Overwhelming is the first word that comes to mind when I think about the work involved in setting up an initial foundation for a solid inbound marketing plan.
Initially, you need to establish a seamless way to connect all of your brand’s various Web properties and assets—website, social media sites, landing pages, blog, email lists, etc.
Then, there’s the process of producing a steady stream of high-quality content that will resonate with the needs and desires of your brand’s various buyer personas.
So where do you get started with a project of this magnitude? You build a solid foundation.
Build a Solid Foundation in Eight Steps
Your inbound marketing strategy will only be as strong as the foundation you build upon. Creating a solid base involves research and effort, as well as planning for a built-in feedback loop to help improve processes as you move along.
1. Get clear on who the campaign is geared for. We’re not talking about broad target audiences here. Before you can start building an inbound marketing campaign, you’ll need to get crystal clear on the specific types of people who buy from your organization. Buyer personas move past general assumptions and get into the specific psychology of your customers. Here are five reasons why you need to think through buyer personas.
2. Lay out measurable goals. This step is an easy one to skip over, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a keystone in being able to continue your inbound marketing efforts in an intelligent, calculated way when you get to the last step in the cycle. If you don’t set benchmarks (conversion rates for different CTAs, email open rates, number of downloads, etc.) it will be difficult to make heads or tails of the data when you check in on analytics later on down the line.
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