No marketing tool is perfect, and inbound marketing is no exception. While it has plenty of upsides, such as offering your prospective and current customers or clients truly useful information that establishes or builds your relationships with them, there are a few things to consider that may tamper your expectations.
It’s not for everyone: Some types of business will simply have more success with outbound marketing, especially if they don’t have a long sales cycle that requires nurturing prospects and giving them plenty of time to reach a decision. There are still valuable takeaways from inbound marketing for any company, such as offering high-quality, useful content that helps people get things done.
It’s not a set-it-and-forget it process: While there are automated platforms that help with inbound marketing, it still requires a commitment to strategic planning and all of the steps involved in executing your plan.
It requires certain skillsets: Since content (and content marketing) are essential to inbound marketing, your company may not have the team on board who can consistently produce top-level content, distribute it in the right places, gain insights from its performance, and continue to iterate.
It’s a marathon: Inbound marketing is about momentum, and building that takes time and patience. Simply setting it up isn’t enough—it’s a long-term strategy that needs attention to sustain great results.
For all of these cautions, don’t let them dissuade you from considering inbound marketing. And, if you’re concerned about having to go all in by signing up with an automated inbound marketing platform, know that you can still benefit from the principles and practices of inbound marketing without making a commitment to any platform or software. If you’re on the fence, we’ll be glad to talk through whether inbound marketing is right for your business.