Congratulations! Your inbound marketing plan is up and running! Everyone’s told you that it’s the most effective way of driving traffic and increasing sales. So now your worries are over, right? You just have to sit back and let the customers flood in.
But of course, it’s not as simple as that. It takes time to build up a following, and it takes even more time to see a worthwhile return on your investment. Just because things are going slowly doesn’t mean you should get discouraged, or even that you’re doing anything wrong. Or it may mean that you need to rethink your entire strategy. But how do you tell? There are a few factors you should consider when trying to set expectations for your inbound marketing plan.
The first thing to look at is what your website traffic was like before you started your inbound marketing campaign. How many unique views were you getting? What about social media? How many likes or follows did you have? The thing about inbound marketing tactics is, the larger your following is, the faster it can increase once you launch your campaign. So if you had only a couple of hundred hits last month, chances are you’re not going to be dealing with thousands this month. But keep growing and building over the next few months, and you’ll see some real progress.
Of course, there’s also the issue of what kind of content you’re producing. Sure, your brand has a blog. But do you know who else does? Pretty much everybody. Just because you’re creating content doesn’t mean it’s having an impact. Look at the other brands in your field and the content they’re creating. Then look at the results they’re getting from that content. That should give you a standpoint from which you can set rough expectations for your own endeavors. But at the same time, your goal should be to set your content apart from theirs and do what you can to be unique and make your brand stand out. That will help drive your traffic even further.
But traffic isn’t the only thing you need to be thinking about. What ultimately matters is your conversion rate. How many website visitors become leads? How many leads become sales? When you look at these numbers, it’s easy to become discouraged. But you shouldn’t be. Only about 2 percent of your total website traffic should be expected to be turned into usable leads. This is standard for most businesses. But remember: 2 percent of 1,000 monthly visitors is still considerably higher than 2 percent of 100 monthly visitors. So even if the percentage seems low, just keep building your following, and your leads and sales will begin to increase naturally as well.
Inbound marketing is indeed a very effective tool for brand promotion. But success won’t happen overnight. It takes hard work and patience to run a successful inbound marketing campaign. Don’t get discouraged. Keep at it, and sooner or later, the customers will come rolling in.
