3 Inbound Marketing Pitfalls to Avoid

Traditional marketing has grown less and less effective over the years. In the old days, all it took was a radio commercial or a television campaign, and you had your product in front of your audience, bombarding them with the messages you wanted them to hear. Technology has grown more advanced, though, and it's put more power in the hands of your audience. Presets allows them to change the radio with the touch of a button; channel surfing means huge numbers of TV ads go unseen, and even online ads can be screened out with a program like AdBlocker. Not only that, but your potential customers have grown savvy, and they ignore you when you start making a sales pitch.

That's where inbound marketing comes in. The goal with inbound marketing isn't to make a sale; it's to win your audience's good will. You want to give them something they want, no strings attached, in order to gain them as a part of your network. Whether you're writing a blog, making videos, or producing infographics, the goal is to get people to tune into you on a regular basis. Then, once you've established that relationship with them, they'll be more likely to patronise and support you.

It sounds easy, doesn't it? But here are three ways you can step into some very thorny terrain if you aren't careful when it comes to your inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing Pitfalls

1: Trying to Make a Sale.

Inbound marketing is a slow boil, and if you try to turn it into a sales pitch, you can quickly turn your audience off. When you're creating content, make sure you don't litter it with links to your sales page, or fill it with calls to action to make a purchase. Your goal is to help your customers by giving them content they value, not overtly sell to them.

2: Not Marketing Your Content.

We've all heard the philosophical question about trees which fall in forests without an audience, and it's an important one to keep in mind when creating your content. You could be writing the most insightful blogs, or creating hilarious videos, but if no one is seeing them, then no one is going to become a follower. That's why you need to establish an online presence, and promote your content in as many different ways as possible. Social media websites, online bookmarking sites, forum posts, and other promotional methods can get your content in front of people's eyes where it needs to be. If you sit back and wait for people to find it, you might be waiting for a long, long time.

3: Not starting with a buyer persona.

Creating pages and pages of content is great. However if you're not writing for a buyer persona, there's a good chance that you're not writing the type of content that your ideal customers would want to read. Start planning your content with buyer persona in mind, ideally, one that you have documented. Your content should address the challenges that you have identified your persona faces and help them to navigate around or solve them. Being helpful really does work.

These are, of course, just three possible pitfalls you'll encounter when you start your inbound marketing campaign. There are dozens of other traps your efforts could get caught in; It's important for you to keep your eyes open so you can avoid them, too. For more information about how you can make your inbound marketing campaign a success, simply contact us today!