Confused about Inbound Marketing? Never heard of it? View this hilarious and entertaining video from HubSpot and it will tell you everything you ought to know about inbound marketing.
In the past I’ve written about manufacturers such as Indium Corporation and Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. and their success stories of inbound marketing with content. However, overall adoption rate of Inbound Marketing and Marketing Automation (MA) is still low among smaller manufacturers and industrial companies. This is slowly changing and I am finding many of these companies are now more willing to listen to me talk about it.
There is still quite a bit of confusion out there. Inbound Marketing articles that I’ve published here may help to clear up some of those issues. One thing is for sure, the mindset about Inbound Marketing must change. It is not a one-off campaign or a project; it is a process!
Resources (time, money and people) need to be allocated correctly for Inbound Marketing to succeed and generate measurable results. Depending on your situation, you may be able to do it all yourself (DiY), outsource it completely or use an optimal mix of DiY and outsourced content marketing services. You can automate some of the steps so you don′t have to babysit it constantly but it is definitely not a case of “set it and forget about it.”
Marketing Automation is still a ways away from seeing widespread use among small and mid-sized manufacturers. Based on what I’ve heard, other than integration with SalesForce CRM and email marketing, MA is underutilized by the few industrial companies that have taken the plunge.
IMO, for effective “pull” marketing, you need both Inbound Marketing and MA to maximize the top and the middle of your sales funnel. See my post “Marketing Automation vs. Inbound Marketing.” At the end of that article, I have said “It is not an either–or proposition. I recommend starting with inbound or content marketing and then moving on to marketing automation to make the entire lead generation process smooth and efficient.”
Eric Goldman, President and CEO of Gossamar Inc. made a comment on my post about his idea of combining Inbound Marketing and Marketing Automation. He called it “Inbound Marketing Automation (IMA).” He has written a very detailed article about IMA and its combined power.
Eric makes an excellent point where he wrote, “…software tools in the hands of inexperienced users produce less than desirable results.” You can read his full article here.
It is not all about buying marketing software. There is a lot more to fixing your lead generation problems and nurturing those that are not yet “sales ready” before handing them off to sales. See my earlier post, “Don’t Count on Marketing Automation to Solve All Your Lead Generation Problems.”
Jeff Ogden, aka the Fearless Competitor and the founder of Find New Customers has written a very good blog post about the steps one must take before subscribing to any SaaS marketing software. His weight loss analogy is perfect for describing the problem. I found his article, “Buying software is easy. Fixing Lead Generation is hard” very realistic and rises above all the hype.
Let me know what you think about inbound marketing and marketing automation.
Let’s chat to determine if this will be a good fit for both of us. It will be a friendly conversation to get to know each other better, not a high-pressure sales pitch.
Angela Jordan says:
Great article Achinta and that video is funny, but it also illustrates perfectly why I love inbound marketing so much. I love how you say “inbound marketing is a process not a project”. It is a process and when carried out in the right way, it works and the leads DO come!
Lauren Carlson says:
Achinta, Thanks for mentioning Eric’s article. I think your bring up some very excellent points. We all know that marketing automation is suffering in terms of adoption and success rates, but I would attribute that to the fact that users see the software as the solution. It is merely a means to an end. Software without strategy is simply money wasted.
Achinta Mitra says:
@Lauren,
You’re welcome and thanks for your comment. You make a very good point about “Software without strategy is simply money wasted.”
Eric Goldman says:
Achinta;
Many thanks for mentioning my article on Software Advice concerning Inbound Marketing and Marketing Automation, or as we call it, Inbound Marketing Automation (IMA).
And @Jeff: nice to see you’re still producing such great articles – thanks for the weight-loss analogy – great graphic! But if I may, I’d like to add one step to your list of what to do before you acquire some marketing automation software, or before you embark on any Inbound Campaigns: Create a suitable Online Marketing Strategy, especially the keyword strategy you’re going to use to pull people to your site. Many companies, especially technical ones, lack proper marketing strategies of any kind – and this lack becomes even more critical when you start spending money on Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing. The latter, especially, can be expensive. You must ensure that all of this matches your strategy (and keywords).
Achinta Mitra says:
@Eric,
You are welcome. Thanks for adding to the conversation with your comments about SEO and keywords.
Jeff Ogden says:
Thanks for featuring my blog post in your article, Achinta. “Buying software is easy. Fixing Lead Generation is hard”
Glad you liked it too.
Achinta Mitra says:
@Jeff,
My pleasure. Your article added additional value to my post.