the time and confidence of recruiting, hiring and training individuals, you might as well move forward with partnering with a marketing agency that has the expertise in inbound marketing. AKA hit the ground running!
Due to the start up period required for inbound marketing to begin to take its course, businesses that try to carry out all of their marketing in-house are often met with frustration. A lot of head scratching is followed by an onset of questions regarding how long it's going to take to turn up some actual results.
Inbound marketing agencies understand this frustration and as a result, they don't promise overnight ROI. Instead, they spend less time worrying about when the efforts will kick in, and more time laying the foundation for marketing initiatives that they can then begin to leverage over time.
Essentially, they know what needs to be put in place in order to get your inbound marketing efforts up and running in the shortest amount of time possible.
Improve lead quality
Running outbound marketing (radio ads, tv commercials, billboards, etc.) efforts is very tough to bring quality leads into your business. Perhaps you're sending the wrong message out? Not sending it to the right audience? Or maybe you're sending it at the wrong time?
So what can inbound marketing do to improve marketing qualified leads?
Successful inbound marketing aims to attract qualified leads through the careful distribution of relevant, timely content. The consistency in which you are publishing this type of strategic content has the ability to directly influence how long it will take for you to experience an ROI.
Why?
Content drives traffic, it initiates conversations, it provides clarification, and most importantly, it has the ability to capture the leads you need before you can see sales.
Marketing agencies understand the power of content, and more importantly, they know how to harness it. By channeling your content marketing efforts towards your business' target market, an agency can help you start attracting more qualified leads.
Lead Nurturing
Now that your business is a lead generating ninja, you need to figure out a way to convert those leads into customers. How you do that is through the inbound marketing process. With inbound marketing you're able to contact that lead immdiately through phone/email or you can have an automated email sent to that lead to nurture them down your marketing funnel. Typically we see this from businesses with long sales cycles.
Once that lead is a customer, you want more business out of them right? Again, you can do this through sending them personalized offers that they would be interested in based on what that customer has bought from you in the past.
Get the insights you need
Seeing your ROI on marketing efforts is important right? Can you see those number from outbound marketing? Probably not! Inbound marketing has the capability to track everything. It's kind of scary how much you can find out about your inbound marketing efforts and potential clients of yours.
Examples:
Which blog articles are attracting the most traffic?
Which email campaigns are receiving the most opens and clicks?
What social media platforms are the most effective for your business?
Was this lead interested in more of our services? How long ago?
Inbound marketing is an investment. It's an investment that will take your business to the next level. At the end of the day, you will feel much better about where your money is being spent because you will see the leads coming in and the analytics to show it. Inbound marketing is the BEST way to get the fastest return on a marketing investment.
For lead generation tips, tricks, and ideas download this FREE ebook!
For more information on inbound marketing, give us a call at (515) 221-2214
