Inbound Marketing Automation...Is This Your Company’s Problem?

  

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 Creating An Inbound Marketing Automation Plan Requires 'Current Status' Evaluation

The other day I was in conversation with a small company that in many ways was doing quite well, there’s reasonable growth, the staff (numbering 22) are committed and happy and things seemed to be humming right along, what could be the problem? The President, the man I was speaking with, is 52 in great health and he wants out of the business in the next few years. His exit strategy, sell. His problem, he’s the rainmaker. Pretty much all the business that comes through the door is through him and he knows he needs to change this in order to make the company more attractive to a buyer. That’s where we come in with inbound marketing automation as a potential solution. Inbound marketing programs deliver targeted traffic and leads that can be nurtured into new business. Would this work for your company? This is just one situation where inbound marketing automation is a possible fix. What’s your problem? No traffic or leads? Nothing coming in from the web that you can nurture into qualified prospects? Read on.

Inbound Marketing Automation Step #2- Evaluation

In the previous post we talked about the plan you need to create as part of the inbound marketing automation process. If you’ve done your homework you now have some ideas on what you want to accomplish, who’s going to do it, what the timelines are, how resources will be allocated and you also know that like any good plan you need to have built-in flexibility. Now it’s time to take stock of where you’re at, so to speak, currently so that you can begin implementing your program. 

5 Steps to Evaluating your current Internet presence

1. Analytics- If you don’t already have an analytics program measuring activity on your site, (web traffic, pages visited, etc.) you need to install one now. There are many analytics programs that are free, Google analytics is among the most widely used, but many others exist. By the way, this isn’t an optional step, analytics are a critical element of your inbound marketing automation program! (View results and read the comments of a recent IME Linked In poll on analytics here.)
2. On Page Basic SEO- View your source code in a browser and search for unique page titles, keywords, descriptions, URLs, proper tagging of images, H1 etc. Make a list of pages that require attention with respect to this element of your program.
3. Social Media- Inventory your current social media participation starting with company positions. Social media is a key tool in the promotional aspect of an inbound marketing automation program and is growing rapidly. By the way, you may be thinking of social media for sales purposes... that is NOT its only aspect. Read how social media is a tool that allows any company to do business better here.
4. Content- Your company may already have a content development program for the web, if so great, if not you’ll need to start thinking about this element now. Are you going to blog? Create whitepapers, videos, podcasts...there’s a long list of possibilities and we’ll be talking more on this subject in upcoming posts. You also need to inventory material you have off the web. What sort of information pieces, educational material, case studies etc. do you have currently...all of this material can be very useful to your inbound marketing automation initiative.
5. Lead generation- If your company is currently generating internet leads, inventory all of the various methods being used and make certain your analytics program code is installed on these pages so that you can measure which actions are working best for you.

After this work is completed, you’re now armed with the framework of your plan and you’ve evaluated your current situation...do you need to revise the plan? We spoke to one company who thought they were getting about 2000 visitors a month. Once we had installed the analytics code and monitored some activity, the real number was more like 100-200. The point is, your company may have a very distorted view of what’s actually happening as related to the corporate website and presence so evaluation like we’ve detailed here is critical to your plan. Fail to plan? Plan to fail!

We’re at the edge of the future!

Did you miss the previous posts on this subject?

1- Inbound Marketing Automation...A Big Mouthful!

2- Hinge Report Shows Inbound Marketing Automation Doubles Profits

Part of your evaluation process can be done by us free, why not?