“Fat fingered” is one of the best terms to emerge from the smartphone culture. It describes the situation when you type too quickly on mobile devices and accidentally press 3-4 keys at once. Similar to mobile tech, inbound marketing is a fairly new concept, and you need to ensure you’re pressing the right buttons; otherwise, your marketing campaign could resemble one of those funny auto-correct blunders. If you take away anything today, remember that inbound marketing is tough. It’s new, it requires time, and you can’t just put in minimal effort and expect returns. Now, let’s look at some guaranteed ways to mess up results:
1. You’ve Only Got 1 Hour a Week to Market
Although we can’t prove it, we believe the main difference between well-meaning inbound marketers and those who succeed is this frustrating, non-renewable resource known as time. Creating content takes time, managing social media takes time, and setting up marketing automation takes time, and you can’t do a subpar job at any of these tasks. Recognize that inbound marketing is very effective, but it also requires a significant time commitment.
2. You’re Taking SEO Shortcuts
There’s good SEO practices, which can make your blog look like a rising star to Google, and there’s taking shortcuts, which is pretty conspicuous. You simply can’t buy positive search rankings, and you also can’t expect great things to happen overnight. There’s a host of things that Matt Cutts and other anti-spammers hate, but here are a few of the most-effective ways to make your website ranking tank:
- Keyword Stuffing
- Using invisible font colors to keyword stuff even more
- Spinning articles or just outright plagiarizing
- Writing low-quality guest posts.
3. You’re Being a Social Spammer
Does your entire Twitter strategy involve opening HubSpot, HootSuite or another social media scheduling tool and letting the spam flow freely, 24/7? Scheduling Tweets is definitely a best practice, but it can’t be your only effort to connect on social channels. You should be curating content, actively engaging with prospects, and building brand personality. Here are some ways that you could make your website look extra-sketchy on major channels:
- Failing to fill out your profiles completely, including images and contact information.
- Not responding to negative comments, or even worse, deleting them.
- Not responding to positive comments or questions.
- Letting your Tweets, posts and pins cease if you decide to take a vacation.
4. Your Content is Thin, Boring or Repetitive
Over 46% of people say that a company’s website is their foremost criteria for determine how credible the company is. I’m sure that I’m not the only person who scopes out their blog as soon as the homepage has passed the blink text. Your prospects need answers, and if your blog reads like an unprofessional search engine magnet, they’ll go to your competitors’ website. Here are some of the most-common features of truly terrible content marketing:
- Boring titles or business blog introductory paragraphs.
- Grammar or spelling errors. We all make mistakes. That’s why IMA has a full-time editor on staff.
- Thin Content. If you’re not providing something that required any research or brain-power to write, it’s flimsy writing.
- A total lack of personality. Unless your prospects are super-dry scientists, it shouldn’t read like a materials engineering dissertation.
5. You’re Not Automating Your Marketing
You might be shaking your head, but this is a real thing. Unless you know how to sell to your leads effectively, you might as well pack your bags and go back to school for that second degree in something else. Remember, lead nurturing really isn’t that bad. You’ve already won the biggest battle, which is catching the attention of a consumer in an era where they’re literally hit with thousands of marketing messages a day. You’ve built enough trust in marketing that they traded you their email address for an eBook. Now put on your boots, review email marketing best practices, and start automating them down the sales funnel already!
This list just barely touches on the basics of how inbound marketing strategies can go terribly wrong. What are some of the most-common ways you see well-meaning campaigns and marketers fail?
