Inbound marketing is about driving results, which means you should be deeply invested in monitoring meaningful analytics and the business impact of your inbound marketing programs. The great thing about online marketing is that existing measurement and ad serving programs provide a near-instant view of how your efforts are impacting business results (heck, even Google Analytics data is now available in "real-time").
The problem with this ability to see immediate results is that we also often look for huge returns, immediately. Many think that just turning on a paid search campaign will boosts sales by 200% over night, or creating a Facebook page will result in 6,000 "likes" in a day, or writing a single blog post will dramatically increase traffic as soon as it's published.
I'm not saying these things aren't possible and don't or can't happen. They do, and they can; all I'm saying is, don't count on it, be patient, and strive for incremental gains.
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| Small improvements lead to big results over time. |
A good inbound marketing campaign builds upon its successes and improves over time. It learns and optimizes and is always moving forward.
How to strive for incremental gains:
1. Identify small, "under-the-radar" opportunities. Once you've made the big-ticket optimizations to your website or marketing program, the biggest chance to succeed is to find the minor areas that need tweaking. By identifying and optimizing many of these opportunities, you'll find a cumulative positive effect on your results.
2. Be patient. Don't get stressed if your campaign doesn't see significant gains over night, and don't make rash judgments without a decent sample size. Obviously, you should see some early signs of positive growth, but be realistic and continue to make smart improvements that will result in long term success.
3. Look at long term trends. When measuring results, don't confine your view to just the past week. Look at the last 2 or 3 years and measure the macro-trends. If your campaign has been running for a while, it's a beautiful thing to look at a slow but consistent upward trend. Instead of comparing this month to last month (only a .5% growth in business?) look at this month vs. the same month last year (30% growth!) or even before then.
4. Aim for consistency. Your goal should be to constantly improve results, not just provide a big jump which plateaus or drops off. Think about how you can drive sustained website visits, return visitation, or consistent content sharing. Remember: a one-day spike is great...for one day. Sustained growth is more meaningful and valuable in the long run.
5. Run small tests. Experiment with minor creative changes for CTR improvements, make small changes to your website and look for a lift, or try to improve quality scores for individual keywords (again, cumulative results are key!).
6. Set benchmarks and goals. Having something to aim for and compare against is a great way to stay on track and maintain an upward swing. It is unbelievably motivating when you realize you're falling under goal, and it provides a quantifiable way to prove sustained success.
As the idiom goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day", and neither are your inbound marketing results. Strive for incremental gains and watch your results grow (slowly, but surely).
Video of the day! John Mayer covering Gun's and Roses' "Patience". Enjoy!
