When we truly committed to inbound marketing, the difference was profound. We'd been talking the talk for a long time, and we're certainly believers in content marketing, but we'd never really walked the walk. The data supporting a move to inbound is pretty compelling. For most small to medium-sized businesses, and many large businesses, inbound marketing should be a huge part of the marketing mix, or even the cornerstone around which marketing strategies are built. The worst thing you can do however, is to merely pay lip service to inbound marketing, because an inbound strategy that lacks commitment is a high-risk proposition. Here are the top five risks associated with a failure to commit to inbound marketing.
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Wasted time and money
As marketers, there are so many challenges that compete for our time and dollars and we can ill afford to waste either. When we fail to commit to inbound marketing, we almost certainly waste both. A failure to commit wastes time and money by failing to create an effective (sustained) sales funnel. Spotty production of quality content, failure to launch and monitor campaigns, ineffectively utilizing your marketing automation tools, and a lack of focus on engagement are a pattern for disaster. -
Loss of management confidence
If you embarked upon inbound marketing without first ensuring that you had executive management buy-in, you were almost certain to have created a situation in which your relationship with management is going to be strained, especially because a lack of commitment is going to provide lackluster results. But even with management support on the front end, a failure to ensure that you have maintained a consistent focus on your inbound efforts will undoubtedly result in a loss of management confidence in your inbound efforts (and ultimately, in you). -
Lack of opportunity to realize increases in marketing budgets
HubSpot research data shows that marketers that commit to inbound marketing are three times as likely to see higher ROI on inbound marketing than outbound. And those that show higher ROI are twice as likely to see an increase in budget and nine times less likely to suffer a lower budget the following year.
When inbound marketers who calculate ROI were asked what drove the decision to increase their inbound marketing budget year-over-year, 58% of those cited past success with inbound, vs. only 5% by those that failed with inbound marketing.
If the results of your attempts to introduce inbound are minimized by a lack of commitment, you are likely to see your budgets shrink. After all, why would management want to throw away good money after bad results? -
Loss of momentum (or failure to establish it)
Momentum is sometimes hard to gain, but it is much easier to sustain. A solid commitment to inbound marketing can result in improved search engine rankings, broadened and sustainable pipeline of qualified leads, and increased conversion rates and bottom line sales. If you started out strong but failed to persist or follow through, you either failed to stick it out long enough to gain some momentum, or lost any you had. If you truly commit to inbound marketing, you can realize a noticable momentum, which is relatively easy to sustain, and critical to long-term success with inbound marketing. -
Failure to distinguish your brand and stand out
If you really have a unique niche and/or provide valuable insights, resources, products, and services, a real commitment to inbound and content marketing can do wonders to help you differentiate your business. A lack of commitment to inbound, however, will invariably result in a failure to distinguish your brand. We have seen dramatic results with inbound marketing and content marketing strategies—but only when the commitment is there to produce amazing content, follow through, and sustain your efforts. Even in otherwise near-commodity type businesses, a commitment to inbound and content marketing can help your business stand out dramatically if others in your space haven't yet made the commitment to inbound.
Inbound marketing works... but only if you make a real commitment. It is NOT a tactic through which you can expect short-term results. Rather, it is a long-term strategy that requires focus and persistence. The results, however, can be tremendously exciting. If you'd like to explore how 30dps, a leading inbound and content marketing agency, might be able to help you maintain your commitment to inbound, or would just like to learn more about inbound marketing, please don't hesitate—contact us today.
