The world has changed. We are all aware of the impact of social media and online marketing as a whole, but it is important to remember that traditional marketing still exists and operates in a digital world.

In today’s environment, inbound marketing is the go-to strategy for business owners who want to grow their revenues and engage with customers. But what is inbound marketing, and how can businesses adopt and implement this approach to grow their business?

Inbound marketing is a marketing methodology that attracts, engages and fulfills customers through the creation of valuable content.

The main objective of marketing is to increase sales, and inbound marketing offers a number of tactics that can be used to achieve this goal. Building trust, establishing thought leadership, and creating demand are all valuable strategies that inbound marketers use to engage with customers and drive profitable business actions.

So how can a business implement inbound marketing to grow their revenue? Let’s examine the steps that lead to a successful inbound marketing campaign:

Step 1: Identify the problem you’re trying to solve

The first step in any marketing campaign is to figure out the problem that you’re trying to solve. You do this through customer interviews, market research, and gaining a general understanding of what your customers want and need. This is called the buyer’s persona and it’s critical that you develop a clear picture of who your audience is and what they want.

The problem that you’re trying to solve here is how to market your business in a competitive market. You’re looking to find a way to make people aware of your existence, and the best method to do this is through marketing. So you need to answer the question, “What are my marketing goals?”

You can begin to think of ways that you’re currently trying to market your business with the following questions:

• Do you currently have a web site?
• Does your web site have a good reputation?
• How does your web site perform in terms of engagement and conversion?
• What is your social media handle, and what content perform best on social media?
• How do your ads perform? What works and what doesn’t work?

For some businesses, this may be as simple as just putting up a web site and waiting for the traffic to come. However, if your business is early on in its lifecycle, you may require some outside marketing help to get your name out there. Finding the right marketing partner can be tricky, but it’s essential that you find someone who can understand your constraints, challenges, and goals and help you develop an effective marketing plan that will grow your business.

Step 2: Create specific goals and the objectives that will help you reach those goals

Now that you have a clear idea of the problem you’re trying to solve, you can move onto the next step, setting specific and measurable goals. These goals should relate to the problems that you’re trying to solve (as per Step 1), and they should also relate to the metrics that you’ll use to determine the success of your campaign. For example, if one of your goals is to increase web traffic to your site, you might set a benchmark of gaining 100 new visitors a month, or increasing your social media reach by 10%, or getting a mention on The Huffington Post.

These goals should be realistic and measurable. It’s easy to set a goal of increasing web traffic and then sit back and wait for the numbers to come in. However, if you set a goal of increasing web traffic by getting 200 new visitors a week, you’re much more likely to achieve this. The same goes for social media – if you’ve set a goal of getting 500 new followers, you’re much more likely to achieve this than if you’ve set a goal of getting 100 new followers. Why? Because most people won’t reach for the goal, but they’ll be inspired to try something new because of it.

Step 3: Determining the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that will help you track your progress

The key performance indicators (KPIs) are the measurements that you’ll use to determine your progress towards reaching your goals. These include things such as the number of customers that you’ve acquired, how much money you’ve made, and the amount of time that it takes to reach your goals. You can use a tool like Google Analytics to track these KPIs and determine the success of your campaign. 

Once you have your KPIs, you can determine the next steps that you’ll take to reach your goals. If you want to increase your revenue, you might consider looking into online marketing to achieve this goal. Or, if you want to grow your email list, you might try an email marketing campaign. Determining what works best for your business is key to the success of your campaign.

Step 4: Identify the metrics that will help you judge the success of your campaign

The final step in a marketing plan is to determine the metrics that will help you judge the success of your campaign. These include everything from the number of times that someone visits your site, to the amount of time that they spend on your site, to how many sales you make, and so on. When determining these metrics, it’s important to keep in mind that not all traffic is created equal. So you might want to consider looking at different metrics for different aspects of your business. For example, if you’re looking to increase web traffic to your site, you might want to consider looking at the number of people who visit your blog versus the number of times that someone visits your web site directly.

Once you have these metrics, you can begin to determine the success of your campaign. Are you measuring up to expectations? Is your content performing as you hoped? Were your ads successful in terms of generating leads? The answers to these questions will help guide the development of your next campaign. If you’re not seeing the results that you’re looking for, you might want to consider revising your strategy and moving onto the next phase.

Developing a marketing strategy is not as difficult as you think it is. It just takes some time to get everything in order. With the right framework, everything becomes much easier. Plus, you’ll be able to identify the results of your strategy much more effectively. So while it might feel overwhelming to try and take on a project such as this, it’ll be worthwhile in the long run. And you can always contact us if you ever feel stuck.