When a strategic inbound marketing plan is in place for your company, you should get more leads, get better leads, and improve your overall sales performance. I say 'should' in the previous sentence because there are many factors that play into a successful inbound marketing strategy - and many companies don't have these all in place reap the benefits of this investment. So what are the companies doing that are successfully implementing these strategies to drive more revenue and see great results?

I asked our team to share what is working for the companies who are utilizing inbound marketing to its fullest potential and tell what they are doing to drive success. Here's what they said. 

I talk to a lot of small- to medium-sized professional services firms who are growing. Their revenue is going up in the right direction; they have a lot of activity and are busy. But when they take a step back to dive into their revenue numbers, there's one thing that is very scary.

Outbound prospecting for new business has always been a bit of a numbers game. Years ago, when I first started as a Sales Development Rep, the formula was simple. If you made 100 phone calls, you could expect 10 appointments, and at least 1 of those prospects would turn into a client. The numbers would vary from industry to industry and market to market, but that was the standard everyone was shooting for.

Outbound prospecting is still a numbers game today. Unfortunately, the numbers are just a lot bigger. It requires more phone calls and more emails than ever before to get fewer responses, fewer appointments, and fewer clients. Why is it so hard? What’s changed?

Many people out there think they are blogging. Are they just blogging to blog? Or are they strategically blogging to get results and drive the efforts closer to success?

79% of the United States population has a social media profile. I really don’t even need to go further. I could end the post right here with this statistic. If 79% of the population is somewhere, do you want your business to be there? If you answered "yes," then your business, no matter the industry, should use social media. Simply being present and intentionally representing your brand, on a platform which 79% of the population lives, is beneficial. A strategic social media strategy can also play a major role in the success of your inbound marketing strategy.

How your business can successfully use social media is an entirely different conversation. Some industries have really seen obvious success on social media. To name a few: restaurants, retail, real estate, entertainment and fashion. Many of these industries have a visual product, yet all of them still require informative content to be effective. Yes, some industries are more effective than others with social media marketing, but with intentionality, effort, and commitment, any company, in any industry, can benefit from social media marketing.

A few times a year, we have a company-wide step challenge to see who can get the most steps in to foster some friendly competition and some good health. In fact, I just got back from a quick walk on my lunch break to see if I could squeeze in a few steps for today.

Before I left, I had a call with a prospect who was expressing some frustration they're having in trying to get their sales team to contribute to their blog. They know their sales team has some great ideas and great thought leadership and subject matter expertise, but they just can't get them to share.

You’ve invested time, energy, and money on creating a great inbound marketing plan. You’re regularly publishing strategic content that is attracting new visitors to your website daily. You’re promoting your campaigns effectively with a mix of organic and paid efforts. But you just aren’t seeing the leads come in. Sound familiar? That’s because driving traffic to your website is only half the battle. What happens once they get there is what makes the difference between a visitor that comes and goes, and a visitor that raises their hand by filling out a form or taking an action.

There are many reasons why this might be the case, but I’m going to share three of the top reasons we see time and time again causing a low visitor to lead conversion rate.

We hear this a LOT. You regularly look at your website. You know how to navigate it. You update it when information changes or needs updating, but is it actually effective? Is your website doing its job? Does it represent your brand? Is it converting? What traffic are you seeing? What ROI are you seeing?

These are questions you should be asking to determine the effectiveness of your website. It’s time to stop thinking of how you see your website and time to start thinking of how your prospects experience your website. 

Think about all the time your sales team isn’t at work, but you wished they were. 

When they’re on vacation.
When they’re at lunch.
When they’re commuting.
When they’re on a flight.
When they’re with their family on the weekend.

Now think about the time your sales team is at work, but they’re not involved in sales-related activity.

When they’re in a staff meeting.
When they’re filling out an expense report.
When they’re flying to a conference.
When they’re working on a proposal.
When they’re responding to an associate’s email.

The list seems never-ending. The truth is, salespeople aren’t always very productive. In fact, according to HubSpot Research, salespeople spend just one-third of their day in sales-related activities.

Now, imagine if you had a sales resource that never went on vacation, or took a break, or got sidetracked by unproductive activity. Inbound marketing is that resource.

Governments repair and build roads. Utility companies run new transmission lines and fiber optics. And at home, we attach rain gutters to our houses and add-on new rooms. These are all examples of enhancing infrastructure. Even at work, we get new computers, new phones, and new desk chairs. Those too are infrastructure upgrades. 

Sales and marketing organizations have infrastructures as well.  Websites, sales collateral, CRM, marketing automation, and email are all examples of marketing infrastructure basics. How often does your firm evaluate the status of your marketing infrastructure? Do you have everything you need? What are you missing? Is everything working as it should? Like any infrastructure (roads, bridges, roofs, plumbing, etc.), a marketing infrastructure can become less effective if it’s neglected. And a neglected marketing infrastructure will eventually lead to ineffective marketing plans and missed revenue targets.