Hinge Report Shows Inbound Marketing Automation Doubles Profits

  

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If Doubling Of Company Profitability Isn't Of Interest, Stop Reading Now!

A study from the Hinge Research Institute showed a powerful link between profitability and online lead generation (among many other great findings). The study concluded:

“Firms generating 60% or more of their leads online are 2X more profitable than those generating less than 20% of their leads online.”

What would it mean for your company if you were "2X" more profitable? What sort of business growth would that allow? How many more hires could you make? What kind of bonuses would that allow for? (Got a recreational property in mind?) With a doubling of profitability as a target result, what sort of effort is worthwhile? Wow, 5 questions in a row! But if these questions aren't important to you, (and we'd argue they better be) don't bother reading any further. In fact you probably won't be interested in the upcoming posts because they'll be dealing with this very same boring, unexciting material. If doubling your company profits isn't worth your time and money well...ttyl as they say.

Ok, you've decided to at least look at how your company might be able to benefit from inbound marketing automation. Congratulations! If you decide to pursue this course of action in a comprehensive way it will result in:

1. Decreased lead generation costs;
2. Increased profitability;
3. Improved sales team attitude and results;
4. The development of a 'free' marketing 'employee';
5. Business growth!

...among other things. Now, having said all that, there is work to be done, this is not some sort of magic bullet that is going to instantly transform your operations, to think or believe otherwise is just foolish. Show us a program that achieves these results with no expense or work and we'll work very hard to find you a 'flock of flying turtles'. The reality is there's work involved, nothing complicated, but work nonetheless. What's a little work when you can expect those kinds of returns though right?

As we suggested in a recent post, we would begin a series on inbound marketing automation and today is the first in that series so logically we'll start with step #1...which has a number of steps! The purpose of this inbound marketing automation series is to provide you with information on not only why this is an effective option for your company but also give you specific actionable tactics you can take now to put an automated inbound marketing program into place for your company. Let's begin.

Inbound Marketing Automation Step #1- The Plan

Is a plan important? Short answer...Yes! Fail to plan? Plan to fail! We are going to make certain assumptions in offering this plan, if you don't already have answers to the following, you should complete this work as part of your planning process.

Assumptions: Your company...

1. has a clear understanding of your target audience and the buyer/marketing persona;
2. understands clearly what the problem(s) is/are that this target is looking to solve;
3. knows the general steps that a prospect goes through in selecting a solution provider;
4. has planned for growth and considered what this will mean from a production and delivery perspective so that no bottle necks create barriers to success.

 5 Sub-steps To Creating Your Corporate Inbound Marketing Automation Plan

1. Establish goals- A complete inbound marketing automation program will provide you with comprehensive data that quantitatively measures the effectiveness of your actions. By establishing goals you will be able to measure how successfully your initiative is moving you towards your goals;
2. Define resources- As stated, there is work involved and someone has to undertake this work. There may be internal resources available or you may want to fully or partially outsource the work to be done;
3. Budget resources- Whether you're undertaking the work internally or outsourcing it you need to budget time and or capital. Keep in mind that companies that successfully engage with inbound marketing automation are likely to be twice as profitable, we repeat...what's that worth to you and your company?
4. Create a realistic timeline- Depending on what work your company has already done your timeline to some of the first benchmarks of your program maybe very short, in the order of days, or much longer. Further, what resources you've budgeted will impact your timeline considerations, less input, slower results. More resources, faster results. The equation is straight forward. Caution- Don't expect to double profits in a week. There are many variables to be considered, but as a rule this sort of goal would be longer term.
5. Allow for contingencies- Your plan needs to have some flexibility because the reality is that things change over time. As your program unfolds and data collection starts to show you the way your company may need or want to modify your plan.

As you're reading this and considering your company's way forward you may be saying something like "Well I don't know..." and that's ok. We expect that there are some gaps at this point but over the coming posts we'll provide more detail that will allow your plan to be 'filled in' and crystal clear so that you have a working document for the implementation of an effective inbound marketing automation program for your company. A program that has the potential to revolutionize your future business growth and profitability!

We're at the edge of the future...

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