The CMO Guide to Inbound Marketing

THE CMO GUIDE * TO INBOUND MARKETING * HOW INBOUND MARKETING IS DIFFERENT FROM TRADITIONAL EFFORTS Inbound marketing is the process of helping potential customers find your company before they are ready to buy through content marketing, social, and search presence. The goal is to turn that early awareness into brand preference, and ultimately convert leads into revenue. THIS APPROACH IS DIFFERENT FROM TRADITIONAL MARKETING IN SEVERAL KEY WAYS: TRADITIONAL MARKETING INBOUND MARKETING THE MARKETER ACTIVELY FINDS NEW LEADS. THE MARKETER MAKES IT EASY FOR LEADS TO FIND YOU. THE MARKETER RENTS THE ATTENTION OF AN THE MARKETER BUILDS THEIR OWN AUDIENCE AND EXISTING AUDIENCE. ATTRACTS THEIR OWN ATTENTION. THE MARKETER DOES THIS THROUGH DISPLAY ADS ON THE MARKETER DOES THIS BY CREATING RELEVANT AND WEBSITES, A BOOTH AT A TRADESHOW, EMAILS SENT TO A THIRD-PARTY LIST, ETC. COMPELLING CONTENT TO ATTRACT AND CONVERT LEADS THROUGH SEARCH AND SOCIAL CHANNELS. WHY INBOUND MARKETING MATTERS TO YOUR COMPANY Inbound marketing is about applying more brains, not more budget, to drive revenue. Without a significant financial risk, the process can deliver: INCREASED BRAND AWARENESS: 93% Up to 93 percent of buying cycles start with a search online. If your company shows up high in the search results, or is active on a searcher's social networks, you'll get "free" brand awareness. HERE TO BETTER BRAND PREFERENCE: HELP By helping, entertaining, and interacting with potential customers before they are thinking about making a purchase, you build trust and increase the likelihood that they will choose you when they are ready to buy. MORE LEADS FOR LESS INVESTMENT: Inbound marketing is a long-term investment that builds on itself over time. Your results will multiply many times over as you create more and more great content. STAFFING AND BUDGETING FOR INBOUND MARKETING If your company is dedicated to inbound marketing, short bursts of activity won't cut it. These are the resources you as a CMO should invest in on a sustainable basis: PICK A THEME TO ANCHOR YOUR PRODUCE AT LEAST ONE MAJOR PIECE EFFORTS EVERY MONTH OF CONTENT TO SUPPORT THE THEME This can be a whitepaper/ebook, video, survey, buying guide, webinar, and so on. This theme should focus on a customer interest or concern, not a product of yours. CREATE TWO OR THREE MINOR PIECES WRITE THREE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP OF CONTENT AROUND THE THEME BLOG POSTS PER WEEK Support the theme with smaller pieces of content, such as infographics, webinars, presen- tations, podcasts, and so on. Regularly share ideas, tips, best practices, news commentary, etc., with your audience via SEO- optimized blog posts. Some but not all of these posts should relate to the monthly theme. POST REGULAR SOCIAL DEDICATE TIME TO ANALYZING AND MEDIA UPDATES OPTIMIZING RESULTS Build your reach, engage with potential buyers, and get the word out about new content. Have a staff member dedicate at least 2 hours a week to this process. While in-house staff members can complete many of these tasks, it also makes sense to hire an inbound marketing manager and a content marketing manager to facilitate the process. These individuals would be responsible for: 123 4 5 6 Monitoring and managing the company social media presence Managing online conversion and search engine optimization efforts Developing the strategy Managing content creation and curation Owning the company blog Engaging with influencers WHERE INBOUND MARKETING FALLS SHORT As powerful as inbound marketing is, it's certainly not without its limitations. The following are the three most common challenges organizations face with inbound marketing. Inbound marketing requires It's hard to target specific audiences with inbound market- Inbound marketing doesn't drive people to action. Inbound marketing waits for buyers to TAKE ACTION some level of automation. Of NOW ing. To accomplish this, you will need to implement out other outbound tactics. course, since you will be curat- ing new content each week, the entire process cannot be set on autopilot, but blog calendars and analytic reports should be automated to maintain a take action when they feel ready, and does not capitalize on inertia, nor does it push people to become customers/subscribers. responsible overview of your campaigns. Marketo